No Compliance Plate?

[EVOIV]

Hi,

I have a Lancer EVO 4 that I bought off a guy in Melbourne in 1999. The car is a 1997 model.

I am now trying to sell the car and realised that the car does not have a proper "compliance plate".

It does have a black coloured plate that says that the car was imported and that it meets the Motor Standard Act in 1989.

This plate does have the VIN of the car but nothing else.

I'm now trying to sell the car to a guy in NSW and he's told me the car can't be registered there.

I'm now trying to work out under what scheme the car was imported.

I'm aware that private imports or RAW imports should have a proper plate.

But for some reason my car doesn't?

My car is currently registered in SA.

Anyone know why the car doesn't have a plate or under what scheme it could be imported under?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

[DRIFTT]

Hi,

I have a Lancer EVO 4 that I bought off a guy in Melbourne in 1999. The car is a 1997 model.

I am now trying to sell the car and realised that the car does not have a proper "compliance plate".

It does have a black coloured plate that says that the car was imported and that it meets the Motor Standard Act in 1989.

This plate does have the VIN of the car but nothing else.

I'm now trying to sell the car to a guy in NSW and he's told me the car can't be registered there.

I'm now trying to work out under what scheme the car was imported.

I'm aware that private imports or RAW imports should have a proper plate.

But for some reason my car doesn't?

My car is currently registered in SA.

Anyone know why the car doesn't have a plate or under what scheme it could be imported under?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

Post an image of the plate but it is more then likely Race/Rally.

[EVOIV]

Serious? Race and Rally only? Then how can I get it registered in SA as a road vehicle?

The plate only has the VIN and says that it was imported and complies with the Motor Vehicles Act 1989.

It's a black coloured plate.

I was then later given a sticker to put in my car door with reason "no compliance plate".

I'm not exactly sure why I was given this sticker by Transport SA.

[EVOIV]

Hmm, I've since found out that the car is an "REPV import".

WTH is that? First time I've heard of it.

Unfortunately, REPV imports can't be registered in NSW but can be in other states such as VIC or QLD.

Anyone know much about REPV imports?

[DRIFTT]

Wonder you didnt hear about it, was the biggest scam with Re-Birthing cars. So if a 1997 model and was bought 2 years later you more then likely bought it off the guy who re-birthed it.

=================================

VicRoads car scandal hits 3500

By MIKE EDMONDS

20feb03

MASSIVE corruption has been uncovered inside VicRoads that could mean thousands of unsuspecting motorists lose their cars.

Dozens of illegally registered cars have been seized already. Late yesterday, police swooped on two imported 8-series BMWs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Herald Sun has learned 3500 vehicles have been identified by police and VicRoads investigators in the past year as illegally registered.

Corrupt VicRoads staff co-operated with criminal gangs to register thousands of stolen and illegally rebuilt cars.

It is believed the crooked staff received about $100 for every car they falsely registered.

Seven allegedly corrupt VicRoads employees at four branch offices have been arrested and will face court.

More arrests are expected as the full extent of the racket is revealed.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent car owners can soon expect VicRoads notices cancelling their registration and third-party insurance.

It is believed the owners will have no recourse to compensation.

VicRoads investigators are working with police to uncover how far the corruption has spread.

Some staff at VicRoads' Kew headquarters are also under suspicion, according to one investigator.

The Herald Sun was told there are several car theft gangs running the racket across Melbourne.

It is believed the gangs carved up the city, with each group staking "ownership" of a VicRoads office where they illegally slipped cars into the registration system.

"It's like, 'You don't use my contact at this office or I'll come and break your legs'," the Vicroads officer said.

A VicRoads source said some cars were falsely registered even before they were stolen.

"The thieves ring their contact inside and say 'I'm going to steal a white Commodore tomorrow, register it for me, these are the identification numbers I'm going to use'," the officer said.

It is believed some of the VicRoads offices suspected of being involved in the racket have been fitted with spy cameras.

The Herald Sun has been told several people have been caught on video, apparently accepting payments from suspected criminals.

But out-of-pocket car owners are unlikely to get compensation.

RACV chief engineer (vehicles) Michael Case said normal comprehensive car policies would not cover the situation.

"If the vehicle is seized by police it hasn't been stolen, it's not damaged, it hasn't disappeared, so I don't believe there could be a claim," Mr Case said.

"However, car owners who have purchased a vehicle in good faith might be able to take legal action directly against the person they purchased it from, if they can find him or her."

None of the 3500 cars that have been falsely registered are older than five years.

A VicRoads officer said some of the registrations were being dummied up for imported cars, mainly BMWs and Mercedes, while they were still aboard ship on their way to Melbourne.

The officer said the fraud was working so well and the VicRoads computer checks so poor that even Sydney-based gangs were starting to use VicRoads to register stolen vehicles, paying a commission to the Victorian operators of the scheme.

He said some car yards and auto engineers were involved, but most of the illegal vehicles were sold privately.

"It's corruption on a huge scale," the officer said.

"Imported cars need an engineers' report to be registered here, and a proper engineering examination is supposed to take about four hours. Some engineers are doing 10 reports a day."

The officer said there were so many loopholes in the VicRoads system that one set of identification numbers had been used to illegally register 20 vehicles, and no alarm bells had gone off.

Investigators said they had no idea how long the racket had been running, but the 3500 cars identified so far had all been illegally registered in the past year.

Det-Insp Paul Hollowood of the stolen motor vehicle unit said the inquiry was in its early stages.

"It's being done in co-operation with VicRoads themselves and to date a number of people have been spoken to but no one's actually been charged with any offences," he said.

"It's early days in terms of the inquiry, and I would say it will be an on-going one."

A retired VicRoads employee who spoke anonymously to the Herald Sun said the fraud could have been running for years.

"It was happening when I was there; not as sophisticated as now, but still happening," the former employee said.

VicRoads general manager for registration and licensing Geoff Shanks confirmed some staff had been interviewed by police.

"VicRoads has been working closely with police for a number of months as part of an on-going investigation into irregularities with some vehicle registrations," Mr Shanks said.

"Due to the on-going investigation it would be inappropriate to comment further."

It is believed the first people to be questioned about the racket were snared in a police sting.

[Iron Chef]

As mentioned, Victoria had a loophole in its laws that allowed people to bring in whole cars and switch all the parts on to a local model (in your case, a Lancer) and assign a new VIN as the imported car (in your case, an Evo 4). What soon happened was that people were bringing cars over and just rebirthing them rather than swapping all the parts over, and it ran rife until it was shut down.

So one of two things has happened - your car should have the VIN of a local Lancer, or that of a "rebuilt" car (it will have "REBU1LD" or something similar in the new VIN. Either way, I'm amazed you managed to get it registered here - Regency should've knocked it back in a heartbeat. PM me the VIN and I should be able to tell you.

The upshot of it all is that I doubt highly that it will be able to be registered in NSW. You'd need to sell it in SA (seeing it's already registered) or in Victoria.

Edited October 5, 2010 by Iron Chef

[Blitz_boy]

Give us the VIN please.

[JiN_MaN]

Chef - Was there something similar running in SA, in that you could bring in a carbody take your current car and transfer all parts into the imported vehicle and legally get a new VIN?

Or was this only a VIC loophole?

[Iron Chef]

No but there were a few that slipped through the net in SA from Vic before it was all shut down. Plenty of early Evos getting around with Lancer GLi chassis numbers...

[vr4montecarlo]

Years ago one of my mates got a 'stripped overseas and rebuilt in Aus' (hmm...) VR4 from an SA trader. Back then, manged to get NSW rego no problem.