Trading in car with private plate on it

[Craigie]

OK I am about to trade in my car at a dealers for a second hand car they are selling.
I want to transfer my private plate over to the new car - dealer is saying that basically need to send forms away and then I would need to go back to the dealer when the paperwork comes through to finalise the transfer?
I would rather not do that as dealer is 50 odd miles away?

According to DVLA website I need to fill out a V317 form and send this away to them - but there is no mention here of them having to deal with the dealer? Or is it maybe something to do with the new car won't be in my name until V5 is processed?

Anyone done this recently and can advise me on the correct process?

[Raverbaby]

I did this a few months ago, was a right pita.
AFAIK this can't be done at a local DVLA office and all the paperwork has to be sent to DVLA via mail.
I let the dealer do it all as I wasn't familiar with the process, it took 2 months to finalise after DVLA and Arnold Clarks blaming each other over paperwork not filled in right.
Hopefully your dealer knows what he's doing better than Clarks!

[markmullen]

You'll need the original logbooks, MOTs and ideally a photocopy of the current tax disk for both the donor and recipient car. Fill in the V317 with you as both registered keepers, add your name in to logbook of the new car as the registered keeper. Send all off to Swansea with a cheque for £80 to DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1DS.

Now wait up to 5 or 6 weeks and hope they don't do something stupid like losing the cheque. They will then send back replacement tax disks and MOTs and a few days or weeks later replacement logbooks for both cars. Send the logbook for the part exchange back to the dealer so they can sell it on, having sent off the yellow slip to take you off as registered keeper of the PX.

[2DDav]

You would be far better off retaining the number that is currently on your car and taking the new car with the current plate with the private plate being put on at a later date once the retention certificate & new V5 document has came back.
Car to car transfers are a nightmare with DVLA at present and something I would advise against.

[Craigie]

It is Arnold!!!!

So does this mean this whole process could take up to 6 weeks during which time the dealer won't be able to do anything with my old car?

Or would it be easier (although dearer) just to put the registration on retention until I get the V5 through in my own name for the new car and then apply?

I see that by doing this the fee is £105 - which I think is the figure Arnold quoted me - maybe they now insisit that this is the process to be followed? Although I suppose either way they can't do anything with my current car until it is re-registered?

Why did they shut all the local offices - I remember it took me 30 mins in total to do everything to assign the new plate to my current car!

[jep]

Another +1 for retaining the plate and then assigning it to the new vehicle at your leisure.

My plate's on retention, and will be going on the new car come the new year.

[Raverbaby]

Craigie said:

It is Arnold!!!!

So does this mean this whole process could take up to 6 weeks during which time the dealer won't be able to do anything with my old car?

I think they need to sort the plates out first before they can shift it, I was told it should take 10 working days for the transfer to be complete, someone somewhere messed it up and it took 3 attempts to process it, all correspondence was by post so was time consuming.
My traded in car didn't get sold at auction for over 2 months from trade in, may be a coincidence but seems a long time to have a car sitting, and was sold a week after my transfer went through,
I know this as the owner contacted me for service history - for some reason Clarks didn't want to take (a quite detailed) service history, I held on to it as I was half expecting to be contacted for it.
Clarks charged me £80 for my transfer, which is the standard DVLA fee I think.
Not sure why they shut local offices down, was a 15min job before.

[550M]

Craigie said:

So does this mean this whole process could take up to 6 weeks during which time the dealer won't be able to do anything with my old car?

Yup. I've heard of one dealer charging a £250 fee for a cherished transfer just for this reason. Apparantly the DVLA have closed all of the local offices, and it can only be done by post through Swansea. Put it on retention.