Hi guys, just joined the board in anticipation of bringing over a Defender from France and no doubt dealing with lots of the same issues some of you guys have already dealt with.

I've been considering this for a while and having a brother in France I've finally decided to give it a go. I've read a lot of good advice on what makes a good choice, all original, no mods, matching numbers, etc and have we have found what seems to be a good vehicle, a 1991 LHD 90, pic attached. I noticed that the VIN has an "A" under body type but I had expected it to be a "B" for 3 door station wagon. In looking at other rigs currently for sale there are other 3 doors with the "A", but not wanting to end up with a problem with Customs I figured I'd throw it out to see if anyone knows if this is normal.

Much thanks in advance,

Rob

 

Maybe it was a pickup or soft top originally?

https://www.firstfour.co.uk/land-rover-vin/

 

Yep, that's my concern, I hear that anything not completely original can be an issue when importing. Having said that over half of the Defender 90's currently listed for sale on eBay or Autotrader have the same designation on their VIN so maybe it's just the way it was done.

Rob

 

I'm no import-expert...but...l don't believe this would disqualify this defender from entry. I believe, from casual reading on the topic, if the correct engine, trans, frame vin number and vin tag all match or correspond with one another and it's 25 years old...it's good to go. But, again...no expert in the least. However, the "A" "B" references are pretty vague, in my opinion.

You could go over to the "defendersource.com" website...much more knowledgeable folks about these concerns/issues there.

Good luck.

 

I'll try my luck over there, thanks for the tip.

Rob