Most common and frequently spotted foreign license plates in your countries

[MajKeR_]

In whole Silesian voivodeship street view is quite boring - German plates are everywhere - always (but their owners are not only Polish Germans), you can often see also Dutch, Belgian, British or Irish ones. If you want to spot some cars from Czech Republic or Slovakia - go to every shopping centre, especially at weekend. In my region less frequent are Italian and French plates, but e.g. in Kraków - otherwise. Most Italians are possible to spot on our southern motorways - A1 and A4.

My own summary:

1. D - king of all
2. NL
3. B
4. CZ
5. GB
6. IRL
7. F
8. I
9. SK
10. A
11. UA (especially trucks)
12. LT (the same as UA)
13. H
14. LV
15. DK
16. S
17. HR
18. E
19. SLO
20. other Balkan (especially SRB and BIH).

And quite sad reflection - if I once go to NL or B for sightseeing, by big propability I would be taken as season worker. Its possibility grows up, if I finally buy my first own car - not new, for example Alfa Romeo 156; then they may predict me alcohol problems and undeserved driving license. Maybe in some step bad opinion of Poles in Benelux are deserved, but I think generic habitants of these countries released it from their hands - now there are a lot of bad venom and fear.

Quite reflective is also that I haven't such problems if I go to Italy, southern France and possibly to Spain or Portugal.

I'm sorry if I still make some mistakes.

[Road_UK]

For northern Poland I like to add plates from Finland. Seen loads in the north-east, as a lot of them use the ferry Helsinki-Tallinn, and then head south.

[adi.ro]

Originally Posted by GROBIN

In the Île-de-France region, most common license plates:
3) RO - Romania (lots of "MM" - what city is that ?)

Don't worry because most common foreign license plate here is from France.
After that: Spain, The United Kingdom, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria.

[Corvinus]

South African plate in Lesotho - posted here.
Without ever having been there, I would guess it is the most frequent foreign registration ...



Another South African one in Lesotho - posted here

image hosted on flickr


For Swaziland, the most frequent ones are also likely to be the South African plates - with one of them posted here:

[HigerBigger]

Originally Posted by Corvinus

South African plate in Lesotho - posted here.
Without ever having been there, I would guess it is the most frequent foreign registration ...



Another South African one in Lesotho - posted here

image hosted on flickr


For Swaziland, the most frequent ones are also likely to be the South African plates - with one of them posted here:

Perhaps it is about 99.9% of the foreign vehicles in Lesotho that came from South Africa and in Swaziland it may be more than 90% with the rest from Mozambique.

[Chilio]

Thread name is about plates you've seen in "... in your countries". If you've never been there, it's not very likely Lesotho and Swaziland are your countries

[GROBIN]

Originally Posted by MajKeR_

In whole Silesian voivodeship street view is quite boring - German plates are everywhere - always (but their owners are not only Polish Germans), you can often see also Dutch, Belgian, British or Irish ones. If you want to spot some cars from Czech Republic or Slovakia - go to every shopping centre, especially at weekend. In my region less frequent are Italian and French plates, but e.g. in Kraków - otherwise. Most Italians are possible to spot on our southern motorways - A1 and A4.

My own summary:

1. D - king of all
2. NL
3. B
4. CZ
5. GB
6. IRL
7. F
8. I
9. SK
10. A
11. UA (especially trucks)
12. LT (the same as UA)
13. H
14. LV
15. DK
16. S
17. HR
18. E
19. SLO
20. other Balkan (especially SRB and BIH).

And quite sad reflection - if I once go to NL or B for sightseeing, by big propability I would be taken as season worker. Its possibility grows up, if I finally buy my first own car - not new, for example Alfa Romeo 156; then they may predict me alcohol problems and undeserved driving license. Maybe in some step bad opinion of Poles in Benelux are deserved, but I think generic habitants of these countries released it from their hands - now there are a lot of bad venom and fear.

Quite reflective is also that I haven't such problems if I go to Italy, southern France and possibly to Spain or Portugal.

I'm sorry if I still make some mistakes.

You'd be surprised with what I'm going to tell you: I've got 2 cars (one with French license plates, the other one with Polish license plates). With the second one, no problems in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic & the UK (maybe because it's a Warsaw license plate ? Who knows?). I can even tell Hungarian rendörszég, Flemish politie and French police (especially here, in the Île-de-France region, but also in Northern France, where a lot of people of Polish descendance live) have been very cool to me seeing my Polish license plates! It avoided me to get fines or my car towed a couple of times !

But in Slovakia ... Gosh ! Each time I was driving near a policie patrol, they were like "why the hell didn't this Polie drive too fast ???"

With my French license plates: no problem in Spain, Andorra, the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany (it avoided me once to get stopped for speeding in Frankfurt/Oder), the Baltic countries, Poland & Czech Republic.

But in the Netherlands ... I got a ticket (60 EUR !) a couple of years ago for not paying car-park on the street (in Maastricht). How was I supposed to know in such a relatively small city I have to pay for it on Saturdays when even in inner Paris you don't have to ??? & no discussion with the policeman !
I got also once stopped in Ukraine, but no ticket or anything.

In France, most foreign-licensed plates I saw being stopped by the police were Dutch. But about a month ago, getting out of work, I saw the police stopping ONLY cars with foreign license plates (quite rare): two from Bulgaria, one from the UK, one from Poland, one from Portugal, one from the Netherlands and one from Germany ... but I work in a zone where the whole European sub-continent comes to buy cheap things imported from China ...

Back to the topic: I've been for a year with a Silesian girl (so I was very often in Katowice, Chorzów and Siemianowice Śląskie). At the time, it's true most cars I saw with foreign license plates in "Oberschlesien" were German. The second ones were Dutch.

@Road_UK: True ! Each time I was in the TriCity (Trójmiasto: Gdańsk / Sopot / Gdynia), I saw a lot of Finnish & Swedish license plates. The third ones were ... Spanish !

In Kraków, most of the foreign license plates I saw last summer were French, German, Slovakian, Czech, Hungarian, Ukrainian and Spanish. I saw also 2 Portuguese ones.

I also spent some time in Brussels this summer. Most foreign license plates seen there were: French (especially from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region and from the Paris region), Dutch, German, Polish (mostly from the Podlaskie voivodship, the plates of which begin with "B"), Hungarian and Spanish.

Originally Posted by adi.ro

Don't worry because most common foreign license plate here is from France.
After that: Spain, The United Kingdom, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria.

Why am I not suprised ! I've been in London at the end of September this year, & most foreign-license plated cars I saw in London were Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Bulgarian or Belgian. On M20, it was: French, Greek (all of them lorries), Polish, Belgian, Dutch, German.

[Corvinus]

Originally Posted by Chilio

Thread name is about plates you've seen in "... in your countries". If you've never been there, it's not very likely Lesotho and Swaziland are your countries

The thread name was even given by myself - just, we don't have crowds of forumers from Lesotho or Swaziland here, but it might be interesting to hear about these countries too.

Here is a closer one: Liechtensteinian plates are fairly common in Central Switzerland.

[GROBIN]

The last black plates remaining in Europe ...

[Satyricon84]

Originally Posted by GROBIN

The last black plates remaining in Europe ...

Not true, Guernsey Island still issues black plates too!

[Corvinus]

Another speciality about the Liechtensteinian ones is that they contain redundant information ("FL" is part of every issued plate number in the country) as part of the license number. I know of only one other country with a similar practice (Namibia with the "N" prefix on each number).

[Alex_ZR]

Well, that's probably because Liechtenstein is quite small country...

[Stainless]

Originally Posted by Corvinus

Another speciality about the Liechtensteinian ones is that they contain redundant information ("FL" is part of every issued plate number in the country) as part of the license number. I know of only one other country with a similar practice (Namibia with the "N" prefix on each number).

Jersey plates always start with a J, but could be considered part of the UK system as IIRC no similar plates were issued in the UK when they could have been.

Also Soverign Military Order of Malta plates always start SMOM, but that is not really a country.

[MajKeR_]

Originally Posted by Satyricon84

Not true, Guernsey Island still issues black plates too!

Because black plates are cool - and our big, boring countries aren't enough cool to issue them

My family has Fiat 126p from 1997 with such ones - KAM 472V (registered in Bytom, past katowickie voivodeship). I can't wait until I'll have it!

And, GROBIN, something about your observations where in Poland live people, who visit Paris with their area and Belgium:

I have family in podkarpackie voivodeship (this with "R" as first letter on number plates). They know a lot of people, who works in France - in their village you can see a lot of French plates, most people built their new houses by money from French works. My family lives in Kolbuszowa county - it hasn't "RKO", but "RKL"

My family has their friendly family in podlaskie voivodeship (where plates begins with "B"). I remember one time their daughter told us that her colleague moves to Belgium soon.

I'm telling you about it, because comparison of my knowledge and your posts were very intriguing for me

[GROBIN]

You're right ! I noticed it this week it's RKL & not RKO. Moreover, I forgot to tell about the frequent Stalowa Wola (RST) plates here Those two counties/powiats are very, very frequent here.

P.S.: It's true each time I go to Brussels I see lots of "B" Polish plates. Last time, I saw a lot of "BAU" (Augustów) ones ...

[Satyricon84]

Originally Posted by MajKeR_

Because black plates are cool - and our big, boring countries aren't enough cool to issue them

I miss black italian plates! They were cool, nowadays they became rare to spot....

[Thermo]

"B" Polish plates have something to do with Belgium?

[NordikNerd]

Originally Posted by GROBIN

,@Road_UK: True ! Each time I was in the TriCity (Trójmiasto: Gdańsk / Sopot / Gdynia), I saw a lot of Finnish & Swedish license plates. The third ones were ... Spanish !

Gdynia/Gdansk has ferryconnection with Karlskrona, 10,5h (stena line) & Nynäshamn, 19h (polferries)

There also is a connection Helsinki-Gdynia 16h (finnlines), which may be the explanation for high numbers of finnish vehicles.



I have travelled the route Karlskrona-Gdynia in october and it was a shaky experience.

[MajKeR_]

Originally Posted by Thermo

"B" Polish plates have something to do with Belgium?

"B" from Białystok, capital of podlaskie voivodeship - just the coincidence with Belgian code

Don't fear :P

Originally Posted by NordikNerd

I have travelled the route Karlskrona-Gdynia in october and it was a shaky experience.

Shaky?

[NordikNerd]

Originally Posted by MajKeR_

"B" from Białystok, capital of podlaskie voivodeship - just the coincidence with Belgian code

Don't fear :P



Shaky?

well let me put it this way. The sea was high and I was thinking about this incident:

In the early hours of 14 January 1993, while sailing with 64 passengers and crew from Świnoujście to Ystad , the Jan Heweliusz capsized and sank in 27 metres of water off Cape Arcona on the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. The accident claimed the lives of 20 crewmen and 35 passengers. 9 people were rescued. 10 bodies were never found. To date the sinking of Jan Heweliusz is the most deadly peacetime maritime disaster involving a Polish ship.