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Classic Cars Reunited

by John Cooper

What is it?

This facility on the site has been devised to allow people to trace their former vehicles.

There are 2 aspects to using the facility. Firstly, if you are interested in tracing a vehicle from your past then you can simply search through the vehicles listed.

The second, and most important, aspect of the facility is adding your own vehicles to the list. What I would ideally like is for everyone to add the details of all classic cars that they have previously owned and currently own.

Why should I use it?

You may well understandably ask any or all of the following questions:

• Why should I add my current car? – I know where it is!
• I’m not interested in the history of my car, so why should I add it?
• I’m not particularly interested in what happened to my previous cars, so once again, why should I add them?

The answer to all of these is the same really and comes back to the fundamental success criteria of the facility and the desire to assist your fellow enthusiasts.

This facility will only really be successful if there are a significant number of vehicles listed. If there is only a handful on there, then the chances of spotting one you’re interested in are very remote. However, if everyone added just 3 or 4 then there would be 1000’s and all of a sudden there’s a fair chance of finding your first car, or the one that you learned to drive in! How many of you can’t think of at least half a dozen classic cars you’ve had in the past?

The second part of the answer is about helping your fellow enthusiasts. This is a bit harder to justify and really relies upon your willingness to help them for no other reason than they would like your help. It quite understandable if you are not interested in tracing the history of your car, but what about the previous owners who may be keen to know what happened to it? Does it seem fair that they should miss out just because you are content with what you know?

I would also question whether you really are not interested in knowing more. You may think you’re not interested, but a previous owner may be able and willing to provide you with missing pieces of the cars paperwork, history and provenance which may in turn add to the value of your car when you come to sell it.

How do I use it?

Okay, that’s enough of the sales pitch. By now I’m sure you’re all sold on the idea and wondering how to use it.

Viewing the cars already listed is easy – just use the link on the main menu. You will be able to look through all of the cars listed by make and model. If you see a car that you are interested in then you can send a message to the person that added the listing. As with the rest of the site, personal contact details are never displayed and you need to be logged in to send a message.

To add details of your car(s), you need to login and then use the ‘My listings’ option on the menu. This page will allow you to either create a new listing or manage your existing listings.

Creating a new listing should be intuitive. The only details that you have to complete are the make and model. All other details are optional so just leave them blank if you don’t know them. Bear in mind though, that the more you can complete the better the chances are of finding the car you’re looking for.

You can use the extra details section for anything else you remember about the car or any personal recollections.

In an ideal world, all you should need to identify a car would be the registration, but things are never that simple. Registrations do get traded, particularly on older cars, engines are changed and cars do get shipped around the world. In recognition of these facts, then I recommend that if you changed a significant element of the car which other people may recognise it by, add 2 entries for the car.

This is probably best explained by an example. Imagine you bought your beloved Morris Minor with a registration of ABC123 but during your ownership you changed the registration to DEF456 and then later sold the car. If you list the car as ABC123 then later owners are not to know that the registration was changed and would never make the connection with the car. If on the other hand you had listed it as DEF456 then the previous owners would have similar difficulties making the connection. The solution is to add it twice and maybe make a note in the extra details section linking the 2.

And I think that’s all you need to know about the new facility. I hope you’ll find it a valuable addition to the site and I sincerely hope you’ll contribute to it because as I’ve tried to stress, its success really depends upon everyone adding their cars, both past and present.

In the unlikely event that you wish to contact me regarding this article then please visit the contact us page.