We consider the fear of the number 13, will this really affect car sales next year?  Most of us would be delighted to be in a position to buy a brand new car in 2013 but some of the more superstitious among us might be reluctant to buy a new car with a 13 on the number plate. Now there are real fears in the Irish motoring industry that the impending 13 registration plate could adversely affect car sales in an already difficult time for new car sales. It’s not the first time we have been held to ransom by a number. At the turn of millennium there was great excitement about the year 2000; the infamous Y2K bug that never actually happened along with all the millennium milestones like first baby to be born in the new millennium and first car to be sold in the new millennium. We went out in our droves to buy new cars with the coveted “00” registration plate and there is proof of this in the statistics; a record 225,269 cars were registered in Ireland in 2000. Nearly 13 years on and yet again we have a situation where a number plate could influence new car sales, but not in the way the industry might hope for. Unfortunately due to the connotations that the number 13 has, and our lovely system of registering cars in Ireland, the Irish motoring industry has serious concerns about the 13 number plate causing a drop in sales next year. The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) estimates that around 7% to 8% of us dislike the number 13. Fear of the number 13 or “triskaidekaphobia” means that some high rise buildings have no 13th floor and skip from the 12th to the 14th floor, some airline companies do not operate a 13th row of seats and in some housing developments there is no house number 13. So what about a registration plate? If you will be in the market for a new car in 2013 it might be a concern for you also. Even if you are not superstitious would you be worried about the registration plate adversely affecting the resale value of the car when it comes to selling the car on? The SIMI have proposed a scheme where cars registered in the first half...