I was trying to find exact spect of my car in advance of collecting it by searching by its reg number, and popped in some of the previous cars I've owned in recent years:

06 plate petrol vrs, sold with shark remap intact is still going at 148k miles allegedly. 

12 plate vrs wagon still going at 130k miles 

14 plate leron cupra no record anywhere!? 

15 plate superb not been taxed for nearly 2 years, so assuming it's lounging on some back street forecourt somewhere... 

17 plate vrs diesel that a passed on 18 months ago has also vanished from DVLA, it had high mileage around 80k after just over 2 years use.

Im presuming that if the reg is no longer active, either the car has been scrapped or had a new personal plate. 

Edited 27 May, 20215 yr by stever750

if a vehicle is exported to the ROI does it vanish off the dvla?

DVLA don't even hold data for NI cars so I'd say yes...

When I've finished with them.... not many get sold. I think Heinz bought most of them. 

Can't remember the reg of most of them. Unfortunately. 

(most would be scrapped now I reckon).. 

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

DVLA don't even hold data for NI cars so I'd say yes...

this could explain some of them vanishing then. imported ex uk cars have always been a nice way to get better spec second hand cheaper than ROI reg car.

 

16 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

this could explain some of them vanishing then. imported ex uk cars have always been a nice way to get better spec second hand cheaper than ROI reg car.

 

 

It certainly caused confusion when I bought my father in laws civic off him, brought it to the mainland and tried to MOT it...   It was on a mainland plate but had been 'exported' and registered in NI so there were no DVLA records for it...   the garage thought it was stolen...   

12 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

this could explain some of them vanishing then. imported ex uk cars have always been a nice way to get better spec second hand cheaper than ROI reg car.

 

 

This is something of a reversal of practice from some years back.  When i was (as they say here) "nobbut a lad" a colleague and I joined a business to look at automating 7-11 type stores using barcdes and scanners.  Commonplace these days but back in the early 80s it was very much at the "forefront of the white hot technological revolution" {(c) H. Wilson}.

 

Things came to an embarrassing halt when we discovered (via Manchester Plod) that the funding partners for our venture (who had a car sales business) were getting their dosh by importing "knock off to order" high ticket cars via Dublin and re-registering them in the UK - at a time when the knockoff cars databases in ROI and UK were not talking to each other ...

 

The initial interviews with the Plod were a bit scary but to give them their due once they understaood we had absolutely no idea about the background to the financing they were very helpful.  Mind you, we were also suddenly out of work ...

I found my first car, a 1937 Morris 8 convertible half dismantled in a scrapyard a couple of years after I sold it.  Wish I’d kept it, but at 18 you want something newer...

 

More recently, my son-in-law took over my Rover 75 at around 154000 miles, used it for a 100 mile daily round trip commute, and sold it during lockdown at 268000 to an enthusiast.

 

Various others - SORN or no record.

My first car was a S reg Ford KA, that registration is no longer on the DVLA website (it was coming to end of it's life when we sold it, so I can't imagine it ran for much longer).

2nd car was a 05 plate Clio we sold a friend who's son was leaning to drive at the time - Still registered on DVLA and MOT'd

3rd car was a 11 pate Skoda Fabia - Write off through accident

4th Car was a 10 plate Seat Ibiza - Still registered on DVLA and MOT'd

 

My red Fabia SE Estate 1.6 TDi 105 from 2010 is still going according to the MOT checker with few advisories and about 130k at last MOT. 

I used to see mine around occasionally, somtimes this was annoying. A Ford Focus I sold on earlier than I should, thinking the mileage was a bit high, I saw regularly for about another 10yr. Clearly it took its miles well. They rest have just disappeared.

 

I've used a private plate for the last 15yr or so remembering the plates as I sold them has always been a bit hard.

 

I assume they were used and scrapped as MOTs got too hard.