SCD 913 H, grey van photographed in 1984

[Leonardo]

Hi folks,

During my 1984 summer holidays I was cycling in the area of Bexhill, in the south of England. I found an abandoned Morris Minor Van, left in the verge alongside the road. At least, it looked abandoned. It was in a quite poor state. It's registration number was SCD 913 H.

I wonder if this car still exists, and if the current owner can be traced down. I made three pictures of the car, and would love to share them with the current owner.

Anyone who knows the current owner: please let him/her know I'm trying to contact him/her.

You can also send me an email if you have any information or if you are the current owner: info@leomartinus.org

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,
Leo Martinus, The Netherlands

[geoberni]

Hello Leo
We have a vehicle check system in the UK for Vehicles, which is far from perfect, but has some uses....
You may or may not be able to access it from abroad. https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk

But essentially your vehicle still shows up on the system as being registered, even though it's been untaxed since 1986.

This means that one of several things has happened to it, in the most likely order...
1 - it's been scrapped in 1985/86, but the correct process of notifying the authorities wasn't followed
2 - It's off the road somewhere in a garage, barn or even a field
or 3, it was exported without notification to the authorities.


The authorities don't seem to care about these ghost vehicles, they just stay in the database, nobody contacts the last registered keeper and asks where it is...

SCD.JPG (108.76 KiB) Viewed 637 times

I know of 2 past cars of mine that are still on the database.
A Vauxhall I sold in about 1983, the Tax expired in 1992.
A Mitsubishi I sold in 2004, has been untaxed since 2005, but I know that the Pole i sold it to took it to Poland...

So I think your grey van is no more.

[Leonardo]

Thank you very much for this detailed information!
I have checked the website you mentioned. I do have access to the system. Some other Minors I photographed during that same holiday all show "Untaxed" with the latest taxdate of 1 september 2000. There was a nice almond green Traveller (OPJ 194 E) in Lexham, Kent, which I photographed. That one now has the status "Untaxed" and tax due date 1 october 1986. Would that mean that these cars are all gone now? Or used for spare parts, or still hidden in barns waiting for a better life?

In The Netherlands, cars older than 50 years (all Morris Minors) are free of tax. I remember when I bought my own (made in Holland) 1968 Morris Minor 1000 in 1985, it was only a few years later (1988) that I didn't have to pay tax any more (the limit was 30 years then). Is there a similar tax-free system in the UK?

Maybe somebody else could tell me what happened to SCD 913 H? Had I known it was just left there to die, I would have rescued it and brought it to The Netherlands. It was in a poor state, but not too poor; restauration was at that point still possible.

With kind regards,

Leo Martinus, The Netherlands.

[geoberni]

Hello Leo

The current UK system requires all vehicles to be taxed, but if over 40 years old you can apply for 'Historic Vehicle' class which has a zero fee.
However, you can't claim Historic Vehicle Class if:

• it’s used for hire or reward (for example, it’s used as a taxi for paying customers)

• it’s used commercially for a trade or business

If it's not been modified too much from the original specification (there is an list of acceptable changes), then Historic vehicles are also exempt the annual vehicle test, the 'MOT' that you will see mentioned in the forums and also shows on that website alongside the Tax date.

[Leonardo]

Thanks a lot for your information! That's great help!

Kind regards,
Leo

[POMMReg]

Started life as U240320 of TM Brighton