The 'E' Type Forum

How did this scheme work back in the day, 1962 in this case?

I just found out that my car was supplied directly from Jaguar Cars Ltd. (as the distributor) to a titled English gentleman as a Personal Export Delivery with a WK (Coventry) registration number. The purchaser later took it to Jersey where he had connections and where it was eventually registered for a while. It was presumably sold, then imported into England in the mid 60s before being sold to the guy I bought it from.

Unlike other Personal Export cars I've heard about, this car is a perfectly standard RHD home market model with a 9:1 engine and all the other features of the UK version.

I seem to remember some registration plates in the 60s had a yellow border which signified that purchase tax had not been paid and therefore car would need to be exported within a certain time. Is that what this would have been?

I have no recollection of a yellow bordered number plate in the UK . I do recall QQ and similar plates for temporary registrations of cars imported by American servicemen . In any event, it would not tell you the date by which export had to be made . Also, I'm not sure that when you bought the car, PT was not paid . I rather think it was like aviation fuel for international flights , where you paid the duty on purchase, but reclaimed it ( "drawback" was the term used ) on proof of export of , in that case, the fuel .

As I understand it, yellow border plates were used between '62 and '73 to signify that the purchase tax had not been paid - and red border ones to signify the same (or VAT not paid by that stage) between '73 and '93. I can remember lots of the red ones were owned by military personnel who would take the cars out to Europe - but they were later discouraged as it tended to make them an easy target for terrorists. Q-plates were issued to vehicles where the registration date could not be proved beyond doubt - so cars imported, some kit cars, etc. X is now used for export cars - with the second letter denoting which month it was UK registered.

I have a Series 3 V12 FHC which I brought as an abandoned restoration 3 years ago. It is an early Series 3 car.
From the Heritage Certificate the Original Distributor:- British Leyland Ireland
the Original Dealer:- Personal Export Delivery via Rose and Young, London

The first owner was believed to be a Greek gentleman. It still has its original VWK Coventry registration and has always been a RHD car
I don't believe that it was ever exported as I think it was sold on quite quickly. Haven't seen any original number plates

My sister and husband moved to Malawi as soon as they got married in 68. They bought a new white Cortina estate for export, which had yellow-border black/silver pressed F plate.

Stuart Exelby wrote:As I understand it, yellow border plates were used between '62 and '73 to signify that the purchase tax had not been paid - and red border ones to signify the same (or VAT not paid by that stage) between '73 and '93. I can remember lots of the red ones were owned by military personnel who would take the cars out to Europe - but they were later discouraged as it tended to make them an easy target for terrorists. Q-plates were issued to vehicles where the registration date could not be proved beyond doubt - so cars imported, some kit cars, etc. X is now used for export cars - with the second letter denoting which month it was UK registered.

Thanks Stuart. So the purchaser would have been able to save almost 30% on a new E-Type at that time. A Coupe would only have cost about £1,550 then. What a bargain!

And I guess purchase tax would have been paid when the car was eventually imported into the UK. When I bought it there was no tax collected on used cars of course.