Your Triumph and the Law.

The other week I had a vaguely threatening letter from the good ole DVLA. They reckoned that a "discrepancy" had been discovered during the whizzy new computerised MOT and sent me a form to be filled in-colour, reg number, VIN (ha ha) number etc. Anyway, I filled it in and sent it back, with a note about the lack of an actual VIN or chassis number as such on a Herald, pointing out that the commission number on the LHS may have been confused for the front body number on the RHS.

Anyway I wasn't expecting much until I got another letter telling me that the issue had been resolved and a new MOT certificate was enclosed- I was to return the old one as it was no longer valid (actually I thought the new ones were more of a receipt for what's on their computer and weren't actually valid at all in the manner of the old types, but we'll gloss over that). To be honest I thought it was just a case of "jobs for the boyos" down at Swansea and checked both chits carefully.

It turns out that certainly for as long as I've had the car, it has had the front body number on the MOTs rather than the commission number. OK there's room for confusion, but a) if the testers don't know, why not ask the anorak that comes along too, and b) now the test is all computerised surely there could be a note to tell the testers where to find things like this?

Now I'm just looking forward to doing it all again next year! Apparently the guy from the DVLA phoned while I was out to say the issue was sorted and seemed quite pleased not to have to talk to yours truly-I did give him some pretty comprehensive notes about the various numbers to be found on Heralds, which of course someone used to modern cars probably didn't understand at all... I f you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em!