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Limos, hearses and the like will be (and have been) subject to regulations for years. SVA came into law in 1997. Same as people who convert all manner of vehicles for airport baggage handling or whatever.
Kit car people manage to build cars which meet the SVA requirements for over a decade now.
low volume producers like hearse conversions etc. have been managing to legally build for all that time.
A lot of limos are imported pre-built now anyway.
Imports over 10 years old are excempt from SVA at time of import.
Lets not go off on another daily mail rant about how we have it worse here than in any other country in the world blah blah blah.
The bottom line is simply that SVA is a fact which much of our hobby has been ignoring for 15 years since it was out to consultation and its taken this long for effects to start to be noticed.
The DVLA are obviously not intestested in a mass crack down or they would have done it by now - the info is all out there for them to do it and we have provided most of it ourselves!
The DVLA may come under pressure to enforce SVA/VIC on people as time goes on, and people with newly built cars may start to find it harder to get them on the road legally without an understanding of how to pass (or legitimately avoid) an SVA test.
I don't like SVA for rebuilt production cars, but have to admit some form of safety check above that offered by the MOT is probably due.
SVA for one-offs etc. really has to be the way forward though
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Last Edit: Oct 1, 2008 12:19:28 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Rob
Posted a lot
You know, for kids!
Posts: 2,515
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SVA for one-offs etc. really has to be the way forward though Essential I would say . . . It makes sense that if a car is built from scratch it would need to be checked by 'the law' to make sure you're sending a rocket ship out on the road. We've been here before but scrutinising genuine car fans (and knowledgeable ones at that) with old motors rather than the average road side bodge-it-mechanic is ludicrous. Does there need to be controls over car builders - absolutely. Making people Q-Plate cars that are perfectly roadworthy and in the spirit of the original vehicle, crazy and has no worth (other than gathering road fund) Rob
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some Q plate cars are still tax free. Some chap on NSRA had this with a 1930s Dodge a year or so back. The DVLA eventually insisted on a Q plate as it had IFS, disc brakes, a V8 etc. but said it could still be put in the historic vehicle class.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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fogey
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,615
Member is Online
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As said above, the SVA has been largely ignored by car modifiers for some years and very little has been done to enforce the regulations.
However, the real problem with the SVA, in its current form, is that it will never do what it is designed for:
Consider this;
Stick a V8 in your Morris Minor and carry out no other mods - you have a car that may handle dangerously with curse word brakes and suspension that isn't up to the job - the car doesn't need to be tested because it achieves enough points on the 'original parts retained' system
Stick a V8 in a Morris Minor, update the suspension, driveline and brakes to suit - you have one much safer car with mods to suit the power it now has - but, you've changed so many parts you fail on the 'points' criteria and the car has to go through an SVA.
So the potentially unsafe car can go back on the road untested and the well engineered car has to go through the test - slightly ludicrous?
Also, if you were to mod a much older classic by changing engine , suspension etc and put it through an SVA then it could easily fail on something like the grille not being rounded enough at the edges like it has to be for current SVA requirements - in the SVA the whole car is tested, not just the mods and some original parts may not comply with current standards.
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Last Edit: Oct 1, 2008 13:29:48 GMT by fogey
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I have not tried it, nor particuarly would I want to, but there are a series of excemptions for things like air bag lights, dashboard padding, and burst latches, ABS sensors etc. which are in SVA if the vehicle is "an enthusiast built or assembled vehicle of an individual deisgn and specification" or words to that effect which I would read to cover the above Morris Minor but would apply if the vehicle in question were something like a Cobra kit car.
I think this is one of the key sticking points.
I know that when this was raised one time some response came back along the lines of "if you want to modernise an old car then why not modernise it fully with ABS and padded dash and etc etc etc" which kinda misses the point and confuses modification with modernisation. This is the problem we have when dealing with officialdom. They just don't get what we are about
So the modified Minor might have a very mild SVA but then end up on a Q plate and may or may not retain its historic tax class.
If there were a guarantee that old cars would be treated as old cars, allowed to retain their identity and would be inspected for quality of work and safety of design of the mods etc. then I don't think we'd have a complaint about it. Except the test costs like £245 +VAT I think? Ouch
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Last Edit: Oct 1, 2008 13:45:50 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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yip that is my main issue with the SVA, that if my saab had to take it then it would fail on all sorts of things that are original and would be there on the original vehicle that doesn;t need a SVA. I would happily take it if needed if that stuff was exempt from the test. At the moment I am not sure if my car will need an SVA as its borderline with the points thing and it is again debatable what constitutes a modified bodyshell.
I see the need for an SVA for a car the you have built yourself Locost etc. But even then they tend to get the car through SVA without a windscreen with no wipers needed etc and standard safe sierra wheel and then modify it how they want it.
What i do not want to have to do is too modify my saab to pass then change it all back.
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Even with kit cars I don't see the point as SVA is about checking things meet the design specs. The kit car maker should build one, get it approved and then the people who build one should have to have an MOT or something similar on it before it can go on the road but SVA for each one seems OTT.
SVA stands for Single Vehicle Approval not "testing that a guy who built a kit could tighten all the bolts up"
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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Interesting stuff. I remember reading a while ago about a fella with a heavily modded mini running a XE or Vtec lump with tubbed arches etc. He was told it should really be SVA'd as it's so modified from stock but that a mini would never pass the SVA without a lot of work because of sharp edges etc etc.
nick
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A guy I know of has built a very nice Cobra replica with a rover V8 and Sierra running gear. Hes been building it on and off for 15 years and lost all the paperwork relating to the donor car. When he looked into registering it he contacted the DVLA and was told that the rules had changed and he had t produce all the receipts and paperwork for the donor car, engine e.t.c, which of course, he hasnt got.
Bottom line is he cant register it and use it on the road as he cant prove he hasnt stolen it!
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1987 Maestro 1.6 HL perkins diesel conversion 1986 Audi 100 Avant 1800cc on LPG 1979 Allegro Series 2 special 4 door 1500cc with vynil roof. IN BITS. HERITAGE ISSUES.
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street
Posted a lot
6.2 ft/lbs of talk
Posts: 4,662
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Chin up! I propose a Smokey Yunick style approach to any future crackdowns! "No roofchop you say? Well you didn't say anything about elongating my neck using tribal neck rings so that my head touches the stock roof"...... Srsly though, I think we will just have to get smart if the noose tightens around our necks. German modifiers have a horrendous set of hoops to jump through and Japan too by the sounds of it, yet some of the best modified cars can be found coing out of these countries.
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Tis dammed annoying that i could fit a big monster merc 6 litre V8 into my coupe and just go out and drive it, but if i fit the better suspension and brakes from the same S class to make it safe to drive i'd have to SVA it, where it would probably fail cos of the standard 3 pointed star on the bonnet. :S
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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