daern

There hereby follows a tale of woe and misery from someone who will *never* again put a private plate on a new car. Picture the scene...

About two and a half years I bought a brand new, Belgian import 206GTi from an import company in Accrington. The car was sat on their forecourt, looked lovely in Firedance (metallic orange to non-Peugeot people) and was a good price as it was the last of the 2000 cars (Peugeot did a model change in Dec 2000 for 2001). I bought the car and, because my old 306 had a private plate on it (TAZ xxxx), I agreed to transfer my private plate across to the 206 when it went for first registration. All went well, and I took delivery in the first week of Feb 2001.

Now skip forward to the end of July 2003...

I had put a deposit on a new S for 1st Sep delivery, so I thought I had better flog the Pug. Sent the docs to the DVLA in Preston to have the private plate put on retention until I could think of something else to do with it.
Sure enough, 2 weeks later the docs came back from the DVLA with the new registration number and tax disk...The buggers had put a 'V' plate on it, rather than the 'X' that it deserved!

After much swearing and cursing at their ineptitude and also because time was running out as I wanted to sell before the new car arrived, I drove the Pug to Preston DLVA to have it out with them. After some queueing, the conversation went like this:

DIF> You've put the wrong plate on my car. See it says "first registered Jan 2001" and you've put a Sep '99 plate on it!
DVLA> Sorry about that. I'll go and sort it
(5 minute delay)
DVLA> Nope, it's right. See, your V5 says "First registered Jan 2001 (decld manuf 2000)"
DIF> So it does. But surely a car sold in Jan 2001 would be made in 2000. Even so, it was first registered in 2001, so it's an 'X'.
DVLA> Nope. We think it was pre-registered elsewhere and therefore gets the oldest 2000 plate we can find. i.e. 'V'.
DIF>

After much arguing, they agreed to "look into it" with the result that after a week they removed the "decld manuf 2000" bit from the V5 and gave it the 'X' plate that I wanted.

The moral of this tale: If you get a brand spanking new car, don't put a private plate on until you've had a normal plate on it otherwise the DVLA might you around like they did me.

Ade

Oops - both our cars have had private plates from new.

Sorry to hear about your problems, daern, at least they sorted it in the end.

daern

My advice. Check your V5 to make sure it says "New at first registration" and nothing else. If it does, I suspect you'll have no problem. Apart, of course, from the fact that the DVLA estimate 6 weeks for cherished transfers at the moment. Bloody slow...

Ah well, the S will have a '53' plate on it

W6DAN

6 weeks ? Thats crazy.

daern

[QUOTE]Originally posted by W6DAN
[B]6 weeks ?

Grayprice

In my case that was just the queuing time at the DVLA!

baptistsan

Why are all government departments so inept? Do they not have targets for $hit like this? Wouldn't tolerate it any where else.

Welshman

I had a similar experience when trying to put a plate on retention. Although the plate had been purchased at a DVLA auction when they issued me with the V5 I didn't spot that it had "Not transferable" on it. The local office refused to issue the retention certificate even after Swansea had admitted it was their mistake and removed the "Not transferable" tag from their computer. Their jobsworth advice was to apply for a new V5 on the basis that my existing V5 had been "lost".

If these people were employed in the private sector they wouldn't remain employed for long!

Dog Biscuit

When I sold my car and plate separately, the car was registered correctly as an 02 for 1st March 2002 without any problem.

However getting the plate to Cheshire's car was an entirely different story but eventually successful!

cheshire_carper

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dog Biscuit
[B]However getting the plate to Cheshire's car was an entirely different story