27-08-2019, 03:34 PM
A final update, just to say that all is now resolved. It's taken a while.
The DVLA eventually acknowledged my assertion that the anomaly arose due to an innocent mix-up from a long time ago. As a result, I have been permitted to retain the actual chassis number of the car, instead of the bizarre 17 character thing that the DVLA were previously trying to foist upon me. The DVLA did withdraw the age-related number that had been on my car since 1984, replacing it with a different age-related number. As soon as the new V5C arrived at the beginning of the month, I immediately transferred to the car a 'proper' period number that I had on a retention document. I was surprised at the speed at which the second V5C arrived - no more than just one week!
One thing I'd like to say to anyone contacting the DVLA about your own vehicle is to ensure all of the salient details on your V5C match up with the vehicle itself. In my case, I had owned the car for such a very long time it never even occurred to me that the car's chassis and engine number did not match the V5C. Had I realised this, my first port of call would have been my local club's DVLA representative, rather than blindly opening a can of worms with the DVLA directly.
The only thing I didn't get to the bottom of is whether there is another Ruby running around out there that my original V5C actually belongs to. Maybe I'll get to the bottom of that one day.
The DVLA eventually acknowledged my assertion that the anomaly arose due to an innocent mix-up from a long time ago. As a result, I have been permitted to retain the actual chassis number of the car, instead of the bizarre 17 character thing that the DVLA were previously trying to foist upon me. The DVLA did withdraw the age-related number that had been on my car since 1984, replacing it with a different age-related number. As soon as the new V5C arrived at the beginning of the month, I immediately transferred to the car a 'proper' period number that I had on a retention document. I was surprised at the speed at which the second V5C arrived - no more than just one week!
One thing I'd like to say to anyone contacting the DVLA about your own vehicle is to ensure all of the salient details on your V5C match up with the vehicle itself. In my case, I had owned the car for such a very long time it never even occurred to me that the car's chassis and engine number did not match the V5C. Had I realised this, my first port of call would have been my local club's DVLA representative, rather than blindly opening a can of worms with the DVLA directly.
The only thing I didn't get to the bottom of is whether there is another Ruby running around out there that my original V5C actually belongs to. Maybe I'll get to the bottom of that one day.