A proposal by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry has been put forward that would allow buyers of used cars to have their registration changed to their own county for a fee. At the SIMI press conference, Alan Nolan, Director General called on the Government to allow buyers of used cars to re-register their vehicle in their home country.

“At the moment, many motorists drive cars with another county’s registration plate but most would prefer to drive a car with their own county’s stamp on it. We propose that car owners who want to do so should be able to get their registration changed to one from their country,” said Nolan.

So, do you agree? Would ‘most’ of you prefer to change your car to the county you are from, if it isn’t already? And would you be prepared to pay €250 to do so? The idea is that if you are from Cork and you happen to buy a used car from say, Kerry, that both tribal and financial reasons would come into play. You might want to be seen in a car that is sporting your own country registration and that when you come to trade in your car locally in a few years that your dealer will be more welcoming. It is an interesting idea, but it does beg some questions. For a start, how would this system be implemented and just how long would this take to be agreed upon in the first place. Secondly, if the original registration plate remains recorded on the vehicle logbook, will car dealers still try and offer customers with the ‘wrong’ type of car an inferior trade-in price? Thirdly, with two registration numbers associated with one car, wil criminals have a field day when it comes to car cloning? This is already an increasing problem in Ireland.

So, tell us. Would you be prepared to change your registration plates if you could? Why would you and would you be prepared to pay for it?