Build to sale delays in late 1976 to early 1977

[Richard the old one]

I purchased my oldest 1500HL new on the 23/4/1977 so am wondering if it could have been built before the 1st of January 1977. Its chassis Number is WC8220DLO. Has anyone info which would help me to decide if it is worth going through the procedure to find out the actual build date for my car.

[Toledo Man]

Richard, as you probably know, a Heritage certificate would give you the answer. If you just want the actual build date you can get a dating letter for £22. I found THIS on the Heritage website which should be of help.

[Matt Cotton]

Hi Richard. I have just sent you an e-mail with a scan of my heritage certificate for my car.

Interestingly, my car was built on 28 July 1980, and not registered until 1 May 1981. It was dispatched to Castle Garages Ltd in Ludlow, however the 1st owner (who I purchased the car from) bought the car from University Motors in Epsom, Surrey!

Obviously sat around for sometime, then possibly a dealer movement to meet the demand.... or lack of possibly during the latter stages of Dolomite production..

MC

[Richard the old one]

Hi Matt.

Many thanks for the details you have provided. It is interesting to see that there was a 9 month delay between build and sale in 1980. I will be having a look at the chassis numbers of my 1980 1500HL dolomites to see how close their build will have been to your car. It will help me decide if it is going to be worth paying for dating certificates for them.

In respect to my 1977 car I am still hoping that a fellow club member will come along and advise on what the delay was likely to be based on his 1977 car.

[Carledo]

A lot of "run out" cars were registered late, simply due to lack of demand for what was, after all, an obsolete car. For a 77 car this does not hold true, build date and reg date may be close or separated by many months. My 73 Toledo 2 door had only a 5 week gap but Rob Marshalls identical car, only 40 odd numbers from mine had a 10 week gap. There is no rhyme or reason about it and the only generalisation I would make is that cars sold in the north and Scotland seemed to hang around longer at the dealers than those sold in the south. The other thing is the matter of the dealer "stock" purchase, cars were ordered by dealers in one of 2 ways, either directly for a customer, in which case the gap would be as short as was possible, or on spec (buying without a specific customer in mind) gaps then could vary wildly. Another consideration, though not so relevant here is the difference between "build date" and "dispatch date", Rob and I both have Heritage certs for our cars, neither give a build date but his comm number (9022) is by my reckoning, about a week OLDER than mine (9063) yet his date of dispatch is over 2 weeks later than mine. I think the only way you will find out for sure is to invest in the Heritage Certificate.

Steve

[Richard the old one]

Many thanks Steve for your detailed response.

It certainly seems as if it will be worth me sending off for a build date certificate.

[Jacob]

Hi Chaps,
Can I just ask what the advantage of you knowing exactly when your car come off the production line is? Is there an advantage to it or is it simply a case of curiosity and knowing when?
Cheers,
Jacob

[Richard the old one]

Your car becomes a historic vehicle, which gives you free road tax, when it is 40 years old based on the build date not the date it was first registered.

It has to be 40 years old before the 1st of January for the free road tax to apply from that year.

Hence it can be worth paying the £25 to get the build date certificate.

[MIG Wielder]

As an example, my 1850 was a 1975 build and spent 2 years running around the various test-tracks with the B.L. development CVT in it. It wasn't registered for road use until 1977 with an "R" reg plate !
But Woo-hoo.... I get tax exemption soon, and I have the Heritage Certificate.
Tony.

[Jacob]

Thanks Chaps I really appreciate it. Seems like it can be worth spending a little money then. I'm tax exempt from next year anyhow but I do think it would be nice to know.
Cheers,
Jacob

[GTS290N]

I believe the rolling 40 year tax free disc comes into effect after the April budget - so if your car was built in 1975, you can't get the tax exemption until April?

[Richard the old one]

I have had a very quick response from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust @ Gaydon which indicated that my oldest 1500HL Dolomite, Chassis/VIN Number - WK/8220-DLO was built on the 20th January 1977 so I will have to wait a bit longer for Historic vehicle status, (Free road). If it had been built 20 days earlier it would have been at least 40 years old on the first of Jan 2017 and would have been classed as a historic vehicle as I read the regs.

I feel it was worth finding out and I hope the info will help other people to decide if they should pay to find out the manufacture dates of their vehicles.

[Jon Tilson]

Damned annoying....but in the grand scheme of things the 100 quid isn't that big a deal....

Back in the day in early 1981 when Dollies went out of production I enquired at the local BL dealer about what was available...
The answer was no Sprints or 1850's but a few non HL 1500's were all that was to be had....

Jonners