Could this happen in France !

[AnOther]

This has to be fiction, mainly because of two glaring innaccuracies:

1. If the vehicle had been exported DVLA would have shown it as such not non existent.

2. It is claimed that a vehicle has to be physically presented at a DVLA office in order to re-register it in UK for which is not true.

Also I find it hard to believe that the Spanish Gardi have nothing better to do than query the DVLA for a UK plated vehicle which had been parked in an airport car park 24 hours !

Still, if something similar were to take place in France, I couldn't promise that I would not indulge in a "schadenfrude" moment [:P]

VW Golf - Exported

SOURCE MATERIAL

Edit:

Been pointed out that I may be infringing copyright so replaced what was non verbatim text with this link (yawnnnnnnnnnnnn)

[Tony F Dordogne]

One of the missing peices of information is how long the car had - allegedly - been in Spain - perhaps he should have re-registered the car and hadn't, therefore a salutory warning as technically, the car wouldn't have been registerd anywhere.

Edit: and with the continuation of the terrorist attacks in Spain by ETA and other factions, not registered = potential security risk.  Wrong place and wrong time come to mind.

[AnOther]

informing the DVLA that the Volkswagen had been exported from the UK  and  Months passed,

would seem to give a major clue, at least to how long it had been out of UK, and also the intent for it to be a fairly permanant move.

The suggested value of the car also indicates that it was probably nearly new and that alone means that it undoubtedly would have been on the DVLA database.

My MG appeared as "Exported" on the DVLA site within about 1 month.

I'm pretty sure too that Spain has a far bigger percentage of expat non compliance than France which makes it even more unlikely that any notice would have been taken of a car after only 24 hours. There surely would have been scores of similar cars parked there at the same time.

[dave21478]

Sounds like BS to me to be honest.

Why would you declare the car exported, then make no obvious effort to register it in spain? no other reaosn for it to still be on uk plates unless the owner was trying it on.

Why would a car in airport parking have its reg checked? expecially after such a short period?

Would the authorities really go to that much effort, contacting dvla etc?

A car doesnt have to be presented for inspection for uk registration as long as it has a valid mot, uk insurance etc. If it has dodgy history it may require a VIC check, which is a physical inspection to confirm its identity.

 

.....dunno, sounds like some kind of urban legend or Tall Tale to me.

[Bob T]

If a car has been "exported" via the DVLA then surly it is no longer registered in the UK and as it was obviously not Spanish registered then it was registered nowhere. I would suspect that the owner was trying to pull a fast one. Hard luck if you try to buck the system and loose out.

[AnOther]

Source

Bit of a Spanish version of a certain French publication which has been known to get it wrong.

No connexion I suppose [;-)]

[Will]

There is a ring of truth in one part of the story, Ernie.

We brought a Volvo 940 to France in 2002 on a DVLA export certificate. However, we changed our minds about keeping it in France  - for various reasons - and shortly afterwards gave it to a relative who needed a car in England. He took it back, re-registered it (with a different number) and I haven't a clue where it is now. Pity, it was a nice car.

However, I have checked on the DVLA database since, and also checked my MG which came over before, and there are no records of those index numbers. We took a formerly-French LHD Peugeot 205 at the same time, which we did re-register in France, but while going through the process (in 2002) had occasion to go back to England. That, we found out, had also disappeared from official records as a result of being put on an export certificate.

I can only surmise that if exported before a certain date (possibly when the V5C superseded the export certificate?) the DVLA records do not recognise the fact.

[AnOther]

All quite plausible Will and I believe it's true that numbers from exported vehicle can be put back in the pool for reissue (tip - never export a vehicle with a "nice" number in case they grab it and auction it off) but in this cas as I pointed out, at £15k (and I've just noticed that the piece was written in 2005) the Golf could not have been more than a year old and only out of the UK for a few months it's unlikely to have been eradicated from the records so soon.

[Catalpa]

I believe you can "park" cherished numbers "officially" with the DVLA so you don't lose control of them. I don't know whether a fee is payable for this... probably. [:P]

[PaulT]

[quote user="Catalpa"]I believe you can "park" cherished numbers "officially" with the DVLA so you don't lose control of them. I don't know whether a fee is payable for this... probably. [:P]
[/quote]

Think you can only have them on retention for a limited period (perhaps 1 year) and then, if it has not been placed on a vehicle, you loose it.

 

Paul

[Catalpa]

I did check after I posted because I do try and check my "thinks". [:D] It appears that you can pay a fee to put a number "on retention" and it looks as if you can keep it... on payment of further annual fees. Of course. [:P]