discrepancy between VIN and log book. Ideas??

trevorbrady

My brother-in-law is an Irishman living in the UK. He's bought a 1980 mini here and is exporting it to himself to use in the UK. He has to transfer the vehicle ownership to himself over here before going actually exporting it and getting it registered in the UK. He has the RF200 signed off by the last owner and the original log book.

There's a small problem though: there's a slight discrepancy between the original 1980 brown log book (i.e. not a replacement/duplicate document) and the original VIN plate on the car. While it probably wouldn't cause too much hassle with change of ownership etc here, you can be sure the DVLA will pick up on it over there and make his life difficult.

Here's the problem in pictures. The blurred sections are the 6-digit serial number, which matches perfectly on both items. The codes start OK: "XK2S..." on both (yes, that's an "S", not a "3" on the logbook :rolleyes: ). They end OK with the matching 6-digit serial on both but in the middle the VIN has "1000" whereas all the log-book shows is "F".





anyone got any ideas? Will the DVLA accept this? Will the local motor tax office correct it for him? Can he just jot in the numbers himself?

thanks in advance

steder

I had a problem like this when i brought a car in from the UK.
On the log book there was a number 5 where on the car there was an S.
The girl in vrt said that it was clearly a typo error as everything else matched and i just had to give her a day to sort it out.
I went back the following day everything was sorted no problems

It might be worth a phone call to try get it sorted here before it leaves the country it might save a big head ache in the long run.

trevorbrady

thanks steder. I don't think the S/3 confusion will be much of a hurdle. It's the F/1000 that I think there will be a problem with.

mgbgt1978

According to this;
http://www.love-mini.co.uk/vin-numbers/classic
and other Mini sites, that "F" shouldn't be there. It should either be a "1" for a round-nose, or a "2" for a Clubman.
Looks like the logbook may be wrong.
Not saying that the car is dodgy, just a mix-up along the way with the Motor tax office.

By the way we have a '78 mini here with the commission no. in the logbook as the chassis number, despite the fact that the chassis plate is riveted to the slam panel, and the commission number is on a smaller plate on the bulkhead. Not really a problem for me as we're not exporting it, but just shows that things can get screwed up along the line somewhere.

trevorbrady

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

just a mix-up along the way with the Motor tax office.

thanks MGBGT

It looks as though the mixup was on day-one, the log book is the original, including all the date-stamps for paying tax, starting at 1980. Not a replacement where details were transferred over incorrectly.

rugbyman

Trevor
, I would be inclined to import the car to the Uk on a photocopy of the Irish taxbook,
Should the car ever move back you would still have the original with all its stamps, a quite interesting document.
By the way ,on this topic do Irish County Councils issue old brown books for old cars, can one ask for one?

re the difference in numbers now ,this is not an uncommon thing. I imagine it will not be a problem to Swansea.
Rugbyman

trevorbrady

rugbyman wrote: »

By the way ,on this topic do Irish County Councils issue old brown books for old cars, can one ask for one?

thanks rugbyman.

To answer your question, yes, I applied for a change of ownership and applied for a replacement for a lost log book and I got an old-style brown one with "Duplicate" stamped on every page.
Conversely, I also imported a 1974 vehicle from the US a few years ago, went for a ZV reg and was issued with a new-style grey Vehicle Registration Certificate.

deckie27

I'd be inclined to add in the 3 0's
just test the ink colour on another part of the logbook