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US imports, Salvage certificates, SVA, Q plates, etc, etc, etc


dieselnutjob

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6 minutes ago, DodgeRover said:

Aren't diesel cars verboten now from the expanded ULEZ like non euro 4 motorcycles?

Yes they are.

I live in the LEZ zone where diesel vans are a problem, but not cars.

I don't live in the ULEZ zone (neither now, nor the expanded one from October) so ULEZ isn't a problem for me.

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20 minutes ago, Richard_FM said:

I've heard some insurance companies won't provide cover for cars with a Q plate, & once issued to a vehicle they are permanent.

with most Q plate, import or self registration cases you can un-Q plate a car if you can prove to the DVLA when the vehicle was made

a Q plate is simply issued to vehicles of an indeterminate age 

if you can prove when a given vehicle was made then you can get an Age related plate issued for it

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I haven't read every reply so sorry if this has been mentioned already, but the issue will probably come from the US side. I've only imported one car from the US, and it was made very clear by the shipping agents that they are unable to ship a car without a current, legal title. I have no idea if a 'salvage title' counts or not but I'd be speaking to some shipping firms and getting something in writing before committing. 

I can't see any problem with registering it this side. You dont need any paperwork at all as long as you can confirm a date of manufacture, which presumably the manufacturer or an affiliated owners' club will be able to do. I'm pretty sure (although not certain) that private imports dont need any SVA test etc, as long as it can pass an MoT you should be fine.

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8 minutes ago, barrett said:

I haven't read every reply so sorry if this has been mentioned already, but the issue will probably come from the US side. I've only imported one car from the US, and it was made very clear by the shipping agents that they are unable to ship a car without a current, legal title. I have no idea if a 'salvage title' counts or not but I'd be speaking to some shipping firms and getting something in writing before committing.

As of about two hours ago I have emails from two shipping companies saying that they can export based on a California Salvage Certificate, no problem.

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7 hours ago, barrett said:

 I've only imported one car from the US, and it was made very clear by the shipping agents that they are unable to ship a car without a current, legal title. 

This is what I was thinking of when I commented above.

 

7 hours ago, dieselnutjob said:

As of about two hours ago I have emails from two shipping companies saying that they can export based on a California Salvage Certificate, no problem.

But it sounds like it's just the shipping companies playing it safe, not a rule as such.

So great news, when is it arriving? 🙂

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This morning I paid $155 for an inspection. As it's a non runner stolen recovered I need to know if anything has gone missing or if there are signs of disassembly. 

My hope is that whoever stole it just took the cat and that's it. 

In California you have to have a type approved cat (basically a genuine Ford one) and it is illegal to sell used cats into California. A new one is $2000. I minor non start condition plus a missing cat is definitely going to make an insurance company throw in the towel and jettison the vehicle out to auction. 

Hopefully the inspection report will tell. 

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To be honest I’d be expecting change from 500 fitted............. Unless that’s a quote from Ford dealership, and in any case they just send it to the exhaust fitters down the road and then charge the customer double and some more for the service..........seen that.

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with most Q plate, import or self registration cases you can un-Q plate a car if you can prove to the DVLA when the vehicle was made
a Q plate is simply issued to vehicles of an indeterminate age 
if you can prove when a given vehicle was made then you can get an Age related plate issued for it
In the case of the Q plate Skoda it was stated an appeal on Q plate status can only be made by the first owner within 1 year.
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13 minutes ago, OwdChina said:

To be honest I’d be expecting change from 500 fitted............. Unless that’s a quote from Ford dealership, and in any case they just send it to the exhaust fitters down the road and then charge the customer double and some more for the service..........seen that.

You need to remember that California is on a slightly different planet to the rest of USA when it comes to emissions regs.  My understanding is that it has to have a geniune Ford brand new California approved cat.

This would actually be more of a problem for a USA buyer.  Basically California DMV is holding the Title ransom until that van gets a California emissions pass.  My understanding is that even someone from another state is not going to get the Title and so basically that van is scrap now in USA, even though other states don't require the cat.  Fortunately for me it doesn't appear to be such a problem if it leaves the country.  Maybe there is a way for someone in another state to get a new title issued but I don't know it.

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10 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:
11 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:
with most Q plate, import or self registration cases you can un-Q plate a car if you can prove to the DVLA when the vehicle was made
a Q plate is simply issued to vehicles of an indeterminate age 
if you can prove when a given vehicle was made then you can get an Age related plate issued for it

In the case of the Q plate Skoda it was stated an appeal on Q plate status can only be made by the first owner within 1 year.

yeah its an interesting one, I suspect simply that someone at the DVLA got scared and confused about the fact it was a write off in Down under land and did not quite know how to handle it

and since a DVLA VIN has not age attached to it, it got a Q plate, but I do wonder if say down the line if you got a dating certificate if you could simply send that off to the DVLA for an age related plate (especially as it would likely land with someone else at the DVLA by then)

(or if the original VIN is present and is not flagged up in anyway, you might be able to just register it via the original VIN again with a suitable dating cert)

currently the way the DVLA are treating it, as if it was a Cut and shut

 

in light of that the way I would handle this van, just to be on the safe side If you can do so I would simply just not send the scarily worded salvage certificate to the DVLA, I dont think they dont need to see it, they say themselves they would be happy with just a dating certificate

so I would just do that, simply get a dating letter from an the appropriate source and register it via that with a good ol V55/5 etc etc (dont forget the nova declaration etc)

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2 minutes ago, dieselnutjob said:

You need to remember that California is on a slightly different planet to the rest of USA when it comes to emissions regs.  My understanding is that it has to have a geniune Ford brand new California approved cat.

This would actually be more of a problem for a USA buyer.  Basically California DMV is holding the Title ransom until that van gets a California emissions pass.  My understanding is that even someone from another state is not going to get the Title and so basically that van is scrap now in USA, even though other states don't require the cat.  Fortunately for me it doesn't appear to be such a problem if it leaves the country.  Maybe there is a way for someone in another state to get a new title issued but I don't know it.

Tell me about it, I lived there till end of 2019..........I would have sorted this for you back then, easily. ......Nearly all (99%ish) test shops don’t put the vehicle on the ramp to do a smog test, they have no idea whether it’s on its original cat or been replaced without looking and if it’s ford spec or not........as long as it passes the sniff test it’s good to go. Also when the new cat is on the vehicle it will need to be driven for at least 10 miles ish to clear the manufacturers gunk out of it, always. This will be difficult if it’s a non runner.........in which case ship it as parts vehicle...........there is a way of getting all these non running MGs, TR6s and other crap (yank) into the UK............prepare yourself for the UK import tax bill.......I avoided that because I’d owned the vehicles for years.

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16 minutes ago, OwdChina said:

prepare yourself for the UK import tax bill

Another advantage of importing a scrap vehicle that's worth nothing and fixing it myself here.

Where I am at with this is that I could pay good money for something and find that it's got an expensive problem very easily (the 6.0 has bad reputation for this), so why not just buy something that's already broken?

My wife says that I like rescuing broken things.

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14 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

These things seem to come up fairly often in Germany,  I think the US army had them over there. Might be easier looking East?

1960902025__3.jpg.190515da2e7a92b72df35fcfe280a60f.jpg

https://m.mobile.de/lkw-inserat/ford-e-150-econoline-nutzfahrzeug-händler-export-deurne/314667870.html?ref=srp

 

Is anybody able to translate and ask questions about this for me, mainly why it is spares export only

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11 minutes ago, DodgeRover said:

Is anybody able to translate and ask questions about this for me, mainly why it is spares export only

I know of a complete 5.4 petrol V8 engine and gearbox available in the UK for one of these. They are currently in an Econoline van that has to be destroyed. It can be seen running and I think could be driven on the farm where it is before having the engine removed. I am hoping to buy doors and things from the guy but he won't sell me anything until the engine is sold. PM me if it is useful. 

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7 minutes ago, DodgeRover said:

I wondered if it was something blindingly obvious to knowledgeable people that I was just missing, rather than message and sound a tit...

Gotya, only thing I can think of is it is actually in Belgium rather than Germany, I think the Belgians are stricter on car stuff? Maybe they are advertising it on mobile.de so someone can export to Germany as it will be OK there? Maybe @Lord Sterling knows, think he lived in Belgium.

The ad says it's in Antwerp so I'm sure it won't be much trouble for them to push it onto the ferry at Oostend or Zeebrugge.

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1 minute ago, wuvvum said:

Shame it isn't the old 7.3 Powerstroke - that was a better engine from what I've read.

Are you going to wind the fuelling up and go rollin' coal round the North Circ?

The 7.3 is a tougher engine, but it's also noisier and the gearboxes are not as strong.  The 6.0 is a "nicer" vehicle to drive but you have to do some work to get round it's vulnerabilities.

I think it's a massive shame that diesels are being pilloried by environmentalists and the public.  We can't all go electric yet, there probably isn't enough lithium in the world, and they don't work on my annual drive to southern Spain.  Destroying perfectly usable cars can't be good for the environment or global warming, so we should only replace fossil fuel vehicles when they are actually worn out.  In the meantime petrol might be a better answer in inner city environments but on longer journeys the migration from diesel to petrol is going to increase global warming.

One idiot rollin' coal doesn't help that argument (I know you were joking anyway)

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I've not imported a car from America . But recently imported one from Italy . I had a Italian logbook , and the car was from 1992 . It was painless registering it , they accepted the paper work without question. Also I bought a car recently with out a log book as it came from a deicesed estate . It turned out it had the wrong number plates on it since new , 30 years lol. It took 3 months but they did sort it out. The dvla are quite good if not a bit slow. I don't think you would have any trouble registering this end , can MOT off chassis number , ford can date it easily . The UK is one of the easiest country to drive import cars , LHD , etc. If over 10 year old it's easy. 

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It was me that had trouble importing from the US when I did it for the Mercury.

Mine was from a state that don’t bother much with titles on old stuff, so didnt have one at all. I did some homework and was assured export using a proper bill of sale was ok so went ahead with the deal. 
Unfortunately once the car got to the docks in New York they refused point blank to let it leave without a valid title certificate. This was potentially very very bad, but I got on well with the guy I bought the car from so after messaging him and explaining the situation he said he’d go to see his local DMV office and re-register the car in his name and address and get it a new title that way. All I did was cover the costs and gave him a few bucks for his time. This did take a couple of months to get sorted though. 
If the seller didn’t want to do this though I’d be fucked!! Basically you’d end up owning and having paid for a car that was then stuck in limbo at a dockyard or warehouse several thousand miles away with no easy way to get it here. It’s only a matter of time before you’d start getting stung for storage fee’s too.

It can definitely be done, but I heavily advise you to be absolutely positive no title/salvage certificate are acceptable for the vehicle to leave the US. 
If you have problems this is where you’ll have them!

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