If you're looking for a way to make your car stand out from the crowd, there are few more popular ways to do it than with an expensive private numberplate.
For many drivers, they’re a way to present a message to other family, friends, or other drivers. Some use them to present their name, make jokes or relate to their car.
To others, they’re a luxury purchase or a symbol of vanity. Then there’s the section of the driving public who think they’re simply a waste of money. We'll let you be the judge.
Love them or hate them, private numberplates can also be sold for some serious cash. Some can be worth anywhere from the price of a PlayStation up to the cost of a nice four-bedroom house in Surrey.
The most expensive are usually the ones with a lower number of digits, or those bearing a famous model name or moniker. Plates with a total of just two letters or numbers are usually the most valuable, with some auctioning off for some frankly outrageous figures.
But which are the most expensive plates ever sold? We've listed them all below. Hold onto your wallets...
The most expensive numberplates sold in the UK
1. 25 O - £518,480
The reg 25 O is the most expensive ever sold in the UK, going under the hammer for a staggering £518,480 in 2014. It’s apt, then, that it was once fitted to one of the most expensive cars ever sold at auction, a Ferrari 250 GTO sold for £30,750,300.
According to the DVLA, the plate now resides on an altogether more modern Ferrari: a LaFerrari hybrid hypercar.
The price of the plate could get you ten Audi TT RSs, but personalised plate vendor Regtransfers reckons it’s now increased in value to £750,000 (or 15 TT RSs).
2. X 1 - £502,500
Taking a narrow second place is the reg X 1. Little is known about the owner of the plate, but based on DVLA records it is currently in use on a hybrid Mercedes purchased in March 2024. The plate fetched its £502,500 price in November 2012.
You could enjoy roughly ten Ford Mustangs for the amount paid for the X 1 plate, and estimates suggest it has almost doubled its value since being purchased in 2012 to £1,000,000.
As satisfying as it would be, we can’t confirm whether the plate has ever made its way onto a BMW X1…
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The most expensive number plate on the market in the UK is F1 and it is now speculatively valued at £30m. These sorts of plates are fetching huge sums of money and they are recognised as an invesment for the future. F1 is available at Premier Plates UK