Car History..

[TBGolf]

Around 1 year ago this month I bought a second car for myself, a MK3 Golf GTi (the unloved sibling I know!). The car is pretty sound, and whilst I haven't done a lot of miles in it this year - the car is dead at the minute, wont unlock or turnover so is currently SORN - I have enjoyed the fact you can have a mess about yourself, whilst knowing you don't need the car to get to work the next day.

Anyway, said car came with no history really - a few receipts from the Barnsley area, which lead me to believe the car has lived most of its life around there - the car was bought from Rodley in Leeds with a reg plate from Quarry Garage, which is in Huddersfield. I find myself questioning, is there any way to find an old cars history, where it has been, etc, aside from the online MOT check? The car doesn't have any of its original paper work, and I wonder if anyone knows a VW contact that could look this up? Might be a really stupid question, there may be no hope in hell, but I'd love to know more about the car if possible.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, both on the finding of history, and the current non-starting, non-unlocking problem - It has a new battery, and all fuses are fine so not that!

Car reg is R129 EAD, Blue (I can't seem to even match the colour code online, despite having it from the spare wheel well) MK3 Golf GTi.

[Dr G]

VW customer service can tell you about any history they have on file but at that age they will likely have little if anything. They'll confirm colour too.

Club GTI Facebook page worth asking if anyone knows or has owned it.

[Trev450]

Form V888 from the DVLA website is to apply for the names and addresses of all previous keepers of a vehicle. IIRC it's about £5 for the service.

[TBGolf]

Dr G said:

VW customer service can tell you about any history they have on file but at that age they will likely have little if anything. They'll confirm colour too.

Club GTI Facebook page worth asking if anyone knows or has owned it.

Thanks for the reply - much appreciated!

I will give VW Customer Service a message, and see if they can find anything at all for me.

Clud GTI is a good shout - I've never been on there, so will explore that too!

Thanks again

[TBGolf]

Trev450 said:

Form V888 from the DVLA website is to apply for the names and addresses of all previous keepers of a vehicle. IIRC it's about £5 for the service.

Thanks for that - I didn't even know that form existed!

Will look into it.

[AlexRS2782]

TBGolf said:

Trev450 said:

Form V888 from the DVLA website is to apply for the names and addresses of all previous keepers of a vehicle. IIRC it's about £5 for the service.

Thanks for that - I didn't even know that form existed!

Will look into it.

Unfortunately Trev's advice is no longer 100% accurate as due to the GDPR changes in 2018 the DVLA can no longer release the names / addresses of current / former owners of vehicles as it would be a data breach. They'll only do that if you have reasonable cause and that is designed to be used for instances of things like a vehicle involved in an accident driving off, or abandoned on your private property, trespassing, etc.

The details for the form are here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/v888-re...

As mentioned above, you'll need to have a read of the "reasonable cause" link to see whether your request would be considered acceptable or be rejected in whole or part.

[TBGolf]

I think your right Alex, my request wouldnt fall into any of the categories on the form. As you say GDPR has probably put a stop to it all.

I've managed to find the starting problem, was a completely dead battery, so that is now on charge! Colour wise the the sticker from the boot seems to show LZ5T, which looks to be the VW code for Europa Blue. I cannot find that Europa Blue was ever an option anywhere on the GTi, only on the cabrio! The car has always been a GTi, sticker confirms that too.

Thanks for your responses, I've emailed VW Customer Service, so will see what comes back.

[Trev450]

AlexRS2782 said:

TBGolf said:

Trev450 said:

Form V888 from the DVLA website is to apply for the names and addresses of all previous keepers of a vehicle. IIRC it's about £5 for the service.

Thanks for that - I didn't even know that form existed!

Will look into it.

Unfortunately Trev's advice is no longer 100% accurate as due to the GDPR changes in 2018 the DVLA can no longer release the names / addresses of current / former owners of vehicles as it would be a data breach. They'll only do that if you have reasonable cause and that is designed to be used for instances of things like a vehicle involved in an accident driving off, or abandoned on your private property, trespassing, etc.

The details for the form are here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/v888-re...

As mentioned above, you'll need to have a read of the "reasonable cause" link to see whether your request would be considered acceptable or be rejected in whole or part.

That's a shame. Thanks for the update though, Alex.