make/model from registration

There's a handy vehicle data search on the RAC website. Enter a reg and it gives vehicle details including number of previous owners and date of last change.

Are you thinking of the HPI vehicle check (costing about £39) or is there something that I have missed?

try here:

or here:

Found it now, thanks

Well that's just great. My H reg car first registered in June 91 was according to that made on

31 December 1991

6 months after it was registered!

The makers parts CD says it was made 01/91.

Autoglass replaced my windscreen lasst week, the preprinted invoice had the chassis number on it, all I had given them was the reg no.

Thats nowt an old M reg landrover I used to own came up as

Manufacturer LAND ROVER Model 88" - 4 CYL Body type LIGHT VAN Colour BLUE Fuel type PETROL Date manufactured 01 January 0001

Well you did say it was 'old'.

Same here. It shows my car was manufactured 31 December 1993, but it was reg August that year.

Johannes ( snipped-for-privacy@spam-gets-lost-sizefitter.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

DVLA have never needed to record any "manufactured date" information before

- I have no idea why they would need to now, but it's possible they do, hence this field in the record.

Given how busy car factories seem to have been on 31st December every year, can I suggest that perhaps the field just stores (or assumes) a year, and that the "31st December" is purely an arbitrary date for convenience, and because that field is set up as a date type which would require a complete date?

The vast majority of date-specific regulations go by registration date - which always has been recorded correctly. The only production-date-specific reg I can think of is the cut-off for the "Historic Vehicle" taxation class

- which is that the vehicle must have been built before 1/1/73 - hence,

31/12/72 would be a legit date. The requirement is on you, the keeper of the vehicle, to prove that date - because DVLA don't know when any individual vehicle was built.

Yes, the data "manufactured date" looks rather arbitrary. Possibly awaiting proper use. It could be that they want to indicate whether the car e.g. is a personal import that has been driven on import plates for some time.

However, there can be a genuine long gap between manufacturing and sale, especially if it's an outgoing model sold on special promotion. I can't imagine that the manufacturers, or owners for that matter, would be too keen on revealing the true manufacturing date.

Seems to be something like that.

My 75 was registered in the UK (Northern Ireland, to be specific) in

1993 - this is shown on the DVLA website.

However, it's showing on the RAC data check as manufactured on 31st December, 1991.

This is about right - it was originally sold in the Republic of Ireland in 1991, then 'imported' into Northern Irelend in 1993.

Johannes ( snipped-for-privacy@spam-gets-lost-sizefitter.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

They already do that.

(Checks old-style V5)

Top blue section

1. Imported Vehicle - Was registered/first used overseas. Declared Manufactured 1980.

Date of Registration - 01/06/1999

Previous Recorded Keeper - Mr xxx xxx - Acquired Vehicle on 01/06/1999

No of Recorded Keepers - 1 since Jun 1999

Green V5/2

Date of Registration - 01 06 1999 - (Decl'd Manuf 1980)

Sho' nuff, if I go to vehiclelicence.gov.uk, it says "Year of Manufacture" (note - not date) 1980.

But if I go to the RAC site, it says "Date Manufactured - 30/12/1980"

Now, I also happen to have the old French docs, so I know that it was

*REALLY* first registered in France in late 1979.

I'm looking forward to the first computerised MOT - it hasn't got a rear fog light fitted - if it's 1979, it doesn't need one. If it's 1980, it does. Never been a problem until now, because I've always told them (truthfully) that it's 1979...

Must take the V5 along with me next time I take it to the local tip - it says "Make - Citroen", "Model/Type - 2-axle-rigid-body-estate". I've been barred from Bucks tips on the grounds that "it's a van, and you can't bring a van in". No, mate, it's an estate car - look, says so here on the V5.

My current car was registered in September 1999, but was actually built in Japan in October 1998 8-()

Previous car was registered in Febuary 2001, manuafactured (in Japan again) in December 2000.

This is going from the chassis number entered into Toyota's parts program.

8-((

Shouldn't really matter as long as the car has been stored under proper conditions. However, we recently saw those TV pictures of unsold Rover cars stored in a large field.

Not bad eh.

Johnny ( snipped-for-privacy@spam.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Pah... That's *nothing*...

The V5 for one of mine contains ;-

Date of First Registration :- 2001. New at first registration. Declared Manufactured 1962...

Sure enough, it had indeed never been registered - here, or abroad - until I got it put onto UK plates. And it was indeed made in '62.

Let me guess. Jaguar E-Type?

Johannes ( snipped-for-privacy@spam-gets-lost-sizefitter.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I'm not sure you could be much further away if you tried...

It's a VeloSolex. It was *very* used when I got it, but they don't need to be registered in France, so it really was "first registered".

Well, I never... I had one of those in Denmark. But it was classified as a moped with less than 30km/h (18.6mph/h) and hence didn't need registration. I think it had to be de-tuned to achieve that speed. As a result, they often got choked with carbon deposits. But the engine was so simple to dismantle. Then you could file the piston for earlier suction to give some speed.