imported cars from USA in 1960s

[Ian ailes]

My MG was imported to the UK in 1964. it was built in 1953 as left-hand drive and exported by MG for sale in the USA. i have the UK log book from 1964 but i want to find who shipped it back to the UK and from where.

are the old import records publicly available to find out who shipped it into UK? if so where can i find them.

[aeropilot]

Ian ailes said:

My MG was imported to the UK in 1964. it was built in 1953 as left-hand drive and exported by MG for sale in the USA. i have the UK log book from 1964 but i want to find who shipped it back to the UK and from where.

are the old import records publicly available to find out who shipped it into UK? if so where can i find them.

Blimey, that's a question....!!

Wouldn't even begin to know where to look for that info, even if its still exists?

Lloyds perhaps worth an enquiry.....if anyone would know if shipping info has been archived and whether that archive was publically available, they'd probably known where?

How do you know it was imported into UK in 1964?

[Ian ailes]

Thanks for your suggestion to try Lloyds Register of shipping. the car was registered in UK in Coventry in September 1964 so would have come through probably Liverpool docks a week or so before.

[aeropilot]

Ian ailes said:

Thanks for your suggestion to try Lloyds Register of shipping. the car was registered in UK in Coventry in September 1964 so would have come through probably Liverpool docks a week or so before.

OK, so you are just assuming from the registered in Coventry in '64 that it was imported just before this.
That might not be the case.

There's a high chance it may well have been in the UK for a couple of years prior to being registered on UK plates, and was being driven around East Anglia on its US plates
Back in the 50's and 60's many US service personnel (especially officers) when posted from USA to one of the many USAF airbases here in the UK back then, were allowed to ship their cars over to the UK with them, and while many were US made cars, a good number of them brought there European or UK sports cars over with them. These were usually brought over in the hold of a USAF cargo plane which back then, were landing at UK bases on a daily basis, so there would be no shipping logs anywhere.
These cars could be driven around the UK on US plates, and in many(most) cases, after a 2 or 3 year tour, they were either sold to another servicemen on base, or most often were sold to a local UK dealer, of which there were many dotted around the USAF bases dealing in yank or other LHD cars left here by US servicemen. East Anglia was awash with LHD cars in junk yards or used car pitches back then, so your car could have come over 2,3 or 4 years prior to '64. It could even have come in from Germany when a US servicemen was transferred to UK from a base there, and he had his car shipped to Germany from USA originally.
I would say, this is more likely than it being imported from the USA by someone from the UK, as would be the case now.

[Ian ailes]

Thanks for your suggestion which makes a lot of sense. The ledger in Coventry states it was imported from France with California plates on it. Another owner told me it was traded in for a new MG by an American. the only one i can find with the same name died in USA two days before the log book was signed in Coventry. he was in USAF during the war but his obituary shows him living in Connecticut in 1964. Not sure where to go next. maybe US military records?

[aeropilot]

Ian ailes said:

Thanks for your suggestion which makes a lot of sense. The ledger in Coventry states it was imported from France with California plates on it. Another owner told me it was traded in for a new MG by an American. the only one i can find with the same name died in USA two days before the log book was signed in Coventry. he was in USAF during the war but his obituary shows him living in Connecticut in 1964. Not sure where to go next. maybe US military records?

Sounds like it was bought off a serviceman based in Germany (no bases in France) most likely when he was returning to US, and it came in from France via the traditional Dover/Calais ferry route, having been driven from Germany.

You won't get anything out of US military records unless you are a relative IIRC.

[Ian ailes]

Thanks AP. your suggestion makes a lot of sense. a later owner told me it was traded in to an MG dealer in Coventry by an American for an MGB. he had to register the car in the UK to be able to sell it. William sold it within 3 weeks. it could have been brought over from Germany via France or been on a USAF airbase for a while in the UK. No other reason to bring it to UK unless he was a returning Brit. Coventry is an odd place to register the car unless he had friends there. the owner was William Allan Bumstead. The Coventry Transport Museum had the old ledgers and told me it was imported from France and the Californian plate was PWH 492.

is there a USAF VA who might have a record of William.

[aeropilot]

Ian ailes said:

The Coventry Transport Museum had the old ledgers and told me it was imported from France and the Californian plate was PWH 492.

Shame you don't know what colour plate it was, as that would give an indication of how long it had been out of the USA, as California changed over to the famous black plates with yellow text for 1963. They had been yellow with black text prior to that. Shame the new UK owner hadn't kept the old Cali plates for a souvenir. Not sure if service personnel had to still get their yearly tags done if car was outside USA on a US base or not?

[Ian ailes]

Hello again AP. I think you have nailed this one. the USAF were in France from 61 to 67 as a result of the Berlin wall so there is a good chance my chap came over and went to Coventry to visit relatives. he took the opportunity to register and tax the car then traded it in for an MGB which he probably took back to USA. Strange that he disappears at that point.

[Steve-B]

Ian ailes said:

My MG was imported to the UK in 1964. it was built in 1953 as left-hand drive and exported by MG for sale in the USA. i have the UK log book from 1964 but i want to find who shipped it back to the UK and from where.

are the old import records publicly available to find out who shipped it into UK? if so where can i find them.

Contact Derek who maintains the TR Register registry search on [e-mail]. He charges a nominal fee to do searches and he’ll let you know what besides original UK registration plate he may need. Might help you locate some historical information. He regularly posts on the TR forum and is an invaluable resource!