vauxhallviva.com

Hello All,

I hope you will bear with me as I am a bit of an interloper and not a Viva owner. I've joined because I'm hoping that one of the members here might have some knowledge/memory of Silver Line Motors, which was a/the Vauxhall/Bedford dealership in Welwyn Garden City in the 1960s. The reason for my interest is that Silver Line Motors registered my brand new Mark 2 Jaguar 3.4 in October 1966 (it left the factory in April that year for the distributor, Henlys). I have a pretty full history of the car except for anything about the first owner other than his/her name - G Mustoe (that's according to Jaguar's own records). I had originally thought that he/she might have been a Director or senior employee of Silver Line Motors, or of its parent company, the Welwyn Motor Company. However, today I found out that as well as registering my Jaguar during the week of 3 October 1966, at least one other Jaguar, a blue 2.4 Mark 2, was registered by Silver Line Motors along with, as you would expect, numerous HA Vivas. According to the DVLA, some of these cars still exist, or at least have not been recorded as scrapped. All of them were registered in the series SNK800D - SNK820D. So apart from the unlikely possibility of finding out any more about the original owner; my new question is whether anyone can shed any light on why Silver Line Motors were registering Jags as well as the Vivas? It's relevant to point out that Welwyn had a dedicated Jaguar dealer at the time, Denis Barley & Son. In case it is of interest, I have attached a 1964 advert for the HA by Silver Line Motors which I found recently. Thanks in advance for anything anyone might be able to tell me!

Hello, DVLA has no record of SNK800D or SNK820D when I look them up.

Peter

There are a four in the series on the DVLA database. Two Jaguars and two Vauxhalls. One Jaguar is still taxed, I assume that is the original poster's car. They all seem to be blue or white. Police cars possibly or a hire fleet?

SNK 812D
✗ Untaxed
Tax due:
1 January 1987
Incorrect tax status?
MOT
No results returned
Incorrect MOT status?
WarningIf you’ve just bought this vehicle the tax or SORN doesn’t come with it. You’ll need to tax it before driving it.
Vehicle Details
Vehicle make
VAUXHALL
Date of first registration
October 1966
Year of manufacture
1966
Cylinder capacity
1057 cc
CO₂ emissions
Not available
Fuel type
PETROL
Euro status
Not available
Real Driving Emissions (RDE)
Not available
Export marker
No
Vehicle status
Untaxed
Vehicle colour
BLUE
Vehicle type approval
Not available
Wheelplan
2 AXLE RIGID BODY
Revenue weight
Not available
Date of last V5C (logbook) issued
22 July 1985

SNK 816D
✗ Untaxed
Tax due:
1 February 1987
Incorrect tax status?
MOT
No results returned
Incorrect MOT status?
WarningIf you’ve just bought this vehicle the tax or SORN doesn’t come with it. You’ll need to tax it before driving it.
Vehicle Details
Vehicle make
VAUXHALL
Date of first registration
October 1966
Year of manufacture
1966
Cylinder capacity
1057 cc
CO₂ emissions
Not available
Fuel type
PETROL
Euro status
Not available
Real Driving Emissions (RDE)
Not available
Export marker
No
Vehicle status
Untaxed
Vehicle colour
WHITE
Vehicle type approval
Not available
Wheelplan
2 AXLE RIGID BODY
Revenue weight
Not available
Date of last V5C (logbook) issued
17 September 1986
View the tax rates for this vehicle
If you have the latest 11 digit reference number from the V5C registration certificate (logbook) you can view the tax rates for this vehicle.

Incorrect vehicle details?

Hi There, thanks for responding. Yes, one of the Jags registered in the series is mine. I've checked on the other one as far as I can and can't find out what has happened to it since it was last taxed in 2007. Details of all three Vauxhall cars are attached (the forum won't let me upload more than three attachments). From what little I do know, Silver Line Motors did run a hire car business, but I can't quite get my head around why they would want Mark 2 Jaguars in the hire fleet given the cost and bearing in mind that demand for hire cars was very different back then. However, this is one of the areas I was interested in picking up if any of the members had any knowledge/recollection of the business.

I had a look at the pdf files you posted and SNK815D is probably a Victor going by the engine size.

1972nail wrote:I had a look at the pdf files you posted and SNK815D is probably a Victor going by the engine size.

That seems to be true:

Tony Collingridge wrote:my new question is whether anyone can shed any light on why Silver Line Motors were registering Jags as well as the Vivas?

I've an idea that back then, dealers were a little less fixed in the manufacturers that they could source. Where now you wouldn't think of going to a Ford dealer to ask if they could source you a Vauxhall, back then I don't think it was such a big deal.

Thanks for that - yes I guess things were a little more relaxed around the dealers in those days. Still seems a bit odd to me that they had two (or maybe more) apparent orders for Jags when there was an existing Jaguar main dealer in the town. However, the Mark 2s were on their way out then so perhaps Silver Line Motors were able to offer better prices or something. Interesting. I shall keep at it - I'm determined to find out more. I've so much history on the car from the second owner in 1972, it's a shame not to have more on the first! Thanks again. Any further thoughts/knowledge out there would be gratefully received!