Declaring your mods to VOSA

[GrahamU 6]

Was talking to a guy this morning who used to have a Corsa with a 2.0 calibra engine fitted and uprated brakes/suspension to suit, unfortunately he was a silly boy and didnt declare to the insurance, got pulled and had the car taken away and crushed.

 

The nice policeman told him that the car was so modified that it should have been declared a kit car.

 

This concerns me a little asI have replaced the engine, suspension and brakes on my rado. If you look at the ukgov site there is a page dedicated to radically altered vehicles and states

 

'Radically altered vehicles are vehicles that have been altered from their original specification, but aren’t kit conversions.'

 

 

 

 

So I'm wondering what other people make of this and what they may have done, if anything.

 

If the police think that an engine change along with uprating the brakes and suspension is radically altering the car then that would affect alot of people and I'm surprised I've not heard about it before.

 

Discuss...

[joebloggsVR69 0]

What's there to discuss, you make mods, you need to declare them to you insurer.

Simple as that :)

[emu 0]

There is a place in your V5 to fill when you change your engine.

[chaos3oe 0]

These regs have been in place since the 70's, there is a points system you have to stay within. If you drop out of this you lose the registration number and have to have an SVA and you get a Q plate. Most people have been uninformed or just ignored them. One most worrying is a monocoque vehicle must have an original unmodified shell, how many 4wd conversions have Q plates? Even clearancing bulkheads/inner arches for engine swaps or bigger rims fails it, as does fitting a cable change box in a MK1 or MK2 Golf.

 

Lots of info on the ACE website http://www.the-ace.org.uk . Lots of other stuff worth reading which could spell the end of our hobby but no one seems interested..........

Edited April 28, 2013 by chaos3oe

[GrahamU 6]

Cheers chaos.

 

two of the points are for suspension, does this mean if you change to coilovers, poly bushes etc you should inform the DVLA or VOSA?

 

 

Joebloggs, I wasnt talking about insurance, that to most people goes without saying

[16VG60 1]

Bless the day that the bureaucrats put in place more rules than people to uphold them! Just think of the financial loss to the aftermarket motor industry, and the queues outside every SVA testing station!

[chaos3oe 0]

AFAIK the only thing you need to tell DVLA is the new engine number if you change that. Unless of course you change to a different wheel pan axle type, but then you'd be modifying the body anyway making it irrelevant.

[rado mc 0]

Do you think most of this is given the blind eye treatment by the law, as low priority?

 

Most likely the guy in corsa prob clowning about pushing his luck like most of those do, so he was stopped and taken apart by a peeved off copper?

[seanl82 23]

Yeah I'm glad your mate had his car crushed, spells it out to all those that don't declare Mods, that they are in effect driving without insurance!

 

I think this should be a bit more loose though with regard to declaring it to the DVLA, as Suspension, bushes, and brakes are not gonna make the car go faster.

They are actually all going to make the car safer really. None of it either really detract from the overall look of the car, and this is obviously something the Police will be more interested in when trying to identify a Vehicle. A Corsa with an Audi TT body kit is not readily identifiable, unless the Operator on the other end of the Police Radio has "Chavved up piece of ****" in their drop down menu when logging the report! :lol:

[MarkFoster 0]

Lads, lads, you're missing a fundamental point here; it was crushed because it had a Vauxhall badge on it.....!

[Henny 0]

DVLA only need to be informed of any change of engine number, engine capacity and the actual colour of the car, unless it's changed so radically that you can't tell what the car is, in which case a conversation with DVLA is probably advisable (like that monstrosity of a Corrado that had the MKIV Golf front end grafted onto it... :( ) Things like having your car wrapped in a different colour are a very grey area, as technically you should inform DVLA of the change of colour...

 

Your insurance company needs to be informed of ANY modifications that alter the way the car will handle, accelerate, brake or look... If not, you'll find that you're driving without valid insurance and could be in very hot water if you are involved in an accident... :|

[Kevin Bacon 5]

AFAIK the only thing you need to tell DVLA is the new engine number if you change that. Unless of course you change to a different wheel pan axle type, but then you'd be modifying the body anyway making it irrelevant.

 

Only where the engine is a like for like replacement.

 

If you change to a different type of engine (e.g.VR6 to R32, 16V to 1.8T), you now have to send to the DVLA details of who supplied or fitted the engine (or both) on their headed paper, along with your V5 form.

 

It's what I did with my R32 conversion and the V5 came back 2 weeks later with a BDB engine no (R32) and no questions asked.

 

It did make me feel so much better driving it knowing it complied with current legislation, which is always a grey area with modifications.

 

I'm still not convinced carbon panels don't need type approval and / or an SVA test, so I never went down that road.