Obtaining Official Citroen Info For My Car - For First Time Dvla Regis

[Lord Morbius]

First of Hi there, this is my first post (and perhaps my last depending on the outcome... but lets hope not!).

 

I've recently picked up a 2002 C5 2.0HDI estate... for £250!

 

My intention was to use it as a large, comfortable, practical run around... safe in the knowledge that if anything major went bang I'd have little to lose. In any event I've owned many cars and this one has the feel of one which might prove cheap and pretty reliable (fingers crossed).

 

Now to the problem...

 

This is a left hand drive Spanish car. It has been lying in a local yard (where a number of mechanics, bodyworkers and a small scrapyard works out of) for around two years. It has not been registered in the UK (still on Spanish plates - 2646 BXK) so has exceeded the 6 month period whereby a foreign car can legally be in the UK, so will most likely be subject to import duty... but hey - it is a 13 year old £250 car so how much can HMRC realistically expect me to pay?

 

Anyway...

 

I contacted DVLA to enquire about UK registration, the chap was very helpful and told me I needed three things...

 

A copy of my drivers licence - I have that.

A certificate of insurance - I can arrange that.

The original Spanish log book - this is where the problem begins!

 

All I have for the car is some paperwork including a Spanish MOT from 2011 (they do them every two years over there, which means it would have been due again in 2013... presumably when the car was brought to the UK). The story I have (unconfirmed) is that the owner came to the UK to work around two years ago, went home again and did not take the car back with him. So one way or another it ended up lying in this yard until I bought it about two weeks ago.

 

E.U. beaurocrats in their infinite wisdom introduced a relatively recent law saying that any car registered in the UK should have a document called a certificate of conformity. This is a handy thing to have because it means that the car does not need to undergo an expensive independent inspection to ensure that it conforms to UK laws.

 

Even better news is that this requirement only applies to cars less than 10 years old, and my car is 13 years old. I mentioned this to the bloke at DVLA and he told me that all I then needed was something from the manufacturer stating that my particular vehicle ( VIN No. VF7DERHZB76245250) was manufactured in 2002. Oddly enough, the date of manufacture (or maybe first registration) is given on the Spanish MOT certificate I have - 26/6/2002, and although this was probably taken from the log book, it is not from Citroen so presumably would not suffice.

 

So it seems that all I need is confirmation from the manufacturer as to when my car war built, but when I phone Citroen UK they keep referring me to Citroen Spain to obtain a certificate of conformity (COC) which I alread know I don't need!

 

I have now learned that there are several online companies who know who to speak to and can provide a COC at a nice profit for up to £200... almost what I paid for the bloomin car!

 

All I need is an email or printout from Citroen giving the date of manufacture for my car, surely there is some way to obtain this and avoid being taken for a ride?

 

I have a nice car here which has low miles and might keep me mobile for god knows how long but this apathy (on the part of Citroen UK) might mean I have a lemon on my hands and will have to scrap the car, which seems such a waste.

 

If anyone can tell me how to get a confirmed manufacture date from Citroen at reasonable expense or otherwise obtain info as to my car's date of manufacture then I'm all ears because otherwise I am at the end of my tether.

 

Understand this was a long post so apologies and thanks for your patience.

 

Regards - Mervyn.

[paul.h]

Welcome to the forum.

 

You can use the car VIN in the Citroen parts diagrams (a free service) and it gives the details of your car and the warranty start date of 26/6/2002 which will be when it was first registered. So I would have thought this would be enough. It is listed as a 2.0 hdi 110 bhp, estate, 5 speed manual gearbox and paint code EZR aluminium grey. There is also the type approval number BER e2*98/14*0220*01 which appears on registration documents. You can print this out and then show it to the DVLA (or what the current name is).

 

To get this info you need to register on the service.citroen site as another professional and a member of the Citroen Owners Club. Then use your VIN (VIS) top left in the search box and then look in the left column for the Characteristics and the details of your car will appear (as well as the parts diagrams). The actual date of manufacture will be a bit before the registration date but usually the various parts have a date of manufacture stamped on them such as plastic trim and windows have the date on them in the form of dots and maybe a number. http://service.citroen.com/pages/index.jsp

 

As well as the paperwork I would think the headlights will need changing for ones from a right hand drive car.

 

On the C5 Technical section there is a pinned topic of Common Problems worth looking at.

[Lord Morbius]

Aww that sounds exactly like the ticket, can't thank you enough... will check it out and let you know how i get on.

 

Yes have already had a peek at that problems thread, it's a fantastic resource... and one or two of the items on it already sound familiar lol!

 

Yep need headlights (£45 on Ebay) also need a new speedo dial (marked in mph not km/h... but i think that's about it.

 

OK, off to check out this imfo, many thanks again - Mervyn.

[paul.h]

Beware that if you replace the speedo cluster with one from another car, the car will adopt the mileage (km) of the higher of the old/replacement speedo. There are places that may be able to sort this out but you would probably need some documents to prove the car is not being clocked. If taking the speedo apart there is some info here that may help from the Common Problems topic:

 

19. Speedometer stops working.

The motor at the back of the speedo can be replaced to fix this - see http://www.citroen-o...ometer-repairs/

[Mike3a]

If you require your speedo in mph, one can  buy from a breaker the dashboard panel which is clipped in ( I think i used a credit card to help slip it out, not pay someone with it) There is one multi pin connector in the middle of it and out it comes.  Remove the cover

by releasing the clips and replace the plastic film with printing on, if the same model ie manual or auto petrol/diesel then you will have the original dash in mph but odometer in km.  If you replace the dash (the engine should run)  then the odometer will  be set to the higher reading of the new dash and on board computer (this prevents one from clocking the vehicel). Not sure what the odometer would then

read ie km or miles.