Transferring a registration number to an A7

[spannerman]

The one thing I know is you cannot put a newer number on a older car ?

[Jamie]

Out of interest, did the chassis number on the car differ from that on the logbook by much?

Jamie.

[Ian M]

I wouldnt be overly concerned, other than you now have to apply for an age related plate via the club.

Hi Hedd,

What concerns me far more is the peculiar business of this 17 character chassis number that the DVLA have said has to be stamped into the chassis by a franchised garage. Now that the DVLA have destroyed my V5C, can I even drive the car legally any more, to get to said garage?

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Out of interest, did the chassis number on the car differ from that on the logbook by much?

Jamie.

Hi Jamie,

Yes, very much so! And undetected for the entire 33 years of my ownership until a month ago.

I can only speculate as to why the V5C and the actual car do not match, but I have a very strong suspicion about what has occurred. When I bought the car all those years ago, it was in a barn with a number of other Austin Sevens, all of which were subsequently sold. My one didn't have any number plates on it, not because they had been removed, but simply that the only remaining one was of a painted type, and the paint had long since given way to rust. So the original number is unknown. The then owner had therefore secured an age-related number for the car around the time that the DVLC computer system came into play in the early 1980s.

In short, I suspect that I simply received the wrong V5 document at the time of purchase and that someone who bought one of the other cars unwittingly went away with the V5 that should have been mine. I talked about all of this in my letter to the DVLA.

[Hedd_Jones]

The lesson to be learnt is to check all the numbers match before trying to transfer a number.

And if they dont. Let sleeping dogs lie

[Jamie]

I was clearly lucky. My chassis number was wrong on the V5C when I bought the car, albeit by just one digit: a 3 instead of an 8, I think. They changed it without quibbling.

Jamie.

[Reckless Rat]

As Jim Bowen (Bullseye) used to say:
"Tell 'em nowt, make 'em buy a programme"

Dealing with the DVLA takes you to the heart of "Computer says No" country. Best avoided if at all possible.

[JonE]

Awful news. Presumably someone with one of the other cars from the barn has "your" chassis number on the system, which is why they have specified the 17 digit thing?

[Ian M]

I wouldn't feel so bad about the whole thing if it were a car that I had only just bought, but the fact is that I've owned and driven it around for 33 years. Not an insignificant amount of time. Many of the folk I'm dealing with at the DVLA weren't even born when I first got the car!

As Hedd says, I should have checked my numbers first, but in truth it never even occurred to me after all these years.

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Presumably someone with one of the other cars from the barn has "your" chassis number on the system

Well, I reckon so, but only if you allow for a little margin of error. On the Clubs' Association database, I have identified a car that mine might be swapped with. Firstly, that car has the engine number that is on my V5C. Secondly, the chassis number is the same if you swap the last two digits around. An unlikely coincidence? And finally it's registration number would be the same if you substitute a U for a V. Bearing in mind that these things are prone to error when written down, I might be onto something there. However, I haven't been able to trace the owner of the other car, nor do I imagine they would have any appetite to talk to me about all of this, under the prevailing circumstances.

[JohnD]

Hi Ian, Do you have any update on how you are getting on with this?

[Ian M]

Hi John,

It's a very slow process indeed and in my view an exceedingly tortuous route to correct an honest clerical error that occurred under previous ownership in 1984. One of the things that really upsets me is that certain provable details are of no value whatsoever in the eyes of the DVLA, such as the fact that I have owned and used the car for the last 32 years. Likewise, the fact that it has been continuously taxed and insured.

As things now stand, the DVLA have revoked both my V5C and the age-related registration number that was allocated in 1984. They now expect me to apply their own 17-character chassis number to the car, by having it stamped on the chassis at an accredited garage, following which I have to pay £55 to have the car registered from scratch. With reference to the replacement chassis number, I have so far dug my heels in, insisting that there is no reason why the 6-digit number that has been on the car from manufacture cannot simply be used. This assertion has been backed up by an authentication letter the club's DVLA liaison officer and also by some old MoT certificates that correctly display the chassis number that's on the car. I am now awaiting the DVLA's decision on this, before they will then allocate a different age-related number.

As soon as the new age-related number is allocated, I will immediately transfer to the car a 1930s cherished number that I currently have on retention. In the meantime, it's unfortunate indeed that I cannot legally drive the car, as its status is effectively unregistered.

Incidentally, nothing ever came of the suspicion that my car's numbers were crossed over with those of another, nor did the DVLA apparently find anything to support this notion. Nevertheless, I suppose the details on my now-defunct V5C must match up with something, somewhere.