Is this not called ringing!

[PHUQ]

The V5 isn't even his to sell- they belong to the DVLA, not the keeper! Other than that he's not actually doing anything that wrong- unlike whoever buys it and nails it to a car, at which point the car only becomes about 0.01% of what it's registration document and chassis plates state it is and therefore falls slightly short of the required points tally

I wish my car was tax exempt but no- she's a '74 which means I've paid more in tax since I've owned her than she's actually worth such is life- at least the Marina is cheaper to run than the Jag was, and I had to pay tax on that too... I certainly wish they had kept it running but, in these frugal times, I think we're lucky to still have it at all really.

[Kilroy]

I have watched this thread with interest.

Obviously, mine is a NZ perspective, but this is what I think.
In many ways, our system is like yours. If you do not 'register' your car for use on the road - which requires it to have a current 'warrant of fitness' - and all of these details are on the Land Transport computer system - then you must place it 'on hold'
This is free, and keeps the plates 'alive', so that at any time you can re-register it by obtaining a wof.
If you fail to either 'register' or place 'on hold' for 12 months, the plates are removed from the system and can never be put back.
So - if you revive a car which has lost it's plates, you must get it re-vinned (vehicle inspected), and this process is very thorough, and makes grown men weep.

Quite frequently, cars are offered on 'Trademe' (eBay equivalent) with no plates, and even though they are quite desirable, nobody will bid on them because of the perceived problems involved with the expenses and mechanical requirements to have new plates issued.
Besides that - most buyers looking for a 'classic' car, do not want it adorned with the later type plates.
Sound familiar.?

So.
I have bought, and subsequently wrecked, a number of Marinas that still had live plates, but which were in such a bad state that they could never be economically repaired.
I did just buy them for spares, but appreciated that they had significant value because they were still in the system. You find this out when you change the ownership.
At the same time, I have seen many a sound car destroyed because it was going to cost much more than the car was worth to put it back on the road - even though it was a really good example.

For this reason, I have kept the numberplates and the chassis plates from those cars, and should I ever find another car that is the same model and colour, I will have no hesitation whatsoever in grabbing it and swapping the identities.
None.
Zilch.
To be fair - once the value of Marinas can sustain the costs of doing everything the 'proper' way, that may change, but I'll be damned if I will watch a perfectly good Mk3 get crushed because it has no plates.
They are far too rare to let that happen, and sometimes you just have to push the envelope of what is 'illegal', and what is 'immoral'.

I far prefer to operate within the law, because I sleep better.
But that will not stop me from exercising my freedom of choice over the situations where the law is just an ass.

Apart from that - fine really....

[PHUQ]

Not quite the same here Kilroy- it's very unusual for a car to have dissapeared off of our registration system here. It's only if a car has been declared scrapped or if it was off the road before our system was computerised (which was a long time ago) that it's identity can be lost. Or if someone has taken the identity of a tax exempt (pre '73) vehicle and nailed it on to a later one of course...

In any of these cases, I have no problem with the identity of a genuinely dead vehicle being used to resurrect one that can be saved. The one I have a problem with is removing the identity of a tax exempt vehicle to make a later vehicle appear exempt- which almost always results in the original vehicle dissapearing.

[locost_bryan]

If you fail to either 'register' or place 'on hold' for 12 months, the plates are removed from the system and can never be put back.
So - if you revive a car which has lost it's plates, you must get it re-vinned (vehicle inspected), and this process is very thorough, and makes grown men weep.

Technically, dead plates stay on the system, but the Status is set to "Lapsed" or "Cancelled". But you're right, they can never be made live again ("Active"), and iirc it's $700+ to be re-vinned (Ben would know ). A car that is in original condition and up to wof standard should be straight forward , according to the NZTA fact sheet. But if it's been restored or modified...

For this reason, I have kept the numberplates and the chassis plates from those cars, and should I ever find another car that is the same model and colour, I will have no hesitation whatsoever in grabbing it and swapping the identities.

I'd have no hesitation in considering that as a "reshell". Where it gets messy is when the donor has a different engine or body type, which leads to all sorts of insurance or wof problems (beyond the messy legal questions of a "rebirth" , but it gets treated as a modified vehicle and needs to be certified ).

[crashbang]

my mk1 shell was cut in half by a lamppost and with no saveable mk1 shells around and debs mk3 about to go the the scrap yard i had to save it although it was to young to enter historic events so most of the mk1 bits was put into the mk3 shell and the back end and front end had to be modified back to mk1 the only bit i haven changed is the dashboard which i wish i can do at some point i dont like the mk3 dash but this car is for competing not a every day car so it may not live for long any way the windscreen has a crack in it from jumps off bridges so its twisting up all ready

[JoshWard]

There was a J reg VIN and V5C on eBay a few months ago. Disappeared not too long after it was reported.

I know of a nearly new Landy Defender locally registered as a Series 2 and therefore tax exempt.

It's amazing how many Mini, VW Camper and Escort VIN plates crop up on eBay! The number of 1990s 1960s Minis I have seen for sale beggars belief!