Bought second hand car, suspect origins.

Hi,

Looking for some advice, feeling a bit worried about a recent car purchase I made from a private seller. It may be okay, but there are a couple of suspicious events in hindsight that may be iffy!

First off, the car is a mitsubishi L200, which I purchased last week. Mechanically etc, it looks fine, it is a 05 with low mileage (40,000). Before purchase, I checked the car on cartell.ie, and it appeared ok. In fact it said it was a UK import (now irish registered), and also gave the results of the uk car check, which also appeared to lok good. VIN number etc all looked good, registration docs everything looks fine.

Suspicions first arose with the following things:-

1) Engine is a 2.8l, whereas most if not all l200's I have seen are in fact 2.5l.
2) After purchase, I noticed a lot of "arabic type" writing on the engine etc.


I was first worried about the engine size and my insurance which was just for a 2.5l, and rang them to tell them. They said engine size was not a critera for the commercial vehicles, so it did not matter.

I double checked the registration documents, and the cartell checks and both documents specified and clarified that it was an l200, first registered in the uk in 2005, and manufactured in 2005! All looks fine, so why am I worried ?

Its still bugging me that the car has all this arabic writing on the engine, and the engine size, so I'm suspicous still, and then start to notice a few other things. Like, the L200 sign is not present, and it is in fact a STRADA.

Feeling really stupid that I did not notice these things first day, but also had a friend with me who was an l200 owner and he did not notice anything here either.

It appears that STRADA is the middleeastern name for L200, so it looks like for all pusposes this is an import from the mid east, but all the registration documents do not point to this at all, either the uk or irish both show first registered in 2005, none identify it as an import (apart from the irish one identifying it as a uk import), so I'm really confused and a bit worried.

Hope someone can advise what best to do here, and what are the risks I need to watch out for. (the car has passed doe just before i purchased, so looks fine). Is my insurance valid, I stated it was an l200, the reg documents say its an l200 etc,

No middle eastern counties drive on the left. Strada seems to be the japenese name for the vehicle. So perhaps it was a japanese import to the UK (possibly new) and then exported to Ireland. I don't think you have any worries. Possession is 9/10ths of the law.

Also I think you have this engine 4M40 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_4M4_engine
Originally available only as a 2.8 L intercooled turbo, detail improvements in 1996 and a larger 3.2 L option in 1999 served to improve power, torque, fuel economy and emissions.

Saw the Strada online that you bought and Thailand came to mind from the decals, is the writing similar to that in the picture here http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/005mce The Thais drive on the left.

PS Driving overland from Thailand would only put about 6000 miles on the clock!

Thanks Davidoco,

Feeling a little more secure now, but will try and see if I can get any more history on it.How do I get more info on the uk history ? The cartell report says its made in 2005, and first reg in the uk was june 2006, so it looks like reg from new!!.

The Irish registration certificate actually just says mitsubishi and a crewcab (it does not say either l200 or strada), but the cartell reports say l200!!

I supppose most important thing in the short term is insurance, as I think the insurance have it as an l200 (i told them it was an l200 as thats what I thought it was!!), which are all 2.5l in ireland, not 2.8l.

edit!! Thailand drives on the left, I think the strada is a thai name for the l200, so it may have come from here!

Imported or not!

davidoco said:

No middle eastern counties drive on the left. Strada seems to be the japenese name for the vehicle. So perhaps it was a japanese import to the UK (possibly new) and then exported to Ireland. I don't think you have any worries. Possession is 9/10ths of the law.

Also I think you have this engine 4M40 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_4M4_engine
Originally available only as a 2.8 L intercooled turbo, detail improvements in 1996 and a larger 3.2 L option in 1999 served to improve power, torque, fuel economy and emissions.

Saw the Strada online that you bought and Thailand came to mind from the decals, is the writing similar to that in the picture here http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/005mce The Thais drive on the left.

PS Driving overland from Thailand would only put about 6000 miles on the clock!

Click to expand...

Hi Davidoco

Yep, the wirting is very similar, I beleive it is of Thai origin. Have done a bit more investigating and here is what I have found

1) Rang mitsubishi Ireland and they confirm that 2.8l version is not available in irish or uk market. They maintain that my vehicle was an independent import into the uk, and this is not unusual apparantly. Also said there would be no issues with spares/parts etc.

2) Rang UK DVLA and confirmed car was manufactured in 2005 and registered in the uk in 2005, so was registered from new.

3)Spoke to another seller on the internet who was selling a strada/l200 in kerry, and it seems his crewcab has similar origins to mine (2005, 38k miles, imported from uk himself, bough from dealer near bristol). Apparrantly he said a few were brought in by the dealer in this way, and this seems to correlate with what mitsubishi ireland said.

I think the above is starting to make things look reasonably ok, I just need to confirm with my insurance company that I am covered in the 2.8l version, as intially I thought it was a 2.5l.

I actually rang them last week and got through to indian call centre, and they said that "there is no opition to put in the engine capacity, so the change does not matter". I suspect that when l200 is put in, it automatically selects 2.5l and that is why, so I need to speak to a local rep to get it confirmed that 2.8l is still ok.