Car Maintenance Tips: All about vanity and special plates

We Filipinos love to customize our vehicles, and if you have that extra moolah, you can opt for a vanity or special plate for your ride. But, we often mix up these two and mistake for one another. So let me differentiate the two, just prepare the extra cash and time.

Vanity Plates:
You can have it with both of a minimum of three (3) or maximum of six (6) characters which are a mix of numbers and letters or one that consist of four (4) or a maximum of six (6) characters, strictly all numbers or all alphas. The choice is yours on what to place, so let's distinguish the two.

* The plate above can have a maximum of three or maximum of six (6) characters (mixed)
Example: GWAPO, GANDA, H3LL0, JUST4U, S3XAY
* Price for it is P10,000

* The plate above must consist of four (4) or maximum of six (6) characters, but it must be either all numeric or all alphas.
Example: 8888888, 2222, AAAA, ZZZZZZ
* Unlike the one mentioned above, you can acquire one, but through a public auction with a floor price of P50,000. So, good luck in bidding for one.

Special Plates:
This follows the format on our common vehicles but you can personalize it. You can have the numeric part with two or three digits. The alpha portion, is your's to name it but at a maximum of three letters (more on this will be explained in the part).

* These two plates have triple alpha or non-triple alpha plus two (2) numeric character combinations from 01-99.
* With description one in mind, you can use your initials (or your three lettered name) in the alpha part and any number (it could be your birthday, monthsary, favorite number or any number that is memorable to you), but it must be two digits.
Example: ARL 08, LRM 99, MYK 38, EEE 88
* It will set you back P25,000 which includes the handling charge by the authorized LTO courier.

* It has triple alpha and non-triple alpha plus numeric character 100.
* You can pick the letters but the number must be 100, so you have no choice about it. Chinese favorite 888 or the devil's number of 666 are not available if you fancy one.
Example: GMA 100, CKE 100, NOY 100, III 100
* The price? P15,000 inclusive of the handling charge by the authorized LTO courier.

There you have it. You can be vain (apart from flaunting it on Facebook) with your car, but come selling time, you can't take the plate out and transfer it. A good option if you plan to keep the car until it dies or wears out.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_plates_of_the_Philippines#Personalized_plates
http://tsikot.com/forums/traffic-laws-infrastructure-parking-135/vanity-plates-special-plates-52115/

Note: With the LTO website being down as of April 2012, I can only give links to other sites that provides similar information.