Undeclared engine changed vehicles for sale...

[Its Marc]

I realise that this will divide opinion but having twice been in accidents involving uninsured drivers it boils my urine how often it's happening.

Generally it's on local car sales pages on Facebook as it's usually kiddy cars I'd never normally look at on here or eBay etc

Things such as "2.0 redtop but still registered as a 1.2 so super cheap insurance"

I've done some stupid things in my past that I'm not particularly proud of but this is ludicrous often accompanied by standard brakes and cut down standard suspension. :-( Is there an official police email address or page I can send links to where it'll actually be looked at? I've tried the "send us a report" function on various regional police web pages but never heard anything back from maybe a dozen or more reports.

Some of you will now be thinking that I'm a grass and yeah I see your point, put yourself in my shoes though, fully legal yet thousands of pounds out of pocket, not really fair is it? Links appreciated?

[Durzel]

If you're going to make yourself guardian of all things uninsured I hiope you don't have a day job. You probably drive past at least one person every day who isn't insured, and more that aren't declaring things they should.

Not saying that your cause isn't valid, or that uninsured drivers aren't a threat on the roads and impact our premiums, but it's a pretty grim war to try and fight yourself.

Incidentally someone not declaring mods may still have third party cover.

[lbc]

Its Marc said:

I realise that this will divide opinion but having twice been in accidents involving uninsured drivers it boils my urine how often it's happening.

Perhaps you should take more care.

[Noisy]

I was under the impression that if the mods aren't declared the cover is reduced to third party only, so means you'd still be covered if they hit you?

[marshalla]

Maybe you should start here : http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[LoonR1]

Its Marc said:

I realise that this will divide opinion but having twice been in accidents involving uninsured drivers it boils my urine how often it's happening.

Generally it's on local car sales pages on Facebook as it's usually kiddy cars I'd never normally look at on here or eBay etc

Things such as "2.0 redtop but still registered as a 1.2 so super cheap insurance"

I've done some stupid things in my past that I'm not particularly proud of but this is ludicrous often accompanied by standard brakes and cut down standard suspension. :-( Is there an official police email address or page I can send links to where it'll actually be looked at? I've tried the "send us a report" function on various regional police web pages but never heard anything back from maybe a dozen or more reports.

Some of you will now be thinking that I'm a grass and yeah I see your point, put yourself in my shoes though, fully legal yet thousands of pounds out of pocket, not really fair is it? Links appreciated?

Nope don't believe you. Can you point me to the court case where the TP insurer managed to get themselves off the hook please.

If the vehicle has insurance in place, no matter how fraudulently taken out, then the insurer will honour any damage caused to your car in nearly every single instance. In the extremely rare circumstances where it won't (and that usually involves a lengthy court battle) then your own insurance is there,or the MIB steps in and covers you for all but the first £500 of your claim,

Given you seem to be very unlucky with this maybe you should look for one of the insurers who will let you keep your NCD and not charge an excess if involved in a collision with a truly uninsured driver.

[t400ble]

I help moderate another car related site, we remove any adverts where the V5 engine details are wrong.

[AGK]

Have you ever tried to declare an engine change with DVLA?

[Its Marc]

marshalla said:

Maybe you should start here : http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Great link thankyou, I didn't find that when I searched.

As for the others disbelieving me and saying how hard it is to change it with dvla I'm really not bothered, I'm legal that's what matters. I had a question, it's been answered. Thanks again Marshalla.

[Scuffers]

AGK said:

Have you ever tried to declare an engine change with DVLA?

Yup, used to be straightforwad, now it's a flaming nightmare.

Was easier when you could go to your local dvla offices....

[hman]

An engine swap - ie. like for like should be very easy.

An engine upgrade should have an engineers report - and rightly so!

[Aphex]

how can you tell from an ad what the owner has insured the car as?

I had a 1.8 8v registered mk2 golf that was insured as a 2.0 16v. It was written off and I got paid out with no trouble?

[TrackMegane]

you can still have the car registered as a 1.2 but correctly insured.

[Scuffers]

hman said:

An engine swap - ie. like for like should be very easy.

An engine upgrade should have an engineers report - and rightly so!

Wrong.

There is a points system, modifications below the magic number are not required to be inspected/tested.

An engine swap is not enough points to trigger an inspection.

[aka_kerrly]

TrackMegane said:

you can still have the car registered as a 1.2 but correctly insured.

So your not committing insurance fraud but you are still guilty of tax fraud!

[marshalla]

Scuffers said:

Wrong.

There is a points system, modifications below the magic number are not required to be inspected/tested.

An engine swap is not enough points to trigger an inspection.

Not quite right. It depends on the source of the engine - DVLA may insist on an independent confirmation of the engine number, capacity and fuel type. Not a full engineer's report, but they do want to know exactly what's going in for identity and taxation purposes so they want someone else's evidence.

[AGK]

aka_kerrly said:

So your not committing insurance fraud but you are still guilty of tax fraud!

Not really because the VED doesn't change when you change an engine.

[TrackMegane]

AGK said:

aka_kerrly said:

So your not committing insurance fraud but you are still guilty of tax fraud!

Not really because the VED doesn't change when you change an engine.

Well yes and no. All depends on the age of the car for one and the engine it went from and to. Newer cars it would be a bigger issue but i very much doubt the police would ever check that nor the insurance company.

The fraud would be to the goverment not the insurance company in that instance

[AGK]

TrackMegane said:

Well yes and no. All depends on the age of the car for one and the engine it went from and to. Newer cars it would be a bigger issue but i very much doubt the police would ever check that nor the insurance company.

The fraud would be to the goverment not the insurance company in that instance

2001 was the cut off IIRC.

[Scuffers]

marshalla said:

Scuffers said:

Wrong.

There is a points system, modifications below the magic number are not required to be inspected/tested.

An engine swap is not enough points to trigger an inspection.

Not quite right. It depends on the source of the engine - DVLA may insist on an independent confirmation of the engine number, capacity and fuel type. Not a full engineer's report, but they do want to know exactly what's going in for identity and taxation purposes so they want someone else's evidence.

yes, but that's not an inspection, it's a letter to DVLA stating the source and identity of the engine.

the problem I get now is that they are being somewhat randomly picky about accepting the info they are given.

Really not sure what's behind this, it could just be lack of understanding by DVLA staff...