Bought car with wrong number plates

cuttlebug

Hi All,

I wonder if you could give me your thoughts on this. My dad bought a 2007 Volvo S80 from a very reputable main dealer in South Dublin earlier this year. Car is great - he's delighted with it. Anyway, he took it for it's first NCT last Saturday and the technician came back and said he couldn't test the car as the reg plates and the chassis number don't match. Dad went straight to the dealership who were very helpful and said they would get on to Revenue on Tuesday to enquire.

As it turns out, the original dealership where the car was purchased new accidentally put the wrong plates on two very similar cars. That's fine as the dealer where dad bought the car will change the plates and Revenue will update their records re tax etc.

Now, the other car, the one with dad's correct plates is currently registered to another main dealer that went out of business over two years ago. It has not been taxed for over two years.

Dad's fear now is that this other car may have been stolen and since his car will soon be sporting that car's plates he could be stopped by the gardai. Is this possible and how could we find out if this is the case? Thanks in advance.

corktina

thast odd.I think they must have done all the other documentation on both cars and then given out the wrong one. I cant see how it could be taxed otherwise, as disc would come back with the wrong number on it if it was just the wrong plates.

robbie_998

i reckon it will be out for the gardai

i say both cars will be pulled if on the road and if the gardai check the computer it would tell them to check all the credentials of the car... your dads would be fine but the other one would most likely be seized !

well.... thats what should happen anyway if we lived in a decent country !

mickdw

Very dodgy. Supplying dealer fitting wrong plates sounds like a tall tail to me.

Seeing as the other car is not current taxed, one could guess that perhaps one of the cars was a write off 2 years ago, plates got swapped illegally to identical car and your dad has ended up with this car?
Did nobody check the chassis number when dad bought the car?
Motorcheck who posts here (or at least used to post here) might be very useful in this case to see if he can trace anything dodgy on both reg plates.

I would be looking to have my cash back from that car. Its pretty serious imo for a dealer to sell a ringer no matter how they say it came about. Are they as innocent as they make out in all this?

Magic Beans

It happens. A very similar incident with my uncle on his new car although it was discovered within a very short time. His front and rear licence plates didn't match. It was discovered when the other car with the mismatched plates came in for it's first service. Same model same colour same dealer.

sparky_de

I really don't think there's anything dodgy going on with the dealer dad bought the car from. They are well known, have been around a long time and I don't think they would risk their reputation on something like this. At least I hope not. They have been both very helpful and puzzled by this.

If it is makes any difference the two plates are only two digits apart. For example Dad's plate is 07Dxxx92 and the other is 07Dxxx90 and they were both bought from the same dealer back in 07.

No one checked the chassis number as far as I'm aware. I don't think this would have been noticed if the NCT guys weren't ultra diligent.

So from what you guys have said, it is likely that something dodgy is going on with the other car in some form or another and when the plates are changed this could cause problems for my dad. Is this correct? Thanks again for the help.

mickdw

I dont think the NCT guy would have to be ultra diligent to see this. The chassis number would be simply wrong.
Given that you say the plates are only a couple of cars apart, i guess something odd could have happened at original dealer but still it would be very unusual and hard to believe and that doesnt answer why the other car is off the road for 2 years.
As I said, id want out of this altogether specially if the other car is out there and most likely sharing plates with your dads cars if it is no located and changed.

Do you know for sure that the plates are only a couple of cars apart and both for volvo s80? or is it just the dealer telling you this?

corktina

mickdw wrote: »

I dont think the NCT guy would have to be ultra diligent to see this. The chassis number would be simply wrong.
/QUOTE]

chassis number is of course right, its the reg no thats wrong

firm I worked for had two transits, both with the same plates on. They were next to the Gards barracks in Cork and one morning a gard queried it , but went away quite happy having been told they were identical twins!

OldmanMondeo

mickdw wrote: »

Very dodgy. Supplying dealer fitting wrong plates sounds like a tall tail to me.

It does happen. A place I worked for bought a new Xsara van from Belgard motors a few years ago, the guy driving it got pulled by the gardai who told him the registration plates where for a VW golf. Once he rang the office and I spoke to the garda, gave hima l the detail on the VLC I have and also brought a copy to the local station, he was let away. Que Belgard motors chasing down the owner of the golf to ensure the correct number plates where on that.

oregano

This happens more often than you think, or at least it did in the good days when new car sales were rampant. Salesman tells car valetor "put the plates on the sold red S60 and the blue S40." He does, but not the right plates. Both cars are going to Leaseplan/ Hertz etc, who never notice the plate switch.

The chassis number on the VRC matches that of your Dad's car, the Dealer has accepted his mistake. Assuming there was no car cloning or similar going on, your Dad is 100 per cent ok. Any of us could go into a motor factor and get replica plates made up for his car anyway, without ID or evidence we own the car, so why get worried... there could be tons of cars out there sporting your Dad's reg number, but only his is legit!

mickdw

corktina wrote: »

chassis number is of course right, its the reg no thats wrong

Well if the OP dad has the reg cert for the actual reg on the car and the NCT does his checks based on the reg presented to him, the chassis number would look wrong. THat was my point. I assume that the (wrong) reg on the car was the one that was registered to the OPs father

YBTurbo

Did the number on the logbook match ?


Also check your insurance, if the number is wrong your Dad is NOT insured.

Solnskaya

it happens-I bought a new ford van and the dealer put on the plates, with a 7 instead of a 1 on the plates-I didn't cop it and neither did anyone else till I went to sell it and a buyer queried it when studying the tax book etc. Always wondered how I never got any speeding tickets or stuff like that...