V888

[trigger]

Has anyone else on here ever sent off a V888 form?, This is the form to request information on the history of your car.

 

I gave it a try about a month ago requesting information on my Kadett, I downloaded the form and sent it in the post along with a cheque for £5 and have been eagerly awaiting news back.

 

Well today they got back to me with a brown envelope full of paperwork, Sadly they only keep information up to 1976 as the DVLA went computerised in 1974 and as my car is a 1972 it would have been registered under the old system which was by the local council or registration office and they haven't any earlier information on my car before that.

 

They did tell me that the registration would have been originally allocated by Monmouthshire County Council (i know it comes from Chepstow when new anyway).

 

I then got a list of the last 7 owners (inculding me) names and address and dates the car changed hands and photocopies of every log book back to 1972.

 

They have also enclosed a booklet with a list of every car owners club in Great Britain, which is nice.

 

I recommend giving it a try if your interested in finding out about your car, It's only £5 so it's hardly expensive.

 

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItO ... G_10016794

[Lord Sterling]

Sounds great, I've always wanted to try it, might cost me about £20 for the 4 cars I have. One of my cars, a 1995 Rover Sterling has had about 15 previous owners before me on 2008. I know the last owner, a collector, and I think the previous owner, so I'm wanting to know the last 13 owners and why it changed hands so many times.

 

I'll have to check if they accept any other form of payment as I dont do/have checkbooks.

[dollywobbler]

Rather bizzarely, I have the entire history of the BX already! It started off with Cowie Interleasing (snapping its speedo cable at 16k miles, great quality!) then was bought by a chap in my village who ran it until I bought it last September. I keep meaning to drop in and see the bloke, but I'm not sure he'd be impressed with the stripes...

[trigger]

I had a pretty good idea on the history anyway from old receipts but it's nice to have it all in black and white, The first owner from Bulwark had it from 1972 until 1992, The second owner from Poole only kept it 6 months before selling it to the next guy also from Poole who had it until 2005, Then a chap from Bingham in Notts had it 15 months, then a chap from Donna Nook in Louth for 2 years then the guy i bought it from in Hertford who had it a year.

 

So it's well travelled!, I'm tempted to write to the last owners with some photos of it to see if they are still alive or have any more stories about it.

[Louise2cv]

I've wondered about this... is "I want to know" enough of a reason for section 4/5? What do you put in Section 4? Forms make me nervous

 

I do know the last owner of the aggro did some research, I've got a letter from the owner before him:

 

...the car was bought and was a special order from a local garage in Eastbourne and was owned by so the cliche goes an "old lady"...up until the late 90's...

with regards to the TV appearance it was I understand a 2004 TV dramatisation of Jonathan Coe's 2001 novel "Rotters Club"... I think the car was used as a prop in a production line scene along with other early Allegros obtained by the club

 

but it might be nice to get "the official" side of the car's story.

[trigger]

They would be able to give you the last owners addresses so you could contact them to ask.

 

As for the form I just put that it is my car and i want to know it's history for personal reasons.

[Lankytim]

I keep meaning to do this for the Audi- its had about 675 owners! For a fiver a pop I may as well do it for the Allegro, too.

[Rusty Pelican]

deleted

[Maestroman]

I sent the V888 off for the Cambridge a month ago, so I'm due that brown envolope any time now

 

Hopefully it will show me what happened to the original registration number.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Ive done this a few times , Ive had letters saying history is incomplete when it was , I think the computorised bit did loose a lot of info , from what ive experienced if the original owner / purchaser still had it when the pooter thing happened then its a complete histoy , if not it isnt

 

My 1970 car had a change of owner before computerisation, but I still got the complete history. I think it's just a massively patchy thing.

[mattblack]

Might try it for the Sceptre, and the Rover, come to that. I have the original green log book for the Sceptre, It was first registered to a woman in Berkshire. Strangely, the handbook has the PDI as done by a dealer in Guildford, Surrey, but it has been stamped by a dealer in Farnborough, Hampshire...

[seth]

I should give this a go with the Oxford, Herald and particularly the Borgward really. I susupect I know more about the ownership history of the Hillman than they do having had a nice cup of tea with the chap when I went to see it!

[Station]

What type of thing should one expect to receive, if, for example, I applied for my (frigging) Astra. What type of documentation do they keep, and how do they get it?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

It's just the old V5s.

[oldford]

I got the results back for the application that I sent in for my Sierra. I was particularly interested in who owned the car first and what I have found out is ironic to say the least.

 

For background, from 1983 when I passed my test to 1989 when I left for Hatfield Polytechnic I worked for an agent for Europcar, during the holidays in 1990, 1991 I worked for another car hire company Eurodollar.

 

The ironic thing is that the first recorded keeper of my May 1991 registered Sierra was Europcar, Bushey House, High Street, Bushey, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD2 1RE. I once attended a course there where we were given the guided tour and even sat around the boardroom table drinking coffee. The car was supplied by Godfrey Davis Welwyn which was less than 10 miles away from where I was living at the time.

 

So I have an ex daily rental car, they had it for 5 months, so it would have had around 10,000 miles on it when it was sold. I know exactly how it would have been treated and it's a credit to it's susequent owners that it's still going, no wonder that I can never seem to be able to drive it at 60mph, it always creeps up to 80ish and the outside lane as well.

[Anglevan]

I've done this a few times, when i did it on my first anglia i wrote to the previous owners and enclosed an SAE I got a few replies but nothing interesting. Then I had another Anglia and did same again, first owner got in touch and wrote me a really nice letter and sent a picture of the car when they had it (still have the letter and picture but sadly car now sold on)

On my current fleet I found the original number of my Anglia estate (lost it's number in the eighties) and that number is now on a BMW 7 series (I want it back !!!! the number that is) Turned out my Anglia spent most it's life on the Isle of Wight then in Cornwall now in sunny Yorkshire !!

My Capri was a company car for it's first 3 years - registered in Portsmouth

My Camper was a hire van for it's 1st year then owned by Brownhills of Newark then 2 private owners before me. I know where the previous owner lived and I keep meaning to pop in see if they are still there.

Can make interesting reading, and old Singer Chamois I had was a driving school car and showed 3 colour changes in it's history (which I could tell to be honest) Met up with an owner from 1974 !!! he was well chuffed it was still on the road.

 

Would really recommend it - The Anglia was the best one as it's had quite a few previous owners so made an interesting read.

[Pete-M]

I've not done this yet, but I've had cars where the previous owner has, and it's worth the fiver.

 

Not got anything that needs it at the moment. The Jag was originally owned by Cellnet as wheels for the managing director, it had the reg "M1 CEL" at the time and it has copies of all the old V5s in the history anyway.

 

The SD1 was originally from London, but wasn't owned new by anyone interesting.

 

The 406 isn't interesting and was originally a fleet car.

 

The Escort has three previous owners. Father and son until 92, one chap after that and it has been off the road since 93 anyway. A V888 wouldn't be any use anyway as the old German logbook lists the keepers anyway, and remarkably it has f.s.h.

[HMC]

I can recommend the service, especially if your car has patchy paperwork. I do it as a matter of routine, its allowed me to fill in gaps- occasionally Ive made contact with former keepers and had old photos or paperwork forwarded on. especially if the car had a big list price when new, its gradual descent though various hands tells a story

Not always positive tho- I got pics of my minor having been been rear ended in a smash.

With the xj40 a former Keeper who had bought it sans service history 10 years ago did it. It usually comes with a first registration sheet that lists the supplying dealer. I rang them;they sent me a duplicate service book. It filled in a missing wadge of service history when it was a wafting an MD around london.

[autofive]

back in the early eighties, when new cars werent selling very well, there was a scam involving the major manufacturers registering new cars with hire companies who warehoused them for a while then sold them back to the manufacturers who sold them on as 6-month old 'ex-demonstrators' at a cut price. your car could be one of these

 

a lot of hire companies sent cars to be registered in Jersey, then straight back to southampton with only delivery miles, new car exported to Jersey, used car arrives back on Uk mainland - nice tax dodge and helped to shift a few cars too

[Mr Lobster]

back in the early eighties, when new cars werent selling very well, there was a scam involving the major manufacturers registering new cars with hire companies who warehoused them for a while then sold them back to the manufacturers who sold them on as 6-month old 'ex-demonstrators' at a cut price. your car could be one of these

 

This still happens an awful lot.

 

If you go onto the forecourt of virtually any franchised dealer, the 6-12 month old stock is mainly ex rental or vehicles the dealer / manufacturer has registered. They won't admit that of course.

 

I can tell you of a couple of places where there are an awful lot of brand new, yet registered cars sat just waiting to be sold on as ex demo / management cars.

[Richard]

I know that most ex-demo cars aren't, but for the life of me I cannot understand the logic of pretending a car is second hand when it isn't.

[autofive]

I know that most ex-demo cars aren't, but for the life of me I cannot understand the logic of pretending a car is second hand when it isn't.

 

to move stock, and fiddle the sales numbers

[Mr Lobster]

Reclaim an awful lot of VAT as well. If a new car is registered as a rental it becomes VAT qualifying hence the 'buyer' can claim their VAT back.

[Pete-M]

Indeed, and the buyer can get a £17k list price car for £13k without really trying... Skoda do great deals, and the cars are good so it's a good deal for everybody.

[Richard]

I still don't get it. It looks to me as if they are cheating themselves and I know that isn't happening.

 

My dad bought an ex-demo Peugeot 207 last year. After he'd signed the dealer had to order the car and keep it for three months before he could hand it over. They seemed quite open about the jiggery pokery that was involved but I still don't see how it benefits the dealer (maybe it doesn't, they went bust just after my dad got the car). It seems like an expensive way to fiddle sales figures.

[oldford]

In 1988 at Europcar car groups A, B, C & E were to be released for sale at 7,000 to 10,000 miles, so that'll be at 14 to 20 weeks old. We would report them and a week or so later there would be a transporter sent to collect them. Despite this, they were not getting rid of enough cars out of the area, so the mileage was lowered to 4,500. At least it kept our fleet fresh, we used to get a weekly transporter of new ARG stuff, that did skew the workshop figures a little. We were left with some vehicles below the upper sale mileage band of 17,000 to 20,000 miles which we endeavoured to send on one way rentals, I remember one particular roughish Montego that we sent one way to Heathrow airport, only to get the sodding thing back a few days later on another rental.

[Mr Lobster]

Its still the case today generally, that if you want a really tatty, problematic rental vehicle, the one that the branch are desperate to get rid of, book a one way hore. Preferably going a fair distance.

 

I recall a lot of customers who booked small, economy cars to go one way to Scotland found themselves driving Kia Magentis Autos, Ceratos, Ssangyong Kyrons and other deeply undesirable-for-rental stuff. They thought (for the first few minutes at least) that they were lucky with their free upgrade.

[Mr Lobster]

Its still the case today generally, that if you want a really tatty, problematic rental vehicle, the one that the branch are desperate to get rid of, book a one way hore. Preferably going a fair distance.

 

I recall a lot of customers who booked small, economy cars to go one way to Scotland found themselves driving Kia Magentis Autos, Ceratos, Ssangyong Kyrons and other deeply undesirable-for-rental stuff. They thought (for the first few minutes at least) that they were lucky with their free upgrade.

[oldford]

We used to have a few Mercedes 300 SEs come in on one ways, when the airports ran out of Sierras or similar. We had one complaint from a customer who had been upgraded to a new Rover 825i (they had only been out a few weeks), he was not happy about the extra fuel it used over the Maestro sized car that he booked., I've got the spare set of keys to that car, now to find D101SUD.

[Pete-M]

When I worked for Avis we would always send anything Korean on the long one way hires.

 

Oh, and anyone who tried to blag a free upgrade by specifically ordering a small auto with adjustable lumbar support would always end up in a white V plate 3.0 Hyundai Sonata we kept specially for 'em. They'd come back a few days later, skint from fuelling the bloody thing, and looking very pissed off. We had that thing for months as everyone who pissed us off used to get it as a 'free' upgrade, but nobody ever actually asked for it.

 

The normal upgrade would have been into a 2.5T Volvo S/V70, but there were a small group of people who'd always try the 'small auto with lumbar' trick, and they got the High'n'dry Sinatra or a Lantra if they were lucky. Occasionally we'd actually have a Clio auto, that would piss 'em off as well.