It’s been a rollercoaster ride of emotions but we now find ourselves on the eve of what some (read: Hannah & Robbie) said would never happen – the eSpace is about to take to the road, fully taxed, insured and certified by HM government!
She made us all proud on the 3rd April when she passed her MOT so the next step was to arrange insurance. Ross spent approximately 25 man days phoning various insurance companies before settling on the cheapest – Elephant, and so cover was arranged to commence at midnight on May 1st 2009. The insurance certificate arrived, and combined with the MOT certificate we thought taxing her would be a piece of cake, but as we’ve come to realise, life is never that simple. Let me explain….
The previous owner was registered disabled so the eSpace had been reclassified as being exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty (or car Tax to you and me) and it turns out that you have to go to a DVLA regional office (in our case Oxford) in person to change the classification.
Things were complicated further by the small matter of a re-spray (Her V5 has her down as being red!), her being declared SORN and having to change the ownership from me to Ross as Mr Sensible Family Man has 100+yrs no claims bonus with Elephant, and no penalty points (compared to my six!). However needing to go to the DVLA office was a bit of a blessing because as it turns out all of the above could be done in one go.
I must admit that we did toy with the idea of ‘forgetting’ to tell the insurance company that the car was now in fact black as we assumed the premium would rocket as we’d modified the car, but a quick call to elephant revealed that it could be changed at no cost!
So anyway, armed with all the relevant documentation (V5, MOT, Insurance) Ross set off to work with the aim to get into the DVLA over lunch… or so he thought. In another cruel twist of fate it turned out that Ross had in fact got his other car’s Insurance Certificate! This seriously jeopardised our planned maiden voyage after work tomorrow (May 1st) as that would only leave Ross one chance of a visit to the DVLA and knowing how pedantic the DVLA can be with forms we were sure something would go wrong.
However Ross was not going to let this beat him, after all we did legally have a right to tax the car, it was just that one crucial piece of evidence was 20 miles away at home… It was time to get ‘creative’ and in true A-TEAM style a ‘new’ insurance certificate was born! Now technology has come along way since the A-Team first graced our screens so the task was made somewhat easier by a high resolution scanner and some fancy OCR Software Ross ‘found’ lying around (OCR meaning Optical Character Recognition). Ross scanned in his Octavia’s insurance certificate and then changed the policy number, car details, dates and named driver details to match the new policy (which for any members of the police reading this i can assure you did exist!). The result is shown above** (click it to see bigger version)– Good work Ross!
We’d been warned of long queues and the advice appears to have been valid, but none the less Ross waited in line with baited breath, losing count of the number of people turned away empty handed because they were missing some documentation, or had filled it in wrong. Eventually it was his turn, and with a quick glance at the ‘fake’ insurance certificate and MOT a tax disc was issued for the princely sum of £101.75 for 6 months. Job done!
MOT Update:
Since we’ve had all the documentation out we’ve scanned it all in case some of you (again read: Hannah & Robbie) dare doubt our integrity, so below you’ll find our MOT certificate** (Left) and our seven advisories** (right). Click them to see an enlarged version.
For those of you too lazy to look at the images our advisories are as follows:
- 001: Nearside front tie bar/rod has slight play in pin/bush [2.4.G.3]
- 002: Offside front tie bar/rod has slight play in pin/bush [2.4.G.3]
- 003: Nearside front seat belt slight fluffing or fraying [5.1.B.2b]
- 004: Windscreen has damage to an area less than 40mm circle outside zone ‘A’ [8.3.1d]
- 005: Offside front lower suspension arm corroded but not seriously weakened [2.4.G.1]
- 006: Service Brake only just met required brake efficiency [3.7.A.8]
- 007: Rear number plate deteriorating
In response to these:
- Tim & Ross have tightened the service (hand) brake
- We can’t see any damage on the windscreen!
- We’re planning on getting a new rear number plate as its ruining her otherwise unblemished appearance!
** Sensitive information has been omitted to protect the innocent