What's with the EU Plates?

What’s with the EU plates on cars, especially when they have a letter that’s not an EU country (eg. J or K)?

Fashion.

That’s right. Must-have accessories for 2008 are:
A) Japanese EU number plate
B) bullet holes (stickers will do)
C) “cool” Japanese sticker (definitely required if you’re driving a friggin’ Proton)

God, what vacuous wankers.

Has the fact that Japan is not in the E.U. actually occurred to them? Probably not, right? I could perhaps believe a German or French plate (though not really), but a frickin’ J? Who’s fooling whom here?

I saw one on a scooter the other day. I’m serious.

My wife was telling me that if you have child studying in Europe they are allowed to buy one car over there and avoid import duty when they ship it back.

Have no idea if thats true and it doesn’t explain all of the non-european models i keep seeing. I’d be surprised if it was cheaper, what with exchange rates, shipping costs and everything else.

I saw a taxi the other day with an eu plate, no sense at all!!

I saw one too a few days ago. Damn hilarious… :laughing:

Along with “Paris in Taipei” apartment complexes or other European sounding apartment complexes (Milano is another one I saw), and other such novelties, the plates are just another attempt to pretend to be someone or somewhere else

From Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_European_Union#cite_note-UKnumberplates-0

Guess Taiwanese are showing their national pride for Germany, France Japan etc

Popular EU plates include
Germany
France
Italy
Japan

I saw one GB

Some dipshit pulled out in front of me in his car a couple of weeks ago, with a D (Germany plates). I rolled down the window and shouted at him in Chinese “you’re not a good German, Germans don’t drive like this”. Don’t think he got it though :smiley:

Sad! Sad! Sad!

It’s simply an admission that the driver admires other countries much more than their own island. I can’t blame them really.
Think of them as ‘iwishiwas’ adornments.

TNT: If they were really British, they’d have a GB and a Jamaican flag. Isn’t that usually the way?

I honestly don’t know how Germans survive over here. The lack of punctuality, complete disregard for any rules, and the general half-arsedness must drive them up the wall.

Someone should bring out a Sarajevo line of apartments and see if these fashion-muppets lap them up.

I’m really not surprised some people in Northern Ireland want to use “NIR” (or “NI”), considering the standard UK one says “GB” (which for those who don’t know doesn’t actually INCLUDE Northern Ireland). Sorry, I know I’m being pedantic, but it really gets on my wick. It’s really not far off calling a Scotsman “English” (don’t ever do that).

More here:

In the beginning when i moved here, I was only shaking my head and wondering.
Now I am used to it. Living and driving here since 5 years, and no, i have no German plate on my car :smiley:

When did Japan become part of the EU? :noway:

Well, I’ve never heard of a place called “norn urn”

My great fear is that if I ever go anywhere civilised again, I won’t know how to stop at a red light. This is especially problematic for me when riding a bicycle now. Likewise, I’m sure I’d turn corners on red lights too. It’s such a habit now. I can just imagine myself freaking everyone out with my random, rule-breaking Asian style of driving.

:smiley: I know what you mean.
Everytime I go back to Germany or any other country for a business trip and rent a car, I have to keep in mind and say to myself: “Obey the traffic laws, yes they exist here” :smiley:

Haha! Precisely.

Yeah it’s fashion alright. You got a VW Golf? Get a D plate under the Taiwanese one. Possessing a Peugeot, get an F plate. Oh and when you posses a Volvo, get that big J as I saw the other day. Yeah, I can totally understand (after being here for so long) the people here like to show of what they have and what other can’t and won’t have. It’s like a national sport to be a snob, even if you look like an idiot in the eyes of people who know you have no clue. But I suppose even Taiwanese people, or majority of them do not think Japan is actually in EU, and Volvo comes from Sweden, although I doubt they have ever heard of Sweden here.

sox: It really is bizarre. I guess they don’t care that Westerners think they’re a bunch of wankers, especially for having a J on a Volvo. What matters is that the rest of their fashion victim peers think they’re cool.

Of course, you could put “SK” on there (that’s Slovakia right – I think that’s your flag but it’s not very clear because it’s so small) just to really baffle the shit out of them.

If they had SK on their plates. Most of the people here don’t even know Slovakia is a country. For them EU is England (not UK), France, Germany and Italy.