69 Elan +2 No. Cal. FB, $9,500. NMNR

[Richard48Y]

Looking good!

[Richard48Y]

Curious to know if you got this one one the road yet?

[Bud]

always great to see another car come to life again and good luck with the long drive home

[Tony2ta2004]

Hi Richard,

We ran into an issue with California DMV. According to the DMV said there is a military Humvee with a same VIN# was registered in Kentucky since 2011. The Kentucky DMV had sheriff involved and can't located the Humvee anywhere. So they can't help us at this point, rather going through with nightmares I returned the Elan back to the owner about a month ago. I told him that I will buy it back if he gets it cleared.

Tony

[Richard48Y]

Bizarre!
I am a member on a military vehicle forum.
If you can PM the VIN No. I can get confirmation that Lotus and Hummer vins have no resemblance to each other.
For one thing I expect the Hummer to be seventeen digit and the Lotus much shorter.

EDIT: I put a post up on Steel Soldiers asking for a sample Humvee VIN#.
Have you tried asking Lotus Heritage for confirmation of the VIN/Commission number?

[Richard48Y]

Response from SS.
"Look at the serial number listing that is a sticky on this forum, none have letters and they range up over 600.000 most have 6 digits.
They have serial numbers not vin numbers".

Not sure if CA DMV know the difference between an SN and a VIN.
Short numbers are easily duplicated, particularly when from different countries.
I ran into that with a military trailer I had.
CA DMV should have just verified the number and issued your title.
Maybe this should be passed along to the seller?

[Bud]

Listing is gone

[Tony2ta2004]

Vin# 501758. I went to DMV twice before I returned the Elan back. I had the car, title and verification of VIN# but they still said that I need get it cleared with Kentucky DMV first.

Response from SS.
"Look at the serial number listing that is a sticky on this forum, none have letters and they range up over 600.000 most have 6 digits.
They have serial numbers not vin numbers".

Not sure if CA DMV know the difference between an SN and a VIN.
Short numbers are easily duplicated, particularly when from different countries.
I ran into that with a military trailer I had.
CA DMV should have just verified the number and issued your title.
Maybe this should be passed along to the seller?

[Richard48Y]

If you had the title YOUR vin pre-dates the Hummer serial number.
You also had verification so they should just issue the title.
CA DMV are notorious for finding excuses to not do their jobs.
There should be a board to appeal this too.
All I can think of is to get a heritage certificate to add to the documentation then go to the appeals board.
CA seems to have an appeals board for everything.
My dab of research should be helpful in appeal.
If there is no appeals board I would file a suit against CA DMV in county court.
I had to do that to get title for my military Land Rover.

[Richard48Y]

This was posted at the SS site.
It seems KY may not have used the entire number for registration, or CA are ignoring the rest of the number?

[Tony2ta2004]

I'll let the seller deal with it. I spent lots of times and bought new parts for it. At this point I don't want go through with the headaches again. Thanks for your help.

[Richard48Y]

Hope it works out.
Some of what I found out should be helpful.