Know anything at all bout N-reg Maestros?

[D87SMW]

I'm currently in the process of registering the new Maestro. The DVLA provided me with the forms and told me I needed:

Insurance (Which I have)
MOT
ID
* Date of Build (Which I don't have but the Club may be of help)

So I am insured on the car and when I took it for MOT they would not test it as they didn't know the year. Also, if they did test it as a 1995/6 'N' car it would fail as it hasn't got a catalytic converter fitted. My question is, if there are several hundred other N reg Maestros going about in the same way, how are these cars tested at the MOT?

Avoiding this emissions business, I'd have to register it as a kit-car (visible testing) - but wait. It's over ten years old so cannot be taken for an SVA for kit registration!

* Date of Build:

Another point I'd like to raise is that the list of chassis numbers I've heard about for these Apple 2000 cars should help me narrow the date of build down to the very week by my calculations. Can anyone provide me with such information?

I've one week left insured on F170 so time is running out. If the car isn't registered very soon, it will be more or less pointless owning it, it would only be coming back off the road before October anyway. Sometimes I wish I'd bought that gold Astra 1.4i LS instead...

[Guest]

Hmmm, ok theres two easy(ish) options I can see that may get you round this.

First, fit a cat. It would be possible if you can get the parts, but costly.

Second, if you don't know the age of the car (i.e when it was built), and no one can shed any light on this, or prove it any which way, then how about making it such that it was built within the last 10 years, take it for an SVA test, and bobs your mothers brother.

However, registering it as a kit car, would mean an increase on your insurance.

[Wetfish]

What's to say you didn't build it yourself in your garage, it is possible. Buy a shell, get bits and pieces that fit and you got yourself a car, just say you started two years ago and finished last month. Who can prove otherwise, unless they read these forums of course.

[Guest]

You could register it as a car thats over 10 years old, if theres no way to prove when it was built. The last Ledburys were registered as G reg to avoid complications over emisions rules.

[D87SMW]

Rodacar Maestro

I now know more about how the N reg Maestros get through the MOT, thanks to anther enthusiast and the advice from someone who owns one.

[Austin-Rover]

Well, are you going to share it with us here who are interested?

[Beaker]

So it will be going on an N reg then and not a 07?

[E_T_V]

The emissions test will go on the engine number at a guess if it doesn't have a manufacture date. The Apple cars will be registered with an exemption I'd have guessed which will mean they only have to pass the idle 3.5% CO limits.

[D87SMW]

The emissions test will go on the engine number at a guess if it doesn't have a manufacture date. The Apple cars will be registered with an exemption I'd have guessed which will mean they only have to pass the idle 3.5% CO limits.

That appears to be correct, Dan. It's just proving this exemption to the DVLA and MOT stations...

[G51 NAV]

Did you ever take my advice, given to you a week ago on MSN, to phone my local MOT station, Greenwoods MOT Centre? They only do MOTs so they know the law inside out and their advice would give you ammunition.

As I explained to you, just ring them and say that you're a friend of John and Wilma Orrell who own the red Maestro Turbo. Tell them you've just acquired an unregistered LHD Maestro built in around 1996 for export (they don't need to know all the exact particulars), and because it was built for export it doesn't have a cat, so does that mean it will fail the MOT by default? This would have taken 10 minutes of your time and would have given you an answer to a question you have been banging your head against a wall with for a week.

The common concensus from people I have spoken to here is that your MOT tester is just being as twisted as two left feet and there is in fact no MOT requirement for your car to have a cat so long as its emissions are within the required thresholds.

[D87SMW]

Did you ever take my advice, given to you a week ago on MSN, to phone my local MOT station, Greenwoods MOT Centre? They only do MOTs so they know the law inside out and their advice would give you ammunition.

Even better than that, called Apple 2000 Ltd. directly. Apparently they never did sell any unregistered cars...

But, as well as telling us that the paperwork for the Maestros was thrown away, he said that the cars came with exemption certificates for the emissions test, so that they were tested to 3.5% CO criteria - as Dan mentioned. Does any other Apple 2000 Maestro owner have one of these I could possibly see/borrow?

I'll get onto the VOSA who Apple 2000 said issued them with these certificates. Maybe they'll have record of this to go by...

[Guest]

If Apple 2000 didin't sell an unregistered car, why do you have one then.

[Chris Y]

I think that's why he's going to contact VOSA...

[Guest]

Get the DVLA to ring up Apple 2000

[Chris Y]

:laugh: :laugh:

Seriously, you might as well ask the sun not to come up in the morning..