MOT tester failed my Eunos on emissions. I told him that it is a Eunos not MX5 and should be tested as a non-cat vehicle which he agreed and did, behold my car passed the emissions test. The tester told me to get my V5 changed from MX5 to Eunos this will help future MOT’s.
I sent my V5 off to Swansea with a covering letter asking for the changes. Today I received a new V5 stating make: MAZDA model: MX5along with a letter saying :
"The details shown on your V5C match those given to us when your vehicle was first registered
I am unable to change the model description unless the manufacturer agrees with the description you have given. Once you receive written confirmation from the manufacturer, please return it together with your V5C"
My car was imported March 2003, it has Japanese owners manual, Eunos vin number plate, Eunos roadster badges, square rear number plate, etc. etc…
Questions:
Is it to my benefit to get the information on the V5 changed.
Will it make any difference to my insurance.
Has anyone been through this before.
and 4. Who do I get in touch with to proove that its a EUNOS ROADSTER not MAZDA MX5
I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to phone Mazda and ask their advice. Maybe they get regular queries of this kind.
Otherwise you might just try DVLA again, quoting all the details on the VIN plate, perhaps with an accompanying good quality photo. Am I right in recalling the VIN plate actually has Eunos Roadster printed on it? That would be direct evidence that the manufacturer agrees that the car with your VIN is called a Eunos Roadster, wouldn’t it? I wonder if they have hard-and-fast rules, or if it just depends on the judgement of the person dealing with your case. I’ve certainly heard of someone previously just writing the right info on their V5, sending it in and getting an amended V5 without question.
I guess there’s no point in playing “spot the Roadster” with Swansea,. Whatever checklist you come up with of Roadster vs MX-5 parts, they’d have to take your word for it that the difference info is accurate. Might be more use when talking to Mazda, but of course they don’t even need to see the car - they can just tell from the VIN format that it’s not going to be an MX-5.
Do you have a copy of the “Cancellation of Registration/Certificate of Export (Translation)” document that would have been sent with the car from Japan and would have been required by the DVLA for the original UK registration?
Mine shows that the make is “Eunos” and the model is “NA6CE” but the DVLA at Manchester still managed to register it purely as a “Mazda” (the model designation is blank on my V5C).
Only if you continue to run your car without a catalytic converter
Yes, if you haven’t told your insurance company that the car is not UK specification. If you haven’t, you may find they will withdraw cover, on the basis you have failed to disclose material facts.
The nearest I came was when I brought my Roadster back from N.Ireland to GB. I had reregistered the car here on the same plate (lazy), and all was well, until I sold that car, and decided to retain the plate. The new owner, understandably, wanted a J-registration, based on what I told him about the age of the car. But the DVLA issued a H-registration. All they had from the DVLNI was that the car was built in 1991. When the car was originally imported, the original Japanese deregistration documents were retained by the DVLNI, who failed to pass them on to the DVLA, because they never asked for them. In the end, the DVLNI wrote me a etter detailing the provinence they had about the car, which I then had to take to the DVLA. Joined up government? I paid £80 for the privilage.
I don’t know what the DVLA does with the Japanese paperwork; do they shred it?
No I dont have any documents regarding export of the car. The DVLA refer to the V55 form ‘Application for a first licence for a used motor vehicle’ which states Mazda MX5 as make and model.This was filled out by Marston Autos in Kempston Beds, poss importers of the car??
I Will go to my local Mazda dealer and see if they can give me any advice.
( Do you have a copy of the “Cancellation of Registration/Certificate of
Export (Translation)” document that would have been sent with the car
from Japan and would have been required by the DVLA for the original UK
registration?)
Unfortunately importers put Mazda MX5 on the V55 as it is the the best commercial UK description, DVLA do not appear to match the description to the Cancellation of Registration certificate.
My previous MX5 a 1991 Eunos I imported myself, the Certificate De-Registration from Japan states: Name of Manufacture: Eunos. Model:E-NA6CE. But the sale invoice from the Japan dealer states Mazda MX5?
I don’ t know why you are worried from an MOT perspective, the MOT is carried out in exactally the same way whether the car is an MX-5 or a Eunos. The tester doesn’t need to see your V5C and should test the car according to the badges displayed on the vehicle when presented for test. I think there was a VOSA special notice to this tune issued when grey imports first started appearing in this country.
Previously you said; “The emission test… is carried out
on VIN number alone regardless of how the car is badged.”, but how does that square with “The tester doesn’t need to see your V5C and should test the car
according to the badges displayed on the vehicle when presented for
test”. I’m confused.
The emission test part of the test relates to VIN. the way the car is badged has no bearing on the way the test is carried out. I suppose really they are just an identifier for when the vehicle is registered for test.
I’m bumping this zombie thread back into life as it’s a topic which has come up again over at the mx5nutz forum.
Unlike their MX-5-owning equivalents, owners of K-reg to M-reg Roadsters do not need to pass an emissions test for a car fitted with a cat converter, but many of them (mine included) are registered as MX-5s so the computerised MOT now means they are required to pass the test unnecessarily.
As described above, the DVLA have said they require a letter from Mazda agreeing that a car is a Eunos Roadster and not a Mazda MX-5 before they will amend a V5C.
My question is, does anyone in the OC have friendly enough relations with anyone in Mazda who might be willing to provide the Owners Club with a letter describing how to tell an MX-5 from a Roadster based on the format of the VIN? It seems to me that a copy of such a letter would be all the authority a member needs to get their V5C corrected to show their car’s true make and model.
Not quite the point, there are very many 93-on Eunos`s with catalysts that can barely scrape through a British MOT emissions test due to them not being designed to meet the UK emissions figures. It very much would be in the interests of a large number of OC members to get the JDM cars re-classified with regard to MOT testing, this is something the club could help with I am very sure…
Just dont expect any UK Mazda dealers to assist in the slightest, they dont even want to sell parts for Eunos`s,
Perhaps this might be a good project for our Technical people?
This is my position. My car has a cat, in fact I bought a new one a couple of years ago as it failed an MOT emissions test (as an MX-5). I figured about 14 years wasn’t a bad innings for a cat, so I didn’t much begrudge the cost. But just two year later it only just scraped through. I was very close to having had more expense, quite unnecessarily.
All this happened a while ago and unfortunatley I have sold my EUNOS and replaced it with a Suzuki GSX750 (mainly for the speed).
Anyway before I sold it I did manage to get the V5 changed from MX5 to Eunos by getting in touch with Mazda head office UK and explaining my problem, they were more than willing to help. I had to send them my V5, they sent it to DVLA with a covering note and I got it back changed as I wanted. My next MOT went without any problems and passed the emissions.
So if you want to pass the MOT easily with a EUNOS get your V5 changed, it does help.
My son bought a nissan Pulsar at auction ,the car was from a importer and all documantation was destoyed in a fire at the garage.The DVLA asked for proof what the car was a UK GTIR or Pulsar the Jap version of the car.
A phone call to Nissan UK and we were told for £25 the would send us a letter with all the cars information for the DVLA as proof
As I thought, for those willing to expend a modicum of legwork, there isn’t actually a problem for those who wish their cars to be tested to a more polluting standard. And a generic letter would not help owners of Roadster who had non-standard VINs, such as this Montego blue car sold through Zen Motors in 2007.
The eagle eyed will spot the black tape over the area where a stamped chassis number is supposed to be. On this car, a series of numbers and letters were stamped to completely obscure the original chassis number.The screw on plate bore the id of a silver car. I have been told, subsequently, that this was probably a badly damaged car, and the new number was applied by the auction house, and is not related at all to Mazda.
Its probably worth pointing out that I think the attitude of Mazda UK is completely different from Mazda Cars Limited. Mazda Cars Limited were a concessionaire, and nominally independent of Mazda. Mazda UK is substantially owned by Mazda Europe GMBH, and thus the factory. I quizzed the guys at Mazda in Frankfurt back in 2001 about the poor support given to Roadster owners in the UK; they appeared genuinely shocked, because they were under the impression that there were only a “few hundred” Roadsters in the UK. They were very much at pains to point out how they had fully supported US-spec Miata owners in Europe.
Since 1997, I have only had problems with one dealer, who had some bizarre ideas on Roadsters. At another dealer, in Belfast, I got a rather interesting perspective on relations with MCL. In Northern Ireland, there were far more imports, as a proportion, than elsewhere in the UK, and dealers had to deal with some very strange imports; for instance, a bunch of Malaysian spec 323s were imported. In another, (coincidentally) Malaysian-spec Merc C-classes were shipped direct from Germany. The parts manager at this dealership kept a rather large ring binder on the counter, full of all the faxed requests/answers for enquiries on all sorts of Mazda imports. If he got an import in, and if there was a doubt if a part fitted or not (they were particularly concerned about safety-related parts, plus they couldn’t get credit on returned parts that were for the wrong car), he send a request to Mazda Cars, who hadn’t got a clue, and would then forward the fax to Japan, who would then have to find someone who’d translate, then check the parts lists, then return the enquiry. Torturous it seemed. For the last 7 years, I have been using Millcars Mazda, in Watford, who are excellent. They can order and quote me for parts based on a Roadster chassis number, so I know I’m getting the right part for my car, and not have someone guess. The parts arrive from Japan very quickly as well. Considering these cars were never intended for the UK market (and their very presence is a concession), I think that’s very good support. Things could be much worse; we could end up with the problems some European or US owners have with grey imports, and the emissions issue was solved by a requirement to upgrade emissions equipment on all cars (ie. emissions tests are an absolute).
