VIN invalid...what does this mean?

[abbierhodes]

My DH recently bought a car from a dealer. He was only given a photocopy of the logbook and a green slip.

The dealer promised to send the logbook, but so far he hasn't.

Time has come to tax the car, which we can't do without the logbook. It can't be taxed with the green slip my DH has as apparently it has been taxed with this before...suggesting the dealer never had the logbook.

He's now run a check and found the VIN number is invalid.

Does anyone know what this means? Is the car dodgy?

The VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number - as it sounds, it's unique to every car and usually can be found on several parts of the vehicle chassis and also somewhere on the windscreen - should be a 16 numbers and digits.

I'd go back to the dealer and make a fuss - loudly, and preferably in front of other customers. Log books do go missing at dealerships, but the onus must be on them to replace it.

What does the dealer say about it all?

We havent yet been back to the dealer. He's an hour away, we have three kids including an eight week old and DH works long hours.

We have found the VIN number, Mortini, but it's coming up invalid on the internet checking site. We've checked and checked, and we're definitely typing the number correctly.

bumping this!

I'm really worried we're driving round in an illegal car. Not sure where to start looking for help either.

If the dealer is part of a franchised network then I'd get on the phone to the manufacturer's customer service dept (should be easy to find on their website).
If it's an independent dealer give them a call. Either you or them will need to get a replacement V5 (current term for logbook) - this costs £25 - details on directgov. I'd strongly suggest that if they were unable to produce it, they should cough up!

The invalid VIN doesn't nec mean a dodgy car - could be a problem with 1/I or 0/O for example.
Good luck!

Contact VOSA for a vehicle check, the DVLA site gives advice.here