Stockpiling...

[grifterkid]

I was looking at a thread on here about build-dates and it got me thinking...

My Toledo was registered on the first of January 1976 so it stands to reason that it was built some time towards the end of 1975, or does it...?!

I wondered what the Triumph stockpile situation was with 'our' cars (and other Triumph models of course) way back when...?!

Could it be the case that my car was built many months before it was registered? Does anyone know what the longest period between build and registration of a Dolly or Tolly was...?!

Just a thought...

[DoloWIGHTY]

I think it's also dependent on industrial action as to when a car was finished and finally sold.

Not so much at the Plant where they were assembled but at the component manufacturers as they had a huge impact on when a car could finally be completed (and knew it). You couldn't sell a completed car if it had no carburettor.....

[grifterkid]

That is a very interesting point as I suppose there could (and there probably was!) a stockpile of cars awaiting completion... I never even thought of that!!!

However, I'd like to know if there was a 'planned' stockpile of completed cars ready for dispatch at any moment! Maybe when the stockpile got too big 'dealer specials' were created to shift units...?!

It'd be interesting to know when my Toledo was built as I'd love to know how long it was sitting around before being registered...

[cliftyhanger]

get a heritage certificate? should tell you.
I suspect at that stage, it was more there were far more toledos and dollys around waiting to be sold than buyers. They just got left at storage (probably open, as they are today) awaiting buyers, or many would have kicked about showrooms. I believe some cars sat for more than a year...

[xvivalve]

A lot of production, particularly for the Sprint took place in the early years. Cars were indeed stockpiled in fields around the Country and it was often a case of first in last out, so early build cars were indeed registered late. I heard of one such storage facility near Southend of all places, where the lag in some cases was over two years; apparently it was common for cars to have to have vegetation cut from within the engine bay before they could be moved!!

[Howard81]

My Sprint was built in July 1978 but sat around until it was registered in Edinburgh in January 1979. Right slap bang in the winter of discontent!

[DoloWIGHTY]

Have a Google of "Triplex Dot Code" this will allow you to decipher when the glass in your car was manufactured. Do all the glass ( as some may have been replaced).

Once you have the date of your glass ( which will be very close to the assembly date of the car) , then see when it was registered and you should have your answer .

[grifterkid]

Thanks for the info' on the Triplex 'dot code' system, that is fascinating Dolo'...!!!

I know that there were huge stockpiles of the Rover SD1 at one stage but I think that was just down to Rover not being able to sell them when the woes begun...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can just picture a field full of Dolomite Sprints...

[sprint95m]

Further to the observations made,
back then it was possible to have cars remain at dealers for long periods before being registered (or sold).

For example, when I went to school I passed by a showroom which had two Dolomites on seemingly constant view.....
eventually the blue 1850HL became PSK1W but it was another year before the red 1300 became SSK218X.

I also remember a Talbot Sunbeam locally that when finally sold was issued with an "A" prefix





Ian.

[RobSun]

My 1300 was built on the 14th May 1980, close to the end of production, despatched on 20th May 1980 to Hartwells Oxford (so no sitting round in a field) and sold by them and registered new on 19th October 1982 in Oxford.

Some suggest that this possibly makes it the last Dolomite registered. Does anyone know? DVLA say that they care unable to pull this information off their databases.

[Maidstonerob]

When I left school I did a couple of years as a YTS trainee mechanic at a Peugeot Talbot main dealer. One day I was sent to clear an area of the new car storage garages that had been used for archive storage.

In one of the bays behind all the boxes was a dusty but proper New old stock Morris Minor. Some how forgotten and never sold it had only the delivery miles on it.

I clearly remember the mechanics scratching their heads over the positive earthing system.

I remember slide hammers bolted to the bigends to free the engine.

It ran when free and sold for a mere £2000.

This was around 1990-91. Now Im no fan of the Minor but would of thought it would have fetched loads more if advertised in the right place.

Can only guess what a Dolly Sprint could of fetched in the same situation!

[Jon Tilson]

I remember dolomite production ending. At the time my Landlord ran an R plate 185HL in Inca and I think I had just
got hold of his first saffron one from 72, which I mostly still have....but that's another story.

Anyway we did a phone round of a few dealers in early 81, the Landlord being quite disgusted by the Acclaim. We were told that all there was left was a couple of non HL 1500's, so he didnt progress. I have seen the odd X plate Sprint about, but it does look like yours
could be one the last sold.

Jonners

[Howard81]

I've seen a Dolomite on an A-plate, 1983.

[RobSun]

Thanks Howard that clears that question up and at least i will be able to give an answer to all those who come up to me and ask.
It raises a related question, when I joined the dolly club I was informed that only one Y reg Dolomite was known about. Is this it or is there another somewhere? Are there any "newer" surviving out there?

[Jon Tilson]

I had a Y reg'd 1500 Spit. I re-registered it from a NI plate myself. Back then insurance co's loaded cars with
NI plates because of the troubles, so you couldn't keep a car on an NI plate easily on the mainland.

I suspect that a similar thing happened to the odd dolomite. Jersey and Guernsey cars also had to be re-registered and this happened to a friends Triumph 1300 fwd, which looked a little odd on a X plate IIRC.

Jonners