Tracking down history of my convertible

Post Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:59 pm

Hi there, i was wondering if anyone else here has tried to and succeeded in finding out info on a car originally delivered in France?

I drive a 1986 325i, imported to the Netherlands in 1996. Here in the Netherlands with the registration you can see limited info about the car.

I'm trying on basis of the VIN number to find the original French registration and maybe through that a little more info about the car, like where its from, maybe even some more service info,how many previous owners etc etc.

Obviously the car doesn't have the original service book, only after its restoration in 2010.

Thanks in advance
Mark

Post Mon Jul 07, 2014 11:32 pm

enter last seven of vin to get some info of where it was built and what it left the factory with

http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html

Post Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:58 pm

hi, I live in France at the moment and have also tried to track down provenance of my BMW with some success, but still ultimately failing to get the thing registered in France. What I was after was proof that the car was built with the LSD it now has. But That's another story....

But a few random comments -

- Try BMW classics in germany (they've got their own website) as they have access to all the archive info held by BMW, and they can be contacted by telephone. They might have the name of the dealer that took delivery, plus other info. Their job is to help owners like us (well the richer the better, as then we'll be tempted to drop 20K on a full resto) but if you get the right person on the line they could reveal a lot of info.

- registrations in France were handled locally by each department, they were then centralised into a national system only a couple of years ago. Also many records would at that stage might be paper based, not neccessarly computerised, so difficult to search. But the 2 digit number in the registration gives the location of the car.

- The VIN itself number might not lead to the french reg number, but what about the paperwork involved in taking it from France to NL? That must have been quite a papertrail?

- Have a look all round the car for bits of labels / stickers etc that might give a clue to the dealer in France that took the car originally. Its surprising what you can find, and the dealer might still be around. If so, they may still have records of the vehcile (the French love admin stuff).

- BMW France are in general a bunch of useless ******s when compared to how helpful Bracknell or BMW export can be. Don;t expect any help from BMW France.

- But finally, these days more and more stuff is being put online in france so you might have some luck putting the VIN number in some french Ministry of Transport sites at some stage in the future.

Post Fri Jul 11, 2014 3:57 pm

Thanks for the replies.
Alp cab ... That is very helpful however the car was fully restored in 2010 by the boss of the previous owner, so no luck with stickers. Also a new book

was started then too. I have a few pics from the resto but the last owner doesn't have his file anymore.

The car came to the Netherlands in 1996, so it was long before my time.
I will search some more for French records and see what comes up.

Thanks again for the replies.

Mark