The Real Thing

I stumbled across the above puzzle the other day. What is the number underneath the car?

Don’t worry if you don’t get it – you won’t be alone.  I had the problem up on the board as a starter for my Upper Sixth A-Level class. The lad who is on course to get an A* – he couldn’t work it out.

And lo and behold, a couple of days into the hols I came across a the real thing – an actual example of the above problem.

Here’s a pic. The question is, what is the number of the parking bay that the car on the left is parked in?

(Still stuck? Want to know the answer? Click on the “responses” below and read the comments)