Conervting an estate to 7 seats - do I have to adjust my V5

[Music Guy123]

Hi,

Firstly, I hope I've posted this in the correct area of the forum, if not, apologies!

I've got a Volvo 940 and wanted to put the rear seats that go in the boot in it. A lot of these cars came from the factory with 7 seats but as far I know mine didn't, however, it should still have all the mounting points. Therefore the conversion is a basic bolt in from another car. So, who do I have to notify if I add these two seats in? Is it just my insurance or do I need to do something on my V5 (which doesn't have any mention of a seating number)? Also, the insurance have no knowledge whether it's a 5 or 7 seater car as far as I'm aware, it specifies 0 seats on the insurance document actually.

Any advice would be much appreciated,

All the best.

[bomma220]

The number of seats should be stated on the V5, it's on the vehicle details (section 4) between 'type of fuel' & the 'wheelplan'.

I would inform the DVLA (section 7 on the V5) & your insurance company to be on the safe side, these things do have a habit of coming back & biting you on the bum if you don't...

[TooMany2cvs]

bomma220 said:

The number of seats should be stated on the V5, it's on the vehicle details (section 4) between 'type of fuel' & the 'wheelplan'.

The field's on the V5C, but it's rarely got anything in. Don't forget that the V5C contains a lot of things that aren't relevant to every class of vehicle, just some. The number of seats will be relevant to buses, not cars.

OP - I wouldn't sweat it. It's not as if the V5C says it's a five-seater. Insurers normally ask how many seats there are, and you'll want to declare it as a modification (because it is).

[anothernameitist]

bomma,

Do they bite you on the bum if you are in the new seats too???

[bomma220]

anothernameitist said:

bomma,

Do they bite you on the bum if you are in the new seats too???

In my case yes they probably would as there's often a German Shepherd in my estate car!

[Music Guy123]

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave the V5 alone, the number of seats section on it is blank. I'll let my insurance know, hopefully shouldn't cause any problems.

Cheers for all the help, hopefully should be able to sort something out.

[r11co]

FWIW we had a Peugeot 307SW that had the ability to add two extra seats although only 5 were supplied. V5 listed it as 7-seater as did insurance documents.

I'd be letting both know - 0 seats is clearly an error!!

[TooMany2cvs]

r11co said:

I'd be letting both know - 0 seats is clearly an error!!

It doesn't say the car has zero seats. It'd say that if there was a zero in that field.

[eltax91]

Music Guy123 said:

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave the V5 alone, the number of seats section on it is blank. I'll let my insurance know, hopefully shouldn't cause any problems.

Cheers for all the help, hopefully should be able to sort something out.

I'll bet the premium goes up. More chance of a bigger com-pen-sa-shun claim init due to extra bodies in the car during a crash.

[r11co]

TooMany2cvs said:

It doesn't say the car has zero seats. It'd say that if there was a zero in that field.

Music Guy123 said:

it specifies 0 seats on the insurance document actually.

[TooMany2cvs]

r11co said:

TooMany2cvs said:

It doesn't say the car has zero seats. It'd say that if there was a zero in that field.

Music Guy123 said:

it specifies 0 seats on the insurance document actually.

D'oh. I missed that bit - I was thinking of this bit...

Music Guy123 said:

I'll leave the V5 alone, the number of seats section on it is blank.

[Music Guy123]

It doesn't specify on the V5 as zero seats, it is just blank which is quite usual for a 20 year old car as they didn't tend to fill in all those details. The insurance document states zero but it states that for all the cars in the fleet so that's pretty normal too. I've contacted the insurance and am awaiting a reply, they are usually pretty lenient and I would be surprised if it is a problem

[Music Guy123]

Also, the insurance didn't ask the number of seats when they gave the quote.

[Gary29]

I changed my car recently, and when giving the details of the new car (RS Megane) they asked me if it was standard, and then asked how many seats it has, I don't remember ever being asked before, surely if it's standard it has the same number of seats it rolled out of the factory with?

[r11co]

Gary29 said:

I changed my car recently, and when giving the details of the new car (RS Megane) they asked me if it was standard, and then asked how many seats it has, I don't remember ever being asked before, surely if it's standard it has the same number of seats it rolled out of the factory with?

Maybe because with certain models of car the manufacturers are now offering the option to add a third row of seats or delete back seats? You would think the insurers would be clued-in enough to know which do and don't, but easier just to tell their agents to ask the customer and put the onus on them.