VIN 4532 Passed it's 1st MOT!

[Dodgy Motor]

Vin says OCT

[Phil Peters]

Darren C Wrote:There was a time in the mid 1980's when you got a plate issued dated by the year of import, so in effect if they had kept this policy I'd have a 57 plate!
This probably explains the C or D reg car mentioned above?

The car mentioned above is a RHD car (VIN# 12177) so it never left the UK. I seem to recall there being some bit of legislation (which may or may not still exist) whereby you could register an unregistered car as "new" up to three years after it was declared manufactured. The Wooler-Hodec RHD cars were auctioned off by the receivers in early '83 and C reg would be 1985 so I guess this sounds about right?

[Guinney1971]

Phil Peters Wrote:I seem to recall there being some bit of legislation (which may or may not still exist) whereby you could register an unregistered car as "new" up to three years after it was declared manufactured.

Hi Phil,

that probably explains how "a certain car supermarket" are selling 3+ year old
unregistered Japanese import Mercedes Viano's as brand new :roll:

They also arnt UK spec either, as the versions they are selling were never
available in the UK. Mad thing is, 3-4 years ago they were built in Spain,
were shipped to Japan, then spent all that time out there unsold, then
Motorpoint bought about 40 of them for £10k each (so I've been told) and then
had them shipped back to the UK. The company I work for had the job
then of changing all the speedo's to MPH units and also replacing the
COMAND and stereo units that had Japanese characters on them to ones
with English writing.

I'm sure they are telling this to all potential buyers too :wink: :lol:

[Phil Peters]

Yeah, too right. And I bet they are passing on these savings to their customers too :roll:

[Guinney1971]

Phil Peters Wrote:Yeah, too right. And I bet they are passing on these savings to their customers too :roll:

they were selling them at "only" "£19995, claiming a saving on new of
over £13k (claiming a list price new of around £33k) - which is cr@p as
the ones they are selling were never sold in the UK :wink:

[Phil Peters]

That little lot makes for some tasty small print I reckon! :lol:

[Chris P]

Hi all, this has got me thinking, Vin 510 should be here in a few weeks. It only has a vin plate on the dash. Nothing ever fitted in the door opening.

It was obviously made in early 1981, but although it had 3,700 test miles on it when it was sold at the last factory auction in May 84, it was never registered in the UK.
Any suggestions how I can tackle the form filling? I'm not particularly bothered what suffix letter is allocated, I'm just trying to get its "History" as correct as possible.

You all know how I am about registration numbers, well "VIN" numbers were never allocated in the UK ( inc. N.I.) but VIW were....and VIW 510 is currently for sale. Do you reckon that would look better than Gull 81??

(When it was in OZ it had DMC 510 on it). All comments welcome.

[neal]

some of the early cars did not have the vin plate on the door opening as you have said. We had to take the vin from the dash to write them on the protective padding on the front of the car. This was done just before the first shipment, hope this helps.

[TheOriginalMrP]

If the year of manufacture can't be identified, then the car will go on a Q plate won't it?

There must be a way of proving the year of manufacture, but if you can't, then i'm sure it will be a Q

And we all know that's not a good thing.....

The more information you can gather about it, the better.....

[Darren C]

Hi Chris,

My advice is just take all the paperwork you have, you must have some title or logbook from oversea's, and the Customs form will probably have 1981 on it.
If your not fussed on the prefix, then the customs/import forms should do the trick.

Best Regards
D

[stunned_monkey]

Chris, in the absence of any paperwork that they'd normally need, all you need is a letter form the owners club on headed paper (!)

Do you remember doing a letter for me to register #4426 without a title to go with it? The DVLA will want to inspect the car, but if you have it in writing in the letter that REALLY early cars have only the one vin plate on the dash, and that the vin number puts the date of manufacture in feb 81 (?), then you'll get it registered just fine on a W plate.

All you need to do is prove the tax was paid on arrival to the UK (you MUST MUST MUST get your C&E 386 form when you collect the car, or very soon after in the post), bill of sale from the previous owner, and proof of the car's identity (letter from Owner's club or previos title from another country).

We moan about the DVLA but compared to some other countries in the EU, we have it good when it comes to registering imported cars.

[neal]

I started on the 16th march 81. We had to wait a week or so Before we got the first of the cars over to us to get ready to be transported to the docks, for the first shipment on the 19th April. 379 in total.
So 510 would have being one of the first cars send over to us.
That would make Manufacture late feb or early march 81 as Martin said.

I think the plates were to be fitted to the cars down at the docks before the shipment, but must have being over looked.

[Phil Peters]

Chris P Wrote:Hi all, this has got me thinking, Vin 510 should be here in a few weeks. It only has a vin plate on the dash. Nothing ever fitted in the door opening.

Hi Chris,

As you'll know, VIN# 551 is the same, no plate on the door opening but that seems to have been registered OK on a W-suffix plate.

[Darren C]

Hi All,

Finally got my V55 processed and a nice new Tax disc and Certificate of entitlement arrived today.

HOORAY!!!

Wasted no time and got a set of plates made up and fitted to the car this evening.



And...



Regards
D

[Dodgy Motor]

Nice one Darren,,congrats :wink: