Trying to Locate a Missing Fiat X19 Reg RZW275

Dempo1 · 18-05-2012 12:59pm #1

Please no Smart Arses

OK, the situation, I put the above car into storage with a Mechanic based in clonsilla, Dublin 15. I moved abroad for a number of years on my return purchased a house outside Dublin. A number of years passed. On trying to locate the mechanic who operated from a private house, he had since moved by the time I returned to Ireland, indeed the house had been sold, replaced with two new houses (remember the good times?). No one local knows were he had moved too, I can not recall his name but there was a mention of Meath as a possible place he had moved too.

I should state, the car whilst having been restored had been let go a little, there is a real chance the car was scrapped and I am not suggesting any dishonesty on the part of the mechanic, I am as much to fault for leaving this go for nearly 15 years now.

Recently, I came across the log book, I remain the legal owner of the car and too my shock, I discovered the car is still registered. I am reluctant to report the car stolen and the Motor Tax office are not obliging when I inquired if the car is currently taxed or on the road.

I don't know what other course of action to take, I am reluctant to report this to the Gardai and wondered if anyone on this forum can advise me on what to do next.

I can be PM if this is a preferred method of contact. I am anxious to get the car back or at the very least confirm its were abouts. It is yellow in color and is a 1979 model.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help locate the car or advise.

Kind regards

no1beemerfan · 18-05-2012 4:24pm

Why won't you go to the Guards? Do you know if the mechanic ever tried to get in contact with you in the 15 year period?

If it was me and I wanted the car back I'd be going to a Garda station and seeing what (if) they can do.

Silvera · 18-05-2012 5:30pm

If you write to the 'authorised officer' at the relevant motor tax office (incl a colour photocopy of the tax books - and perhaps also of your driving licence..for id purposes) and explain fully your situation, they may be able to help. They cannot give out such details over the phone.

carchaeologist · 18-05-2012 9:28pm

Still registered or still taxed?
There is a difference.
If it was taxed by you or anyone for that matter after 1993 it will show up as registered.
Maybe try paying for a Cartell check, that will tell you the date of liability, which is a much better indicator.

Grimreaper666 · 18-05-2012 9:38pm

I think the mechanic may have been entitled to sell the car to defray storage costs, to be fair, leaving a car on someones premises for 15 years and expecting it to be still there when you get back is a bit unrealistic to say the least.

bbsrs · 18-05-2012 10:03pm

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

I think the mechanic may have been entitled to sell the car to defray storage costs, to be fair, leaving a car on someones premises for 15 years and expecting it to be still there when you get back is a bit unrealistic to say the least.

Ya like on storage wars

Dempo1 · 19-05-2012 12:02am

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

I think the mechanic may have been entitled to sell the car to defray storage costs, to be fair, leaving a car on someones premises for 15 years and expecting it to be still there when you get back is a bit unrealistic to say the least.

Thanks GrimReaper, its not quite that black and white, this was an unofficial arrangement, he did work for me over a number of years, Private Mechanic and not much storage taken up, it's the fact he moved albeit him being entitled to do so. I mentioned 15 years, this is the entire time the car has been missing but I originally began my search about two years after he moved, work brought me abroad, i moved to the midlands then, quite complicated i know but believe me the search began quite some time ago.

Dempo1 · 19-05-2012 12:06am

carchaeologist wrote: »

Still registered or still taxed?
There is a difference.
If it was taxed by you or anyone for that matter after 1993 it will show up as registered.
Maybe try paying for a Cartell check, that will tell you the date of liability, which is a much better indicator.

thanks for that, yes, i actually purchased the car around 1997,it was by pure chance i stumbled across the log book after a number of years, i entered the reg on some sites and hey presto it showed up, this got me thinking and i commenced the search again. I am unsure what you mean re date of liability on cartell if you could explain?

carchaeologist · 19-05-2012 12:07am

The tax book is probably worth a few quid.....:P

carchaeologist · 19-05-2012 12:08am

Date of liability is when the last tax disc expired. Cartell should show that if you pay for a search.

MagicRon · 19-05-2012 12:11am

Have you €35 to spend?
https://www.motorcheck.ie/free-car-check/RZW275

Dempo1 · 19-05-2012 10:18am

carchaeologist wrote: »

The tax book is probably worth a few quid.....:P

LOL, it probably is, its one of the old brown books, quite amusing!

Dempo1 · 19-05-2012 10:19am

carchaeologist wrote: »

Date of liability is when the last tax disc expired. Cartell should show that if you pay for a search.

Ahh, I understand! Yes I think cartell is probably going to be the way foward on this, it is sadly likely the car was scrapped, my suspicions are however that it has not been given the car still shows up as being registered on the system.

Dempo1 · 19-05-2012 10:26am

Pleasantly surprised there was no Fix It Again Tony Jokes

I bought this car for 650 punts, only 50k on the clock, it did need a lot of body work however, Same car today with more milage and in good nick = 7K

Will try to attach a photo, my only one and when the Car was fully restored, admitidly it was not looking this good when I put it into storage.

allthedoyles · 19-05-2012 10:40am

Is this the '88 model - Maybe the owner of a similar car may have bought parts etc from someone with your car .

Dempo1 · 19-05-2012 11:05am

allthedoyles wrote: »

Is this the '88 model - Maybe the owner of a similar car may have bought parts etc from someone with your car .

Gosh, well spotted but sadly no, my car is 1979 model, its uncanny the resemblance of both cars. I never had the reg plates to the new system, also the alloys on this car are not originals, mine had the real thing, amazing likeness all the same, my car was also Burgundy originally (but in shocking condition), before the respray to yellow, this was partly the reason I got a replacement log book. Well spotted!

Bigus · 19-05-2012 12:23pm

He'd be entitled to charge you for storage,

at say a token €1 per day

which works out at €5475

plus any work done

plus interest ,

sorry for being a smart arse, but i think your being unrealistic and naive.

Dempo1 · 19-05-2012 1:25pm

Bigus wrote: »

He'd be entitled to charge you for storage,

at say a token €1 per day

which works out at €5475

plus any work done

plus interest ,

sorry for being a smart arse, but i think your being unrealistic and naive.

Lets go back to the beginning, the mechanic and I had an excellent relationship and he worked on the car over a couple of years and was handsomely paid, he operated from his house but had ample storage, in fact the car was mostly parked outside his house and not taking up any room. The situation is that despite him having my contact details, knowing I remained close friends with his neighbors etc, he sold up completely and moved to another county without so much as a phone call or notice.

My primary concern is that the car may have been sold and it is still registered. The notion he would be entitled to charge me storage costs + interest in the circumstances pointed out is naive. I should point out not a single old neighbour of the mechanics (and there were many as it was a housing estate) have a clue were he moved to which in itself is a little strange. I began the search for this car years ago but circumstances took me abroad, it was my finding of the log book recently and discovering the car is still registered that encouraged me to search again.

unfit2006 · 19-05-2012 9:33pm

And you cannot remember his name ?

TRNIALL · 19-05-2012 9:47pm

How do you know that the Car is still Registered??

Capri · 20-05-2012 5:42am

1)Check Eircom phonebook online - his name but no county ( Business or Home )
eg Murphy (Business listing ) http://www.eircomphonebook.ie/q/name/who/Murphy/?customerType=BUSINESS&contentErrorLinkEnabled=true

Both of the next moves could potentially create hassle for your 'friend' the mechanic if the possibility of 'unlawfully forging a signature' arose with charges processed :eek:

2) if no joy above then I'd go to the local Garda station and point out your situation (with a written version of events ) to the Sarge or Super - you are/were the regd owner and DID NOT sign over the car to anyone else. It was entrusted to the care of the mech who , if you had not kept in regular contact, may have believed you had disappeared in the same way he has now disappeared off the radar

3) Write to your local Motor Tax office as the LAST REGISTERED OWNER requesting a replacment log book - then they will have to 'fess up over changing owners without your signature

Dempo1 · 20-05-2012 11:44am

unfit2006 wrote: »

And you cannot remember his name ?

First Name, not surname which makes a search impossible, he also traded privately so its unlikely he has a business name!

Dempo1 · 20-05-2012 11:47am

TRNIALL wrote: »

How do you know that the Car is still Registered??

I'm not entirely sure if the car is actually on the road as such but it appears to be still registered, it shows up on various motoring websites. Had the car been officially scrapped or perhaps sold for parts, the scrappage should have been recorded. My suspicions were raised when I discovered by chance the car is still officially registered!

Dempo1 · 20-05-2012 11:50am

Capri wrote: »

1)Check Eircom phonebook online - his name but no county ( Business or Home )
eg Murphy (Business listing ) http://www.eircomphonebook.ie/q/name/who/Murphy/?customerType=BUSINESS&contentErrorLinkEnabled=true

Both of the next moves could potentially create hassle for your 'friend' the mechanic if the possibility of 'unlawfully forging a signature' arose with charges processed :eek:

It is sadly looking like I will have little choice but to make a statement to the Gardai, I was concerned about causing grief for the mechanic but it seems there may be no alternative to report this to the Gardai. Hopefully I could persuade them even to confirm the current status of the car (Is is currently taxed and registered), if so, then the car may have been sold without my permission and my sympaties will diminish somewhat.

Silvera · 20-05-2012 1:44pm

Have you been in contact with the Irish X/19 Owners Club?
Somebody in the club may know of your car being in storage somewhere, or may now even own your old car and have it tucked away awaiting restortation someday. The club may let you put a photo ad in the their newsletter/website seeking info...

(I dont have contact details of the club. I recall reading about the club being started in the last year or two.)

Silvera · 20-05-2012 1:46pm

allthedoyles wrote: »

Slightly off topic...

Where was this pic taken?
I'm curious about the red Opel Kadett Coupe in the pic...havent seen it before (I'm a member of 'TotalOpel.com')

f4fay · 20-05-2012 2:10pm

Dempo1 wrote: »

Gosh, well spotted but sadly no, my car is 1979 model, its uncanny the resemblance of both cars. I never had the reg plates to the new system, also the alloys on this car are not originals, mine had the real thing, amazing likeness all the same, my car was also Burgundy originally (but in shocking condition), before the respray to yellow, this was partly the reason I got a replacement log book. Well spotted!

The alloys on this car are the originals for the year of this bertone X19 !!!

Sids Not · 20-05-2012 2:48pm

unfit2006 wrote: »

And you cannot remember his name ?

Thats the first thing that came into my mind too......he did work fo you, but you dont remember his name... smart arse..? guilty...
You bought the car 15 years ago..immediately left it in to your mechanic...
Why did you only start looking for the car again after finding the log book...are we to assume if you'd not found it that you would have just fogotten about the car (€7k) ..again....

Dempo1 · 20-05-2012 3:02pm

Silvera wrote: »

Have you been in contact with the Irish X/19 Owners Club?
Somebody in the club may know of your car being in storage somewhere, or may now even own your old car and have it tucked away awaiting restortation someday. The club may let you put a photo ad in the their newsletter/website seeking info...

(I dont have contact details of the club. I recall reading about the club being started in the last year or two.)

Hi there and thank you, yes indeed I am a member of the xi9 club on facebook and the search has commenced on there also!

Dempo1 · 20-05-2012 3:09pm

Sids Not wrote: »

Thats the first thing that came into my mind too......he did work fo you, but you dont remember his name... smart arse..? guilty...
You bought the car 15 years ago..immediately left it in to your mechanic...
Why did you only start looking for the car again after finding the log book...are we to assume if you'd not found it that you would have just fogotten about the car (€7k) ..again....

Jesus the smart arses do seem to come out on Sunday, as explained, I can not recall his surname, he did not have a registered business name, I purchased the car in 1997, over a three year period I had various jobs done on the car, the search for the car commenced in 2002 when I returned from the states to discover the mechanic has up sticks, sold his house (actually replaced by 2 new ones by the time I came back), a number of his neighbours whom I also knew had also moved and just remind those who wish to be unhelpful! not a single attempt was made by the mechanic to contact me prior to moving. This is not an a typical situation, I have admitted I am as much at fault, however on giving up the search in the early 2000's, it was only recently on finding the log book and also checking the reg online to discover the car was still on the system, I felt it worth another attempt to locate the car, finally the car at time of being put into storage had a rough value of 2k, its only in the past five to six years these cars have increased in value.

Dempo1 · 20-05-2012 3:12pm

f4fay wrote: »

The alloys on this car are the originals for the year of this bertone X19 !!!

Yes, sorry your correct, meant to say the alloys on mine were original to the model i had, pre bertone, apologies, as an aside, the door mirrors on this model are also original to the model, pre Bertone Models seem to have had the door mirrors on the door as opposed to the side window.

Trying to Locate a Missing Fiat X19 Reg RZW275

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