The Road Transportation Department (RTD) today revealed the owner of the most expensive vehicle registration number in Malaysia’s history to be the Johor sultan.

Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar spent a whopping RM520,000 to acquire the much-sought-after ‘WWW1' plate number.

NONEPublished on RTD’s official website this morning was a list of successful bidders for the premium plates, amongst them the agong. He is the proud owner of ‘WWW5' with a bid price of RM220,000.

The bid price for ‘WWW1' breaks the record set by ‘MCA 1' that in 2010 was sold for RM300,100.

The Johor sultan is known to be a luxury vehicle enthusiast who owns a collection of antique and latest car models.

Johor crown prince Tunku Ismail Idris also confirmed the bid in his Twitter postings.

“Yup. WWW1 if I'm not mistaken,” he said when asked by a Twitter follower if his father was the bidder.

“I prefer my grandfather's number plate, ‘JOHOR’! Very simple,” he added in another posting.

According to Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha, the 'WWW' plate series received the highest number of bids ever recorded, at 18,243.

He said this was nearly four times the previous record of 4,750 bids for the 'WVW' registration numbers.
Puad: Bid not mine
In a related development, Deputy Education Minister Puad Zarkashi, who is presently in Abu Dhabi, clarified with Malaysiakini that he is not the ‘Mohd Fuad bin Zarkashi’ listed amongst the bids.

Dr Puad ZarkashiA news alert issued by a Chinese daily today claimed Puad has won the bid for ‘WWW69' at RM30,000.

“It’s not true. I have never applied nor have the intention. I have no money to buy a new car,” said Puad (right) in a text message to Malaysiakini.

The news alert also named Minister in the Prime Minister Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz and Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai as successful bidders, who secured the ‘WWW97' and  ‘WWW15' plates with RM10,010 and RM24,200 respectively.

Although their names are in the RTD list, Malaysiakini could not confirm their identities as those of the two ministers.