Lonsdale yd41???

[Formula Autos]

4 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

 

Indeed, excellent effort in doing the research!👍

Worth a shot. I knew deep down the car was probably long gone, but if I’d found any trace of it I’d have been straight back here with photos, hoping someone could save it.

Sounds like there was no demand for any parts off it even, and that it was probably gone for baling before the turn of the millennium. Maybe no Lonsdale made it into this century?

Someone at the yard was clued up enough about it to put it down as a Lonsdale/Mitsubishi though - they must have had at least a vague idea what it was, and that it had parts that might have been useful on a Galant. Apparently their system was to put the actual make of car first, then what it’s got useful parts for second (e.g. Citroen C1/Peugeot 107/Toyota Aygo). 

[Soundwave]

Even the Galant/Sigma it was based on is down to single figures in this country nowadays, so I imagine parts demand would have been near non-existent.

[Datsuncog]

Can only echo the appreciation for getting down 'n' dirty with some good old-fashioned detectiving - even if the payoff hasn't arrived (yet).

I don't believe I've ever clapped eyes on a UK Lonsdale, and only ever knew of them through my dog-eared copy of the Daily Mail Motor Show Guide 1984. But I'd love to believe there's still one out there somewhere, biding its time.

Saw plenty of Magnas in my time out in Australia, of course, but that's not quite the same thing...

Here, have a pic of the last time I saw a Colt Galant in the wild, back in September 2001 - AYA552S.

If DVLA tax details are correct, this photo was taken during the Colt's last few weeks on the road - the tax wasn't renewed after Sept '01.

23 years old wasn't a bad innings, all things considered.

[Richard_FM]

On 1/26/2023 at 10:40 AM, Dick Longbridge said:

@SoundwaveHow did you work out the registration which is SORN? It looks like it was untaxed when @SambaS checked it in 2013 along with the batch below, so someone has SORNed it since...

Lonsdale 2.0 - A710 SYR - Blue - Date of liability 01 03 1997

Lonsdale 2.6 - DDF 522Y - Brown - Date of liability 01 02 1988

Lonsdale 1.6 - DDF 507Y - Blue - Date of liability 01 12 1992

Lonsdale 2.0 - DDF 508Y - Blue - Date of liability 01 08 1990

Lonsdale 2.0 - DDF 509Y - Brown - Date of liability 01 06 1995

Lonsdale 2.6 - DDF 510Y - Green - Date of liability 01 02 1992

Lonsdale 1.6 - DDF 512Y - Silver - Date of liability 01 07 1990

Lonsdale 2.0 - DDF 519Y - Red - Date of liability 01 07 1992

Lonsdale 2.0 - DDF 520Y - Blue - Date of liability 01 11 1991

Lonsdale 2.6 - DDF 521Y - Brown - Date of liability 01 08 1991

Lonsdale 2.6 - DDF 522Y - Brown - Date of liability 01 02 1988

Lonsdale 1.6 - DDF 532Y - Silver - Date of liability 01 01 1990

Lonsdale 2.6 - DDF 533Y - White - Date of liability 01 10 1990

Lonsdale 2.0 - DDF 565Y - White - Date of liability 01 05 2000

Lonsdale 1.6 - DDF 566Y - Green - Date of liability01 07 1993

Lonsdale 2.6 - DDF 594Y - White - Date of liability 01 03 1996

 

It looks like DDF565Y was the longest lived of these.

DDF522Y only managed 5 years on the road, maybe stolen or involved in an accident?

 

[Reluctant Adult]

[Formula Autos]

9 hours ago, Richard_FM said:

It looks like DDF565Y was the longest lived of these.

DDF522Y only managed 5 years on the road, maybe stolen or involved in an accident?

 

DDF 522Y could easily have been Dale’s car that I’ve been trying to track down. The colour fits from my recollection, the engine size fits from the record the scrapyard had, and I remember it was in very good condition bodily (too good to scrap, so Dale saved it, from what I can remember. Don’t recall seeing primer/anything like replacement panels on it). I also remember it being covered in dust when it first turned up - possibly stored indoors beforehand, which extended its life? Maybe it went off the road in ‘88 with a mechanical issue? Even by that point Lonsdale-specific parts (as opposed to Mitsubishi parts that were interchangeable) might have been hard to come by.
 

We’ll never know now…

[sierraman]

I’m amazed the Mitsubishi owners club can’t shed light on this. 

[LightBulbFun]

16 hours ago, Formula Autos said:

We’ll never know now…

Not if if I have anything to do with it LOL

DDF522Y is registered as an Estate, so its unlikely to be dales car (sadly?) unless the vehicle was registered wrong at some point

 

no scrapped marker however, so regardless of who's car this was, I do wonder if its hiding in a barn somewhere still?  

[Pieman]

One bit of (maybe hopeful) news regarding the marque - having checked the records, I don't believe a Lonsdale has ever been banger raced in the history of the sport.

[quicksilver]

Holy thread resurrection! I've unexpectedly stumbled across a Lonsdale that doesn't appear to be mentioned here. Jonathan Del Mar's newly-published book "Motor Vehicle Registration Numbers of Great Britain 1974-2001" contains a photo of A702 GFH, a blue 2.0 saloon last taxed in December 1996.

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Holy thread resurrection! I've unexpectedly stumbled across a Lonsdale that doesn't appear to be mentioned here. Jonathan Del Mar's newly-published book "Motor Vehicle Registration Numbers of Great Britain 1974-2001" contains a photo of A702 GFH, a blue 2.0 saloon last taxed in December 1996.

A699GFH comes back as Pink, I'd like to think its the form the Chameleon circuit in @Amelia's TARDIS took when it first landed on earth  

others of quick note: A691GFH did not last very long at all! A697GFH comes back as diesel and  A693GFH is beige

 

it seems A667GFH-A706GFH are all Lonsdales (I have not looked up every single one mind, just applied DVLA bashing skills to find the start and end of the block of what looks like about 40 cars  )

[DJB 181V]

Hello all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I ended up on this thread after it was mentioned on a YouTube video (https://youtu.be/YOvIl41utDs?si=FRHC-1k0YrjIQ0XD) that flashed up in my recommendations this afternoon. I’m a fan of lost media and utterly average cars so my ears pricked up at the Lonsdale hunt.

Full disclosure; before about 3pm today I’d never heard of Lonsdale as a car company. So I don’t approach this as any kind of expert in that respect. However, I have the last three years trying to work out and track down how many Mk.1 Cavaliers are left from the 239,000 or so that were built (Around 400ish looks to be the answer; it’s a story for it’s own thread if folk are interested. Also restoring my own poverty-spec 1600L Auto too). In doing so, I’ve spent a long time pulling apart the DVLAs VEH1024 data (that HowManyLeft is driven by), manipulating websites and using various other tools to help the search. The VEH1024 is basically a snapshot of that the DVLA thinks is out there but as others have alluded it’s flawed. When I started the Mk.1 Cavalier hunt I thought it would be easy, take the various sub-categories that they have listed, make a listing of the registrations that are out there in photos/videos/etc, check how they’re registered with the DVLA and before long you’d have an pretty decent idea. You soon start to realise that there’s plenty of cars badly registered (“Vauxhall Unknown”, “Unknown Unknown”, etc) which are not shown anywhere on the VEH1024 data in a meaningful way. Only stuff that’s been on the road and active in the last couple decades seems to be approaching realistic. Stuff from the the Mk.1 Cav/Londsale era is going to be wildly out; I suspect it’s where they’ve gone from paper-to-computer records along the way.  Equally, you start to find a good number of cars that are scrapped but still showing on SORN (FYB107T is a good example, some big parts of this have ended up on my car) and there’s plenty of cars that are just sat in fields/garages/etc that the DVLA have no idea of.

Looking at the VEH1024 data for Lonsdale stuff, it looks to be a bit of a mixed bag. There’s 11 entries; all the cars (3 entries) are showing a manufacturing date of 2005 or 1995. There’s 2 entries that’s a motorcycle built in 2002 flipping between SORN and licensed, and there’s a 2015 LGV that’s on the road. Like I said, you can’t really trust any of this but I’d broadly rule those out as typos in the DVLA system. This leaves a couple of ‘maybes’. There’s two entries for a 1982-built LGV that was licensed until 2014 then sat on a SORN until 2019. I’m not claiming Lonsdale made a van but the dates fit so perhaps something was wrongly recorded. Next up, there’s two entries for a motorcycle that was made in 1983, on the road until 2015 and has sat on SORN ever since. Could be the same here; details fit but wrongly categorised as a bike? Finally, there’s an ‘Other’ which was built in 1993…. pass there. The illusive DDF565Y was registered in April 1983 so I guess was built in 1982, that could well be the “1982 Motorcycle” entry. I will dig a little deeper!

 

Spreading the search out some more; I’ve tried a few tricks that I managed for the Cavalier Hunt and can offer up 73 cars that were Lonsdale’s once upon a time:

 

A100GDD - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A101GDD - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A102GDD - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A105GDD - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A106GDD - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A107GDD - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A108GDD - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A109GDD - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A110GDD - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A111GDD - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A112GDD - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A112GDD - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A113GDD - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A114GDD - BEIGE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A115GDD - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A116GDD - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A117GDD - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A118GDD - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A119GDD - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A667GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A668GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A670GFH - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A671GFH - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A672GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A674GFH - SILVER - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A675GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A676GFH - SILVER - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A677GFH - GOLD - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A682GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A683GFH - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A685GFH - SILVER - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A686GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A687GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A688GFH - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A689GFH - ORANGE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A690GFH - SILVER - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A692GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A693GFH - BEIGE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A694GFH - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A695GFH - SILVER - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A696GFH - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A697GFH - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A698GFH - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A69JCE - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A700SYR - SILVER - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A701GFH - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A702GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A704GFH - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A706GFH - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A710SYR - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A715GFH - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A71JCE - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A730GFH - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A831YSC - BEIGE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A834YSC - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A837YSC - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A838YSC - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A97GDD - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A98GDD - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

A99GDD - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF507Y - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF508Y - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF509Y - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF510Y - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF519Y - RED - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF520Y - BLUE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF521Y - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF522Y - BROWN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF532Y - SILVER - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF533Y - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF565Y - WHITE - LONSDALE - SORN

DDF566Y - GREEN - LONSDALE - Untaxed

DDF594Y - WHITE - LONSDALE - Untaxed

So far, DDF565Y is the only SORN one but it’s still around 10% of the cars they made. There are more than the listing above; for example we know DDF511Y (from the press photo) was a Lonsdale car but is missing from the above. It also opens up a question mark on how the DVLA were registering them; checking DDF565Y (https://www.carcheck.co.uk/lonsdale/DDF565Y) it’s down as a “LONSDALE UNKNOWN” which is what I’d expect. Checking up on A835YSC (https://www.carcheck.co.uk/lonsdale/A835YSC) from up thread, it’s down as “MITSUBISHI UNKNOWN”. Some are listed as “MITSUBISHI LONSDALE”. The fun begins.

I love this sort of thing and well up for helping fuel the hunt. I’d love to think there’s one out there somewhere. There’s quite a lot else we can try; you used to be able to manipulate the URL for reg-check.co.uk to show what cars they had listed under certain subcategories (So we could search to see what they had listed as “LONSDALE UNKNOWN”) which looked to be fed from the DVLA’s data. I’m getting an invalid SSL error; can anyone else get in? We can probably find a lot more of the 700 cars and check to see if anything is showing as SORN too using the partial numberplate finder. Lots of the cars were registered in Gloucester (makes sense) so we can look at 1982/3 regs from that way.

Anyway, that’s the nerdiest things you’ll read tonight….
 

Cheers,

Steve

[inconsistant]

I was watching re runs of the Harry Enfield Show and in the background of one of the Mr ‘You don’t want to do it like that’ sketches there’s a Lonsdale. 

[HillmanImp]

As I understand it, if a car didn't get a new style V5 issued about 12yrs or so ago, they don't have an owner for it, so it disappeared into the trade somewhere, most likely a scrappy. 

They could be sat in a shed behind some old abandoned showroom, down a rural A road somewhere but they're likely scrapped? 

So whilst DDF 565Y is on a SORN, its not had a V5 issued since 1997. I think a lot of cars just appear SORN due to a bug in the system don't they.

[Richard_FM]

I've heard of one in the DDF...Y batch being exported to Ireland around the turn of the millennium.

[sierraman]

I think DDF565Y is the only hope to be honest, could be in a barn somewhere. Imagine the sensation of pulling a tarpaulin off and finding it, you’d have won Autoshite if you did that. 

[delux]

Several mentions of Lonsdales in the Colt car club mag. The club is run by Stephen Blackburn, his Dad, Dave is Mr Colt car company!

Stephen has just restored a Colt Galant Turbo A142FDD (Pretty much a Lonsdale!) so if anyone knows where to find a Lonsdale, its probably him!

www.coltcarclub.co.uk

[mk2_craig]

Always a possibility of finding one in another right hand drive place? Northern Ireland for example, though don’t know how easy it would be to carry out any registration database detective work. 

[OM646]

Logged in after a long period of inactivity because right on the main comment of the video that surfaced recently about extinct cars, there was this 

[bunglebus]

On 25/04/2025 at 19:30, DJB 181V said:

Long time lurker, first time poster

Oh you'll fit right in here!

I still live in hope that a Lonsdale will turn up, most likely in Ireland now - I'm I'm one of the people who excepts the Timelord is dead, despite new V5s getting issued for it