DVLA date of first reg and year of manufacture - Years apart

[milfordkong]

Doing some checks on a used car and the date of first registration according to the DVLA is 4 years later than the car's date of manufacture - I thought this must mean it's an import but a check on that suggests that is not the case - It seems unlikely it would sit in a showroom unregistered for 4 years so it's a little confusing.

Anybody had any experience of this sort of situation? - Any idea what else could have caused this?

[milfordkong]

Lagom said:

It takes a while to rotate stock when you have so many laying around.

Not sure that's relevant this case - Perhaps should have provided more context, this is a 90s car, it was manufactured in 1995 and the first registration date is showing as 1999...

[milfordkong]

Riley Blue said:

I once owned a '90s Mercedes that had spent the first few years of its life on Jersey. It was registered with the DVLA several years later when it arrived on the mainland so not uncommon.

Ah ok - Thank you (and to the earlier poster who mentioned the channel islands) - This could well be the case then. Any way at all to check on this? the current owner is unaware of the car's history and a little flippant perhaps due to it coming from a larger collection but i'd like to know.

[milfordkong]

droopsnoot said:

Could it have had a private plate (or just a different plate) on for the first few years? I believe the date refers to when this plate was applied to the car - I know a chap with a Viva HA that had the original registration removed, and I think his V5 shows it was first registered sometime in the mid 1980s. Similar scenario to it being imported, really.

Another potential - Interesting the government MOT check states the date registered as 1995 - The plot thickens.