Well I never! Mad dad's car embroiled in infamy.

[Donger]

Someone on Cycle Chat posted something several weeks/months ago about being able to see if your old car is still on the road, and it showed that my dad's old VW camper was, but was now green. When I looked again recently, I couldn't find the thread, so when idly flicking through the net, I just Googled the number plate of my Dad's van and it turns out it's infamous. If it is still out there, a part of me rather likes the fanciful notion of getting it back into the family. I now have reason think there may be two of them!

No sooner did I search "FOF220L" than a whole host of posts from 2015 came up warning of an E-Bay scam surrounding this very van. The seller gave a very remote village in Wales as his address. (Apparently this makes buyers more likely to agree on delivery instead of visiting the seller). His landline phone number and Facebook page had been deleted and the van was suspiciously cheap. All classic signs of scams. This is what the van looked like in the advert:

And here is the real FOF220L some time in the mid 1970's.. My mum is at the wheel, and a teenage @Donger can just be made out on the back seat:

And here's another shot with my dad at the wheel, somewhere in the South of Spain:

Spot the difference(s)?

I know people make all sorts of alterations to VW campers and often change their colour ... but note the lack of pop-up roof, the lack of front-mounted spare wheel, the different colour number plates and the different side (kitchen) window. Also the sidelights are in a different place and the front bumper is different. That definitely ain't my dad's van. How dare they?(!!) His was much better.

 

[classic33]

Only 81,681 miles* since 1 July 1971

*Mileage on 20th May 2019

 

[Donger]

Only 81,681 miles since 1 July 1971!

Funny, I thought L reg was 1974. The ad stated 1972.
Would love to have tracked that van down, but wouldn't dare now. I still remember dad picking it up from Smithfield Motors in Digbeth, Birmingham. And I still recall the smell of new vinyl and the satisfying clunk as the sliding door closed for the first time.

 

[cosmicbike]

Nice van @Donger , my folks had one, same white over orange, can't remember the reg. Replaced with a new Transporter T25, B442 ABH, which took us all over Europe as it was back in the mid 80's/early 90's. Fantastic bit of kit.

 

[classic33]

Funny, I thought L reg was 1974. The ad stated 1972.
Would love to have tracked that van down, but wouldn't dare now. I still remember dad picking it up from Smithfield Motors in Digbeth, Birmingham. And I still recall the smell of new vinyl and the satisfying clunk as the sliding door closed for the first time.

Taken from the MOT history


@cosmicbike, it's still going, although it's changed colour

 

[raleighnut]

Could be a 'ringer', take a stolen van and give it a crashed/scrapped vehicles identity.

Apparently the Police have a bunch of 'recovered' stolen vehicles in a multi-storey car park that they are unable to reunite with the owners cos there is no way to positively identify them.

 

[classic33]

Funny, I thought L reg was 1974. The ad stated 1972.
Would love to have tracked that van down, but wouldn't dare now. I still remember dad picking it up from Smithfield Motors in Digbeth, Birmingham. And I still recall the smell of new vinyl and the satisfying clunk as the sliding door closed for the first time.

Nearly 40 years and only that mileage, still isn't very much.

For a fuller explanation of the scam.
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/fo...n-devon-1972-fof220l-fraud-fof-220l-11-apr-15

 

[Deleted member 26715]

1972 was an important year, it meant the cars & light vans became Historic & paid no VED, it's a big seller for older vehicles, it was static for quite number of years but is now 40 rolling years, so likely to be a sales trick to get more people involved.

Also a thing with old VW's is that the body lifts free of the chassis & the law states you can freely change the body & as long as it's the same type you don't need to notify DVSA.

 

[Donger]

Nearly 40 years and only that mileage, still isn't very much.

For a fuller explanation of the scam.
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/fo...n-devon-1972-fof220l-fraud-fof-220l-11-apr-15

My dad took the real one to the South of Spain, the North of Scotland, the middle of Norway (via Holland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden) and into the old Eastern Bloc. He must have done 25-30,000 miles just on holiday aswell as using it as a daily commute across Birmingham for years before changing it for a new T reg Toyota Hi-Ace! (Would that be 1979?).

 

[Mr Celine]

"So that's it Thelma, the criminal took a cheap flight to Spain, murdered two campers, put their bodies on the roof of their VW and took them to the churchyard-"
"-And before he could bury them he tripped over Scooby and fell in the hole - Go on Fred pull his mask off and see who it really is"

Schewwww pop!

Gasp!

"Its old Mister @Donger from the abandoned funfair!"

"And I'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids."

 

[Drago]

Infamy! Infamy! He's got it in for me!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/VehicleFound?locale=en

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Serious MOT failures in 2016 and 2010, bad corrosion.

 

[Venod]

OK sleuths on here, on facebook I keep getting notifications about the VW diesel mpg scam and enter your reg number to claim, I had an Audi A1 1,9tdi, but can't remember the number, i think it was a 13 reg colour grey. I have no paperwork or anything related to the car, how do I find the reg?

 

[matticus]

"So that's it Thelma, the criminal took a cheap flight to Spain, murdered two campers, put their bodies on the roof of their VW and took them to the churchyard-"
"-And before he could bury them he tripped over Scooby and fell in the hole - Go on Fred pull his mask off and see who it really is"

Schewwww pop!
Gasp!

"Its old Mister @Donger from the abandoned funfair!"

"And I'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids."

(I'm glad someone else noticed the body bags on the roof