MOTing imported vehicle

[cobblers]

A friend of my bought this about 6 months ago:



and it's now ready for an MOT.

It's an Aussie import, but it was first imported to Germany where the duty was paid. He has some kind of German customs form, and some Australian "change of title" paperwork with the van.

As we understand, he needs to get it MOT'd, then take it to the DVLA with the stack of paperwork and get it registered.

The bloke doing the MOT says he needs to know the exact date of manufacture to test it. All we know is that it is built in 66 according to the chassis number and the Australian paperwork - we've no exact date.
The tester reckoned he just put an arbitrary 1966 date in the computer and it spat him out of the system

My pal can apply to the VW automuseum and spend 50 euros to get the birth certificate, but apparently it can take up to 6-8 weeks to get the details - and surely this can't be necessary (what if it was some obscure brand without any remaining records?)

[Dez]

you need the birth certificate to register it anyway, so you may as well just do that.

it should have been fine moting off the chassis number with a made up date, it has been every time ive done it. gnerally put it in as 01/01 and it can be changed later.

[akku]

It should just trigger one of those DVLA enquiries. I had one when the Buick VIN didn't match

I don't think you "need" a birth certificate from the manufacturer to register a car, just a reg document from the country of origin which states date of first use there.

I certainly have no build sheet or anything for any of mine.

[79cord]

It probably would have been assembled here in Australia (Clayton VW plant, Melbourne Victoria); the plant later assembled Nissans, Volvos (and others) and currently modifies Holdens into HSV variants. So I'm not sure VW Germany would be able to give a particularly accurate build date either.

If it still had an original Registration sticker on the windscreen & hadn't fallen out of reg. for long enough length of time to get a new reg. number, these had the month (number) of registration clearly printed upon them.

[hardtop]

when I mot'd my ute, the compliance plate said 06/74, the MOT tester needed to put in a date, so we just put the 1st June 74.

Certainly a birth certificate will make it easier to register at the DVLA, as they will want a letter from the manufacturer stating how old it is in any case/or a letter from a VW club registered with the DVLA who can verify the age

[Patpend]

In Germany, if there's no date, they put in 1st. July as date of first registration. As the bus has been legally in Germany, it's an import from Germany, I'd use that date. Does the chassis number look like any European bus chassis number?

My ex-California MGB has 01.07.1964 on its German papers, despite being manufactured in August 1964 according to the British Motor Heritage certificate.

[Mystery Machine]

Sorry I can't help with your quest for info, but I just felt compelled to comment after reading this bit:

Jul 19, 2012 7:32:36 GMT cobblers said:

A friend of my bought this about 6 months ago:

*photo of a rather sheddy looking Bus*

and it's now ready for an MOT.

That's some seriously good going to get that MOT worthy in 6 months! Impressive stuff....

[Imperial]

Speak to your local vw dealer, any vw parts guy worth his salt can get you a build date within a month.
I could but I don't work for vw anymore and can't get access to the info

[fannywhacker]

He will also need proof the C&E has been paid when bringing it in to this country. Obviously you don't have to pay anything because duty was paid in Germany and it's all part of the EU but the DVLA still want proof. I wrote to C&E down at Dover and they sent me confirmation everything had been paid within a week.

As for MOT'ing, tester doesn't need the 'birth certificate', he can just do it on chassis.

[cobblers]

Cheers chaps, confirms pretty much what I thought. I got him to order a birth certificate just to make things simpler really - Even if he doesn't need it to register the thing it's nice to have, and it gives us a date to give the tester to keep him happy. Makes no sense arguing with him cos he's a real good guy and dead good to us most of the time with more "normal" vehicles.


As for the duty - he's got a form that he's told says the duty was paid when it came into Germany, but I'm not so sure myself. I don't read german, but there's no mention of any monetary figures on it, so I guess we'll see - if it was my own vehicle I'd have put a lot more research into it, but my pal just steams into things without doing any homework whatsoever and learns as he goes

Jul 19, 2012 11:22:06 GMT Mystery Machine said:

Sorry I can't help with your quest for info, but I just felt compelled to comment after reading this bit:

Jul 19, 2012 7:32:36 GMT cobblers said:

A friend of my bought this about 6 months ago:

*photo of a rather sheddy looking Bus*

and it's now ready for an MOT.

That's some seriously good going to get that MOT worthy in 6 months! Impressive stuff....

It looks worse than it was - Structure wise it would have nearly passed an MOT - The only welding we had to do was to redo some curse word plating in the cab area , sort the wonky cargo door aperture, and (much to my disgust) change the rear engine vents to the smaller UK spec ones.

What makes me laugh is there's the Aussie change of ownership papers from 2009 claiming the value was $1000 AUS - thats about £600? He paid over 10x that and apparently got a bargain!

[scaryoldcortina]

Just to echo that it should be testable on the VIN number, but with one caveat - You can refuse to test without proof of age if there is a change in standards to be applied - I would guess that the seatbelt requirement change for goods and living vans in '67 might mean you have to prove it's a '66, but only if it hasn't got seatbelts in the front.

Can't see how the computer shut the tester out unless he's trying to fill in the VSI search screen instead of selecting "test using VIN" from the dropdown box... Try again?

[fannywhacker]

Re the duty - my car came in to Belgium and all duty was paid and I had the forms proving so, but DVLA still need proof nothing else needed to be paid by C&E. So I sent that form back to Customs & Excise in Dover and they sent me a letter saying there was nothing to pay. As we all knew. It was a ballache and just extended the registering process. Having said that each DVLA office seems to do things in a different way so who knows? I went to the Borehamwood office. If I was your mate, I'd look into it whilst he's waiting for the other certificate then he'll have all paperwork he needs.

[Bob the Fish]

Imported only one vehicle, but MOT on VIN was no problem. Registration only required the reg doc from the country of registration, nothing else. When they saw it had come from an EU country I wasn't required to present anything re duties, just MOT & owners doc. I did this at a DVLA office, it was fast & easy, they helped with the forms. Doing it again soon, hope it's just as easy...