South African Betas

[Paul Greenway]

Does anyone know if any Beta's or Montecarlo's were assembled in South Africa. I may be interested in a car that has been imported to the UK from South Africa however don't know (and have asked vendor to confirm) if all were assembled in Turin and exported to South Africa or assembled over there.
If cars were assembled over there how can you tell and will South African assembled cars be seen as lesser variants?
Any advise welcome, thanks.

[neil-yaj396]

Paul

Betas were shipped to SA as knock down kits (KND)and assembled there to avoid the circa 100% duty on imported cars back then. I'm not sure about Montes as I've never seen a SA one.

Fulvias were assembled at the Daihatsu plant but they moved from there for the Beta and I can't recall the name of the company that built them. The Spec was very similar to UK cars, so no problems there (KM Speedo though). They have the original Lancia VIN plate plus an additional SA assembly plate usually showing a shortened version of the VIN.

I had a recently imported SA Spider inspected last week and the Club has dated loads of SA Fulvias, they are usually in very good condition. Great care is needed with the SA paperwork before/if it is to be submitted to DVLA, as some documents describe the cars as 'Built Up' referring to the KND process. DVLA nearly always take this as indicating a bitsa or cut and shut car and insist on a Q plate. I've written to them describing the above process which was common in the 70s/80s but they won't have it.....

[arguti]

It is potentially a minefield. i brought over a Beta coupe that I inherited and have imported a number of alfas from SA. I grew up in SA and worked as a student in an Alfa service dealership in holidays.

CKD kits are not built up - if it says built up on SA registration document you may well land up with a Q plate or worse still, listed as Cat D by DVLA.

This is do with how NATIS (SA DVLA) maintains registration as there is no equivalent to SORN in SA. if you stop paying your annual licence fees, you can apply to take vehicle off the road BUT if and when you re-apply to put back on road, it will be registered as "opgebou" or "built up". Same applies if stolen, insurance write off, etc. If stolen and recovered, police often stamp out original chassis number and affix a new "chassis" number on car.

None of my CKD Alfas and Lancias brought over from SA were "built up"

Mine was a nightmare as prior to export, the car has to be microdotted for security purposes and undergo police inspection for export clearance and the Police could not find the engine number so was trailered up and down until they eventually signed it off (don't think they ever saw it, just got tired of seeing same car) and second problem was Fiat/Lancia archives had a different build date to the SA registration certificate, FIAT UK insisting it had been built after it was first registered in SA! Lancia SA also had a fire or flood at some point and a lot of the historical data was lost.

Ok, many of these issues do not apply to a SA car that is already in UK.

For a SA car already in the UK:

Check NOVA (VAT declaration) has been paid -if not, please check with HMRC otherwise could be substantial back penalties for non declaration even if nil owning -ask me how i know.
Check the SA registration certificate and please
Thoroughly check the quality of any SA restoration work !!!!

HTH

I will try dig up a brief guide I produced a while back as some of the Alfas I brought over were limited edition (GTV6 3.0) and some SA restoration companies are known to be producing quite good fakes so tread carefully if thinking of bringing over a car and there are some fairly sophisticated scammers out in SA who specifically prey on gullible and trusting overseas buyers. I personally would not trry bring a car over from Sa unless you personally know the vendor or have someone out there that can verify the vehicle, etc.  

 

[Paul Greenway]

Thanks Arguti,

I have now seen the car that I am interested in, it was originally built in RHD form in Italy in Spring '81 and was exported to SA in early '82. It was imported into the UK in '92 and has resided here ever since on a (correct) 'W' plate to five UK owners. There is a comprehensive SH with it and numerous copies of previous V5's with it so there shouldn't be any tax related issues or monies owed. I have agreed a deal on it subject to a number of items being completed, so fingers crossed everything is in order.