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Getting Historical Data

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Piet

Enthusiast
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Hi, I wonder if any of you can help...
I have a late '67 (4 speed, full width grille) R1123, RHD that was sold new to the British market. It was bought new by a pair of doctors, driven around Britain and Europe for 6 months, then (I believe) put on a ship somewhere like Turkey and brought back to Australia.
Sometime in 1968 it was registered in Victoria, Australlia with the number plate MHW536. Note this is not an Australian number plate (this number would never have been allocated in any Australian state in those days), so I assume it was a temporary registration using the existing British registration number from August/September 1967, that was on it. Possibly also it had more digits , like it was MHW536F for example, as the Australian registration computer system may have only accepted the first 6 digits in its input format when the records were computerised. A year later it was re-registerd with its current Australian number.

Questions: Any info on where /when the Brit registration plate was issued? How can you get info, remotely from DVLA? (Phoning from Australia and being put on hold for two hours is not really an option, and their website is useless).
Renault used to have a scheme where they could tell you, for a fee, when your car was built, but that now seems to be defunct. I would like to try and find out more about when it was built, when it was actually sold and who to. The diamond plate no. is 3825209 and oval plate 470201- does anyone have a good estimating algorithm for dates based on those? Or similar plate numbers and dates for them?

Cheers,
Piet
 
Piet, It is certainly possible to get the history of a car through the DVLA. There is a particular form or application form on their website and costs about £5ish. They then posted to me photocopies of tax applications and MoT forms so I now have a record of all previous owners of my R4GTL.
 
If the original UK registration number was MHW536F (01/08/1967>31/07/1968) then the "_HW____" indicates that it was issued by the Bristol office, so the car was probably supplied by a dealer in the Bristol area.
 
Piet, I've just browsed through the DVLA website and it seems they have since waived the £5 charge for vehicle information. What you now need to do is email them on SubjectAccess.Requests@dvla.gsi.gov.uk and provide them with as much information as you can. They will no doubt check on the number you have as well as one with a F suffix and hopefully will come up with the information you require. Their MoT search is also useful too. One request from me though, please do let us know the outcome of the enquiries.
 
I used the DVLA's site to request information on my car last year. I paid £5 and received a pile of old (pre-1974) paperwork, giving me the original dealer's details and the first 4 owners, all of whom lived in the north London/Middlesex area. I was also able to correct an error on the current log book, which had the engine number wrongly noted. The error had been made when the records were computerised & someone had to type them in.

The service was quick and the results interesting from an historical perspective.
 
I would endorse "Andrew4Renaults" opinion of the DVLA. I have never failed to receive 100% satisfaction from them. As long as you ring at an off-peak time (say afternoon, UK time, which admittedly is red-eye time in Australia) the wait is only about two minutes (menu, not hold music) and then you get put through to someone who is helpful and has an IQ (unlike, say, British Telecom). You need a touch-tone telephone to access the various options.

Their phone number for general enquiries is (UK) 0300 790 6802. Ominously, this phone number does not appear on the most recent DVLA Registration Documents so how long this excellent service will continue is debatable. But I used this number two weeks ago so it is OK for the moment.

Other possibilities are to use a classic car club in the UK, which sometimes offer a dating service (as it were) for a modest fee. I am a member of the Renault Classic Car Club but I don't know if they do this, but they can surely at least point you in the right direction. Their annual membership is GBP £20.00.

If your car is UK 1967 it would indeed have had an E or F suffix.
 
If Piet is prepared to pass the details of his car to me via a PM I'm happy to make inquiries on his behalf from northern London, which might be a tad cheaper then making the same inquiry from the Northern Territories!
 
Got a very quick email reply from DVLA- apparently they can't look into it because I am not in the UK- if I was in the UK and the car was currently registered there to me, it would be a different story. However they did add there were no records for that reg. number in their possession, which was very good of them. They were extremely polite and understanding, but hamstrung by the rules.

I suspect, because that era- late sixties- preceded all car reg records being gathered up in one spot by DVLA, I would have to go to Bristol council and look in their archives. Not worth a trip in itself, but maybe next time I make the pilgrimage....
 
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