What happened to the DVLA in '77

[Cam]

I sent off to the DVLA for my car's history a short while back.

Today, I received some photocopies of the previous owner's logbooks.

It says that I am the 6th owner, BUT when I look back through the logbooks at the 1st and 2nd owners, it says:

previous owners since april '77

There is more info included which lists a garage and two other owners prior to '77, so am I the 8th owner??

Did the system change in '77?

[an_avenger]

I've heard that the DVLA did go through a change to their 'log book' scheme, round about the late 1970's. Apparently it was due to a wave of fraudulent claims and applications - so they streamlined the scheme to make it 'apparently' failsafe! Obviously with any new system there must have been a mistake on all updated log books.

[Daddsie]

I noted that with mine, I guessed it was the same owner being booked twice, once on the old recording system and once again on a V5 at the changeover.

[screwloose]

Bit late on the reply, but not long joined in here! In terms of the DVLA, yes the sytem did change in 77.

If you have sent off for a 'fee paying query' and sent your £5 cheque they should send through ALL the previous log book copies to first registrations. You can then work out the dates yourself, ignoring those bits that say 'two previous owners prior to 77' etc. They were rough notes added during the change-over period. You should be able to glean a fairly comlete record from first reg through to you in chronollogical order.

Have you had any luck tracing those early owners? I did this with my Landy and managed to get a good bit of history including some photos from the 70s!

Good luck!

[Matt]

There used to be a little green logbook - which was actually a book, when the dvla computerised themselves (presumably in '77) you had the option to give them the old book or not, the previous owners of your car obviously chose not to, and be the 1st on the list.

[gwr6024]

Hello Cam,
Having recently purchased a morris 1000 saloon I was interested in finding out its history. It appears from your message that you can send to the DVLA. Is there a special form and do you have to send any money?! I was going to post this as a general question but I feel you have the answer!

[Cam]

Yes you send a cheque for a fiver to the DVLA:

Vehicle Record Enquiries, Vehicle Customer Services, DVLA, Swansea SA99 1AJ

You also need to quote the registration number of the vehicle and giving the reasons for your request (historic interest I always put).

I have done this 3 times now and after a couple of weeks you get a postcard saying that they are working on it and after another couple of weeks you get an A4 envelope with the photocopied old log books (the photocopy quality is not great but it is readable).

[RussLCV]

From 1971 records were started to be placed on the DVLA and from 1977 ALL vehicles were on and it was from then (1977) thatthe system was live and the V5 replaced the LOG book for all vehicles, that is why the phrase '6 since 1977' appears on the V5, the rest is possibly on microfiche ( well normally)

Hope this helps