IVAs and the clampdown on modified cars.

[ZetecVan 2.0]

I read over on retro rides last night about the hoops car modder Andy Saunders had to jump through to get his modified Bentley through an IVA test.

 

For those who don't know, an IVA test is like a kit car SVA test but for modified production vehicles. It's a new thing and it looks like it's being implemented very badly by VOSA, the Government and DVLA.

 

Apparently, from 2012, it will be illegal to modify a car manufacturered after that date. MOTs will have a tick box to say whether a car is modified. If so, it will have to be put through an IVA which costs hundreds of pounds.

 

This is what happened to Andy when he tried transferring the cherished number.

 

 

MAIN FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE NEW GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION FOR MODIFIED CARS.

 

1) DVLA are targeting kit car events, 4X4 events, hotrod and custom shows, American car shows etc etc and collecting reg numbers of things that they don’t think should be on the road, placing their reg numbers of the targeted vehicle on the computer so that when you go to tax it the post office aren’t allowed to issue you the road tax.

 

2) With in the next couple of years the MOT tester will have a legal obligation to place a tick on the modified vehicle box on the computer screen, this will in turn generate a DVLA inspection of which is just bull shit, but so ridiculous that no vehicle will pass it with out huge amounts of red tape work

 

3) As from 2012 it will be illegal to carry out any modifications to a vehicle registered 2012 or newer. No spoilers, etc

 

4) The test is £450 with a £90 retest fee of which the slightest little thing that the tester doesn’t like is subject to another £90 retest as many times as he feels is required

 

5) The test as it is now is retrospect 10 years. Read on for my personal experience.

 

Six years ago when I finished the chopping my Bentley ( mentally insanne ) I had a letter from a Mrs Rhiona Richards at Swansea asking me to send her information on the car so she could decide if the car should be inspected, I sent a dossier to her and never heard another thing so I taxed it and used it for 5 years with out a single problem. Sept 08 I applied to take the cherished no from it and this is where the trouble started.

 

1) Stuart, an office worker from bournemouth DVLA, with no real knowledge of cars was sent to inspect it. He decided (completely on his own) that the cars was not fit for the road and he confiscated my V5, over riding a decision made by DVLA policy 6 years previous.( copy of all letters available)

 

2) Stuart requested from me details of Mrs Richards’ decision because DVLA no longer had records of my corrospondance between myself and Mrs Richards.

 

3) Stuart, the unqualified office worker has the power to destroy people’s professional work without as much as even getting a second person to inspect the vehicle. I requested over and over that someone else should have a look at it but dvla were happy with stuart s decision.

 

4) When I asked Stuart if he had looked at or inspected any of the other modified vehicles on display in Beaulieu’s ‘Art of Custom’ display, he replied “NO” I asked “Why not, there were 10 other heavily modified vehicles there you could have done all at the same time.” He replied “These were not brought to my attention by a number plate transfer as yours was?” ( this contradicts the whole idea and practise of their own ideas)

 

5) In a conversation with stuwart on oct 11th @ 10.30am when I asked him about his technical abilities he replied with and I quote “ that’s not my area of expertise, all I did was check the vin, I am not mechanically trained to give opinions, hopefully dvla will see sense and come back with the right decision. Unquote.

 

6) At a meeting with John Dyer in Dec 08 John asked me to ‘grass up’ a person I know that was given an age related plate on something that shouldn’t have had. According to my friend, the young girl doing the inspection had no idea what she was doing.

 

7) John Dyer has ignored my question ‘why was Mrs Richards’ decision overruled’ every single time I asked him.

 

Miss McDonald, the area manageress for the south west fails to answer the same question was an acceptable answer.

 

 

9) Miss McDonald ignores all of my attempts to explain to her about all of the vehicles on the road that have experienced modifications, such as mine, stating “that’s not what we’re discussing here, these vehicles haven’t been brought to my attention, and until they are I’m not interested.” So it is the same scenario as with Stuart – Surely if you are applying rules to one, the rules should be applied to all.

 

10) Steven Alexander ( of Swansea chief executives office) in letter form ignores the same question as John Dyer and Miss Macdonald ( copy of letter available)

 

11) I was asked by DVLA to get an independent letter to confirm the cars build quality and strength. This I did by having a long established Bentley expert complete me an inspection and statement. This was refused by DVLA. Yet after seeing the two bumbling idiots carry out an 8 hour test on my car I find it hard to understand why?

 

12) When I said to Stuart how unfair this decision was and that I would complain, he replied with and I quote “I hope you get somewhere, because the system is a mess and nobody really knows that they’re doing. This might help clarify things for us.” Unquote

 

13) Stuart tells me that if I choose Q reg, I don’t need an SVA test.

 

14) DVLA’s letter states that I must have an SVA to get a Q reg. Of which it transpires that I cannot take cause the car isn’t aligable for an SVA ( copy of letters available)

 

15) I requested a meeting with Mr Shanahan to try and explain my situation – it was ignored.

 

16) I have written to Mr Shanahan five times now, requesting a signed personal reply – I have not received a single letter signed by him. ( copy of all letters available)

 

17) One letter from Mr Shanahan is unsigned all together – this I find an insult.( copy available)

 

18) According to a computer expert, Mr Shanahans signature cannot be forgotten on a template letter, it had to have been removed.

 

19) Mr Shanahan has ignored my question ‘why was Mrs Richards’ decision overruled’ three times.

 

20) I received a letter from DVLA which said that if I wasn’t happy with the decision, I could ask for an appeal, which I did. My solicitor and I both received a letter saying that my appeal was being prepared. I then received another letter saying that they thought the handling of my case was satisfactory, so my appeal was no longer being lodged. ( copy of letter available)

 

21) In one letter from Mr Shanahan, it says that my language expressed to the Bournemouth Staff would not be tolerated, and that it had done nothing to help my case. But as a democratic country, I feel that Mr Shanahan stating that my attitude and feelings are liable to jeopardise my case is wholly unacceptable. Mr Shanahan is infringing on my human rights with this statement.( copy of letter available)

 

22) I enquired to the SVA testing station in Exeter I am told by Byron the SVA tester himself that a vehicle such as this CANNOT receive a Q plate. It will go back to its original number plate, contradicting both Stuart and the DVLA email.

 

23) I received a form stating that vehicle reg number Q___LEL must be registered SORN. The vehicle has no V5 or DVLA record so how can it have been allocated a Q ? As the vehicle at that moment was without a V5 it doesn’t exist? ( copy available)

 

24) I had no option but to apply for an SVA test, after applying I had a phone call from Mark Vickers (head of VOSA) asking me about the category I had chosen to be tested in. Mark said that it was not a professional build as that was for cars built ground up, he said yours is a modified production car, I agreed. He said ‘sorry Andy but there is NO category to SVA modified production cars’. Four people at DVLA said I had to get an SVA test to get a registration document and yet it wasn’t even allegeable to do so. Mark stated in this conversation and I quote " off the record Andy I feel so sorry for you but there is no answer, DVLA have taken it off the road and under SVA there is no way forward" this conversation took place march 19th 2009.

 

25) February 09 I wrote directly to the independent complaints assessor, a Dame Elizabeth Neville DBE QPM, she point blank refused my complaint because for her to do anything about it has to come from Noel Shanahan at DVLA( copy of her reply available)

 

26) I wrote to my MP asking if he could lodge my complaint with the government ombudsman. His reply stated that he would but the process would be slow as the government ombudsman “was swamped!”

 

27) I lodged a complaint with the Government ombudsman. There findings were that although everything was flawed it was not important enough for them to follow up.(copy available)

 

28) February 26th I managed to tax the car at the local post office even thought the car has no V5 document or record at DVLA ( copy available)

 

29) I had no option but to take the new IVA test. Which is a new test brought I to play on April 1st 09. I filled in all the forms correctly and asked for a no delay service, it was returned by post stating I had not given the correct answer to one question even though I had asked them to phone me if there were any problems.

 

30) I was subject to the IVA test on 2nd June; it took 8 hours for two men who hardly knew the front from the back of a car. The seat belt anchorage points were the main concern of Mark Vickers, this inspection took about 3 minutes, the other 7 hours and 57 minutes were spent making it look as though there job was of some kind of service to me.

 

31) The two testers spent from 8am till 8.40am bickering between them selves on how I should obliterate the old chassis number from the flitch panel.

 

32) The two testers had a coffee break from 10am till 10.45am.

 

33) The day after the test I had a phone call from the tester (Bryan Dean) stating that he had posted the failure list but had forgot to ad the rear hub assembly and that he had re-written the list and could I ignore the first failure.(both copies available)

 

34) During the test I was told that the side repeater flashers were failing because they were too sharp and the exhaust tail pipes were too long and sharp. Neither of these items appeared on the failure list.

 

35) At the time of the IVA test the car had chopped coil springs, this was not noticed.

 

36) During the test, Brian stated that plastic could not be used for the side windows at all. I phoned him the following week about what I should do about this and he said phone Mark Vickers straight away cause there has been a significant amendment on glass.

 

37) On the retest Bryan did not check the chassis number stamped into the body under the bonnet, he did not check the hand brake of the car for operation on the rolling road, both of which were on the failure, neither did he check the side repeater flashers or the tail pipes , but he did say most derogatory..."oh dear oh dear oh dear" when I told him that I had removed the front fog lights. He seemed absolutely dismayed when his little round ball would not go through the holes that had been left by their removal.

 

38) It took Bryan 45 minutes to fill in my certificate. The certificate only had 45 boxes and 14 of those were N/A. ( copy available)

 

39) The car was MOT’ed the following day and it failed on the O/S track rod end being so dangerous it was about to fall off, there was NO mention of this at any point what so ever, yet regarding the mot side of faults the washer jet had been failed on the first test? The track rod end was so bad that I would not have driven the car there if I had have known. ( copy of failure and worn track rod end available)

 

40) According to Bryan the car is now up to 2009 spec and as such will be registered as such and yet it doesn’t get a 2009 registration number, it gets a Q reg. At the end of the test the tester takes pictures of every side of the vehicle

 

Just a foot note, here are a couple of other interesting facts and stories regarding the inconsistent way that dvla enforce their ridiculous plans and how some are already being made to break the law just to enjoy the freedom of their hobbies.

 

There is a Cobra kit car for sale in this area, it was built about 3 years ago, it is fibreglass, it has a box section chassis etc etc , it was inspected by another local DVAL expert ( like stuart) but this time she had so little idea of what was going on that the owner has been issued with a V5 document stating that it is a 1965 COBRA. I have seen the car and the documentation.

 

Last November there was another similar case to mine which I was asked to get involved in but it was at the time when my dad was in hospital dying of luekhemia , I was just unable to think what my name was let alone help someone , but this guy went onto to fight his case as far as he could. He is local to me and he had built a daewoo matiz pick up for work, he filled in all the V5 stating what he had done and sent it to dvla, they wrote back saying they were confiscating his V5 until he had taken the SVA test, he like myself applied for this but was refused because there are no catogories for small commercial. This man did manage to get two write ups in the local Bournemouth Echo but to no availe, he sold the vehicle as scrap.

 

That pick up is back on the road wearing different registration plates. I have a photogragh of it in its new owners drive.

 

If any one has any questions regarding this statement I will be pleased to help or assist where ever I can, please give me a ring on ********** as something needs to be done now !

 

 

 

ANDY SAUNDERS

 

 

 

Heres the link to the thread.

 

http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... read=63919

[Guest cortinamad-gonetoo]

have i read it properly is it only cars after 2012 that it affects or will the mot tester have to put our cars as moddified

 

like yours zetecvan you having the zetec in a anglia

 

and mine being a 20 when its supposed to be a 1.6 and i have alloys on should have steels etc

 

i hope its not becoming like abroad in germany you cant moddify a car atall

[ZetecVan 2.0]

It affects our cars too. It's happening now. Andy Saunders is a case in point.

[BIGKEV]

Shit

 

Not good

 

Looks like the Jiffy Bag System will be coming into full force.

[Takeshi]

As a few on my mates/relatives says on the subject of me liking older cars, I think this applies universally now...

 

"You were born 10 years to late."

 

[mk1super]

What a load of shite Goverment is a joke

[Davewrc]

This country sucks balls

 

I'm not sure how much the modified car parts market it worth but it going to go shi!!er if this comes about. That means loss of jobs at uk based companys as there is no demand for aftermarket performance parts.

 

I'm not going to take this as gospel until it happens but usually historic vehicles are exempt for this kind of thing.

[ocean wasp]

Before everyone starts freaking out, read all of the link to the RR site thread. Theres some very good info on there from a member of ACE.

The points system, that has been in use for years, still applies. So unless you are doing some major mods, including roof chops or part spaceframes, chances are you will not need the new test.

Read up on the points system, do your sums

[tim]

id be intrested in seein a picture of this Bentley to see whats been done to it

[Slammed]

oh ffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

is this for real??

 

what harm are we doing exactly? are they gonna stop us having a hobby altogether? i seriously better just tosh my car together and use it if this is coming in on 2012

[over_head_cam]

Europe here we come

 

 

 

Legislate, monitor and keep us all safe yes. But don't force us off the roads

[caprinerd]

its just another goverment scheme to get old cars off the road,if you have an old car and mod it to handle and put amodern engine in it then its going tolast longer than the modern crap made out of tinfoil and recycled credit cards,

[Vista]

Europe here we come |

 

Many places in Europe are much much worse mate, in most european countries you face mountains of bureaucracy for something as simple as uprating your brake hoses to braided ones.

[Slammed]

Europe here we come |

 

Many places in Europe are much much worse mate, in most european countries you face mountains of bureaucracy for something as simple as uprating your brake hoses to braided ones.

 

should be america here we come, dont see them doing it, well tbh the rod and car scene is so big dont think it will ever happen as bad over there as it has happened over here in europe

[over_head_cam]

Europe here we come |

 

Many places in Europe are much much worse mate, in most european countries you face mountains of bureaucracy for something as simple as uprating your brake hoses to braided ones.

 

That's what I meant Scott. We might as well drain The Channel and be part of the mainland as this isn't great Britain anymore, it's just anothe division of Brussels inc.

[Vista]

Ah, gotcha. I thought you meant time to head over there for an easier ride.

[5hane]

edit: Read it and what complete bull ! theres a damm LOT of cars with modifications on them out there - what will all be un roadworthy according to this then ???

[over_head_cam]

I think a check of modified cars at Vosa test stage is a good idea. It would help keep the bodgers and chancers off the road and stop them crashing into my children when the brakes fall off. But the bureaucracy and red tape, not to mention the probable extortionate cost will quite likely ruin our hobby and the people who's jobs depend on it.

 

Or it won't happen and everything will be OK

 

 

If it does though, its USA here we come Scott ;)

[Vista]

If it does though, its USA here we come Scott ;)

 

I think I'd opt for NZ or OZ long before I considered the US. At least they drive on the correct side of the road.

[over_head_cam]

And have less guns

[Vista]

And have less guns

 

Don't know about that, the cops are armed in both OZ and NZ not sure how easy guns are to come by for the public though. The roads in NZ are so quiet compared to ours over here.

[over_head_cam]

We could always build a brick wall over the end of the Chunnel and start an OSF revolution

[5hane]

I think a check of modified cars at Vosa test stage is a good idea. It would help keep the bodgers and chancers off the road and stop them crashing into my children when the brakes fall off. But the bureaucracy and red tape, not to mention the probable extortionate cost will quite likely ruin our hobby and the people who's jobs depend on it.

Or it won't happen and everything will be OK

If it does though, its USA here we cme Scott ;)

 

yer, thats what i had before i edited my post.

 

It will be damm hard to enforce if it does happen though ! Most peoples (males mainly) first cars have a modification of one thing or another.

[zetecmk2]

Qooltina !!! no no no

[BIGKEV]

This Sucks Donkey Dick