Tracing date of manufacture from a VIN plate - Honda quad bike

[John F]

Hey all

 

A mate of mine has recently bought a diesel quad to use on his farm. It's probably a 1995 model but has never been road registered.

 

He'd like to register it for limited road use but he's struggling to get a specific date of manufacture as required by DVLA to issue a registration - Honda UK aren't showing much interest in helping him.

 

Do any of you talented bunch have a way of precisely dating the quad from its VIN plate?

 

Thankages in advance

 

(I've checked the year of manufacture using this chart - http://www.vincheckr.com/VIN-478TE150XSA728055 - but DVLA need an actual date of manuacture...)

[mk2_craig]

I did manage to get an EU Certificate of Conformity for a Honda motorbike once, free of charge from them. Bike was a bit newer though.

[John F]

mk2_craig, on 15 Jun 2018 - 2:40 PM, said:

I did manage to get an EU Certificate of Conformity for a Honda motorbike once, free of charge from them. Bike was a bit newer though.

 

Honda UK are not being helpful, they referred my mate to the dealer that originally supplied the quad but they've apparently stopped trading.

 

Based on a quick Google search, Honda will only issue a CoC for vehicles registered after 2001... I suspect the earlier date of manufacture & the fact that this quad was never registered are causing the problem.

[Pillock]

The year is encoded in the VIN (assuming they use the same system as a car, can't see why they wouldn't)

 

The actual date isn't part of the VIN, to get that you'd need access to the build records. That's how sites like ETIS and the mg-rover one work, there's just not enough digits in the VIN to hold an entire date once you take out manufacturer, model, factory and the sequence.

[John F]

Yep, we've got the year. But DVLA need the month & year, hence the problem.

 

TBH I've spent the last hour or so trawling through the gov.uk website, it's a bloody nightmare... I simply can't get a definitive answer for registering a non-imported vehicle that's over 10 years old.

[artdjones]

Know any plant or tractor dealers?They have to do this quite often.

[John F]

My mate says any Honda dealer that's been trading since before 1995 ought to be able to query the information he needs from Honda, can anyone help with that (or confirm whether it's true or not)?

[DodgeRover]

Will they not just issue him with a Q?

They didn't want to do this for me but eventually did when I said it really really didn't matter.

[panhard65]

I would also be interested if anyone finds someone to date old Honda's as I have just picked up a 70's early 80's 125xls with no paperwork

[DodgeRover]

I would also be interested if anyone finds someone to date old Honda's as I have just picked up a 70's early 80's 125xls with no paperwork

Bikes are easy usually, have you run a HPI on the frame number? It will have been registered if it's not an import.

[John F]

Will they not just issue him with a Q?

They didn't want to do this for me but eventually did when I said it really really didn't matter.

 

Yep, it's likely it'll end up on a Q plate if no other data can be found.

[DodgeRover]

It is the easiest way TBH and for farm use it makes bugger all difference, is he having it limited use or argicultural?

[hairnet]

https://www.motorcyclespareparts.eu/en/honda-parts/honda-year-code-identification

 

https://www.quadcrazy.com/atvforum/topic/11349-honda-atv-vin-number-decoder-search/

[mitsisigma01]

Did Silverstone the Honda spares stockist should be able to work it out . Might encourage them a bit if you pretend you want some spares !

[mitsisigma01]

Fkin predictive text. ..... David Silvers the Honda spares dealer

[John F]

I've suggested that matey sends an email to Honda USA, as it was apparently manufactured over there. No guarantees, but they almost speak English in the USA so they may be more receptive to an English-language email

 

David Silvers might be worth a shot if that doesn't work, ta for the suggestion.