ryannnnnnnn.. go to www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archives and get a BMHT cert.. about 50 quid. I always get them now when I import brit car for someone.. to make CBP / US CUSTOMS happy.. later bill cox

It is unfortunate that you are now stuck with a chicken and egg conundrum.


my unprofessional advice is to return to DMV to get in writing what they want to see, specifically. The "62" you say they want is a California-only tag (as I understand it) and was added to the cars here in CA only. I"ve not heard if that was through Customs or through dealers or local DMV or what, but it is a known dealio that they were ADDED to CA cars for vehicles designated as export for US market. They would also have a "L" stamped in the VIN as part of it's actual VIN. The prefix of 62 was a separate add-on tag and held down by one of the posi-drive or phillips head screws. I had a shell once that had this tag on it and my research into it is reflected by my above statements.

Anyway, my point is to ask DMV to see the clarification of the paperwork that they are using as validation for their requirement. Go to a different DMV if necessary. In fact, I would suggest do that anyway. OR go to a private DMV service and have them deal with DMV regulations. At this point, you are truly at the mercy of the whims and interpretations of that ONE agent who dealt with you, and everyone else will defer to that original agent simply out of ease and it will take a strong willed person or an anti-DMV private dmv agent to pursue getting this corrected.


If they are insisting that you go to CHP then I recommend you return to CHP and get in writing when they say they will not verify the car. Again, you are at the mercy of the one CHP agent and her/his whims and interpretations. When someone is forced to put his or her name down to stand behind their "No, I won't do it and here is why" sometimes it changes their interpretation or attitude. My advice: Go to a different CHP office and try again.

It has been made abundantly clear time and time again and documented on this forum that to avoid this sort of bureaucratic runaround any new import cars should first be titled and registered outside of CA before trying to get CA title and regis tration. CA DMV doesn't even know their own rules and regulations, so they can't expect to ask a private citizen to follow what they themselves cant figure out.

Oh, and this is only the first step to getting past the local DMV office-- THEN they need to mail up the whole package to Sacramento DMV and someone up THERE can kick it all back to you to start again. You may just want to skp the local office and mail what you have straight to DMV in Sacramento.

There wouldn't have been a year on the chassis plate to verify the year you will have to get heritage cert or letter verifying the year from the chassis number. I must say I've never been asked for this at DMV as the original V5 English title should have the year of manufacture?

Hi Everyone,

I recently bought my dream car, a 1962 Morris Minor Mini over in England, and I shipped back to California.

I'm having a problem getting it registered, and I'd appreciate any insight.

One of the 2 stamps in the engine bay is gone -- it's the stamp with the "1962" year marking.  So the DMV gave me a temporary registration & told me to go to the CHP to have them verify the year.  The CHP couldn't care less and said to go to a registered importer to verify.  The only registered importer near me said they don't touch cars older than 1975, and that I need to go to the DMV.

I have until the end of May to get this resolved, and again, any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

This is Eleanor, my car in trouble