I haven't seen a parking ticket machine that doesn't require you to input (and then prints on the ticket) the numerical portion of your car reg for some years in England.
I'd suggest this is strongly regional (and observe that Glasgow is in Scotland, not England, but anyway...) - I have had to input part of my number plate when buying a physical ticket (as opposed to online/phone ticketless billing) but it's been a rare occurrence.
Interesting... I've never seen such a machine here in England (seen some that automatically scan your registration plate and print it on the ticket, though, e.g. at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5).
I'm in England, and I see them all the time. Lincoln was the first city I saw them pop up in (several years ago) but anecdotally I'd say about a quarter of the machines I come across require you to input your number plate.
Around Greater Manchester, reg-tracking ticket machines are still the exception. It might have something to do with costs -- i bet they break more easily (they need input buttons) and cost more upfront.
Or it might be that local authorities here are still somewhat sympathetic to the little guy... It's supposed to be Old Labour territory after all.
