Finding grandfathers old Ford Escort....how?

[jap.slapper]

I can remember as a kid, my brother and I going out for day trips with my grandparents in my grandfathers old Ford Escort, however after he passed away in the early 90's my grandmother sold it on as she couldn't drive.
A few years later she also passed away and I didn't think any more of it.

Then today a thought came to mind, if I wanted to locate his old Ford Escort and assuming that I could find out the VRN from old photographs, how would I go about finding the current owner and offering to buy the car?

Assuming that the car is currently taxed and hasn't been scrapped, I think I'd struggle to find a decent starting point as I have no way of knowing who she sold the car to all those years ago.

If it was an MGB or a Sprite then I would think that the classic car clubs would be a good place to start but it was just a Billy basic late 80's Escort.

Any suggestions?

[RX7]

Can you find the details if it's still about from the DVLA site ?

Not sure how you'd track down the current owner though apart from forums really.

[jap.slapper]

Yes I'm pretty sure that the DVLA website will tell you if the car is taxed, SORN or scrapped but won't show details of current or previous keepers.

I think the chances of finding it are pretty slim

[pablo]

I might be mistaken but if contact the DVLA, for a fee, you can get the current owners details.

[jap.slapper]

I might be mistaken but if contact the DVLA, for a fee, you can get the current owners details.

Due to DPA these days you have to have justifiable reason for needing the information, therefore the likes of licenced parking companies who want to issue a parking ticket can get info but somebody looking for a family members old car couldn't, even some Police forces have had their information access privileges temporarily suspended due to faux par's with paperwork on their part

It's a bit of a mad system really as even if my grandmother were still alive and despite the fact that she sold the car, even she wouldn't be able to trace it via DVLA as she wasn't a registered keeper at any point she was just the seller

I remember years ago being able to just punch a VRN into a works computer and access the full data base, not anymore as the Data Protection Act has become a bit of a pain in the arse for everybody

[Daniel]

An ANPR request would give you all of the details, but again it has to be justified to the Police (and they have to justify doing it anyway) and the data protection act as mentioned. I tried to do this exact thing with my old MR2 and got nowhere.

[jap.slapper]

An ANPR request would give you all of the details, but again it has to be justified to the Police (and they have to justify doing it anyway) and the data protection act as mentioned. I tried to do this exact thing with my old MR2 and got nowhere.

All requests made by the Police to access the DVLA database (driver and vehicle) have to be accompanied by a report and they are quite particular about the process, I have been informed that quite a few Police Officers had been disciplined and/or dismissed for accessing information without just cause since the implementation of DPA.

After interview if the request is founded on what is deemed to be a civil matter then the Police won't even file the report and you just get fobbed off, however if it's deemed a criminal matter (in particular those which fall into the proceeds of crime category) then they will proceed but that's on the basis that the treasury will get some $ as a result of doing so.

Unfortunately (and I have now spoken to the nice lady down at Swansea) DVLA won't release any information direct to third parties unless you are at least a previous registered keeper and even then you have to provide sufficient reason for requesting the information (and naturally have to pay for the privilege).

In my case they didn't deem that my wanting to purchase a car previously owned by a deceased family members (on the grounds of nostalgia) sufficient to warrant releasing the information. I kind of knew that was going to be the case and wasn't at all surprised by their response. To be fair the friendly people working for the DVLA have a very polite way of telling you to f**k off

[BenTaylor]

If you can get the reg then you can check with askMID to see if it's currently insured and DVLA to see if it's currently taxed (if the date of liability is more than a couple of years ago it's probably been scrapped).

After that I'd start trawling the forums and see if anyone knows the car.