W. Ray Gibbons" wrote:
I subscribe to a kazillion car mags.
In the british ones I often read
hat someone bought a car "complete
with the original (green?) log book.
What's a log book--some sort of substitute for a title?
Are they still used?
British cars used to have a "log book". It was a green card with
Bureaucrat Brown printing which was used to record transfer of
ownership of a vehicle. It didn't prove legal title to a document
it showed that the car was registered officially in someone's
name. The information included stuff like make, model, engine
number, licence plate number. (NB British licence plate numbers
are assigned for the life of the car. Theyt can be changed, but
rarely are.) The log book had to be produced in order to purchase
a paper "tax disc" which has to be affixed to the inside of
the windscreen of the car.
In the '60s, the Government decided to centralise all this, and
commissioned the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre in Swansea,
Wales. This huge computer operation eventually held records of
all vehicles and all drivers registered in the UK. Green log
books are inherently uncomputerisable. Nowadays you get a tacky
piece of paper with limited amount of info. about previous
owners of your car. Many owners of older cars kept their
"original" log books, anf they have now become prized possessions,
along with the original sales receipt, owner's manual etc.
The DVLC at Swansea was, from the start, a difficult system to
implement. Unrealistic estimates of the ability of machines to
read human (or even computer -generated) writing led to a system
with ever-increasing delays in turn-round time for updates
to documents. It did have some good side-effects though. My UK drivers
licence doesn't expire till 2018! It was one of the ways that the
Govt. reduced the workload at the DVLC.
Last point in my mental meanderings. The DVLC is to be privatised.
I believe a front-runner for the contract is a UK company called
Scicon (who told the department of transport, correctly, that the
DVLC could never work as originally designed). Scicon now belongs
to EDS. Which is owned by GM. Who have some sort of connection
with the manufacture of cars...Maybe Vauxhall & Opel owners will
get a special deal!
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