my ford coug

A

andybroon

Forum user
Feb 7, 2012
45
1
aberdeen
Hey all im Andy and i have quite a few cars from a mk5fiesta with a rsturbo engine to a ex CID omega and 2cougars+ more. i just wanted to join a cougar club as there are not too many up this neck of the woods.and also to ask some questions about my latest one :). Hope i gt to meet some of you at meets etc aswell :) OH and also is there any club stickers i can get ;)
Right to the car i have just recently purchased my 2nd coug but this one is puzzling me i do not have the original log book but what i do have is what looks like a import sheet kind of thing. I am done a little reseach on the plant it has came from etc and about how the cougars came to britain and what i have came upon is quite interesting.
There were quite alot of cougar taken from the states to germany to get light fitted and to compleate the right hand drive process, But there were a slight few that got compleated in the us and sent straight over (making it an import) and technically a mercury. i have went by the VIN which the 11th character matches up with the U.S plant it was made and the character for saying it was compleated in europe means nothing. So what i have came to the conclusion of is that it is a import direct from the U.S, But can anyone on here help me out with how i find out a list of VIN numbers that were direct imports?
cheers
 
Hi Andy, welcome to the loony bin :)
Not sure on the direct import bit but if you decide to hang around and stump up your subs, theres an encyclopaedia of info inside and access to members who know a shed load about the big cats and how to fix or modify/upgrade or whatever you wish lol theres a few guys up your end of the world too, cat owners and ex cat owners, so have a nose round and make yerself at home (y)
 
Hi Andy and welcome to the home of the Cougar. Nice to see a fellow Scot joining up with us. The Local Scottish meet is held in April at ShellBay camp site in Elie when we have a get together for a few days. Would be nice to see you attending this. More info will be posted soon. Just look out for the SCOTFEST 2010 thread.
 
Hello and welcome

Have you decoded the VIN on Ford Etis?

http://www.etis.ford.com/vehicleRegSelector.do;jsessionid=B506BB30CCAB6B0CB9D2C4C50C123842.fcvas507

US VIN's are different to EURO VIN's - Euro ones start WF0....US original build are different...
All built at the Auto Alliance (Mazda/Ford) plant at Flat Rock, Michigan, then finished off to RHD-spec in Germany

What colour is it? Any pics would help us help you

I'd imagine only the DVLA or possibly Ford could help you with an accurate number of 'IMPORTS'

I've seen a Cougar in the UK that wasn't on ETIS by reg number and of non-standard UK colour with Mercury badging (52 reg Laser Tint Red)....
Could've been a Ford-car directly imported?

Having said that, if RHD tooling was available in the US, why send them to Cologne to be converted? Doesn't make sense to do it that way

Perhaps Manos can assist
 
andybroon said:
i have just recently purchased my 2nd coug but this one is puzzling me i do not have the original log book but what i do have is what looks like a import sheet kind of thing.
Click to expand...

Hi Andy and welcome to the club, if you've got two of the things then it's clear you like them, so you'll fit in well around here. Regarding your car - it's a long shot, but could your 'import sheet kind of thing' perhaps be the paperwork for repatriating a car back to the UK after it has been abroad with the British Forces? When we serve in (for example) Germany, we can choose to either take our own UK cars out there with us or buy a new UK tax-free car whilst there. If taking our own cars, we have apply for permanent export via the DVLA and then register it with the Forces vehicle licensing organisation who will assign it a new number plate. If buying a new car, we can either travel to the UK, collect it and then drive it back to Germany before following the above process (plus a few extra bits before and after regarding the tax-free purchase) or just have it delivered straight to Germany, where it will be shown as having it's first registration, even though it is a UK spec RHD car. In all cases, if we are subsequently posted back to the UK and wish to bring our cars back with us, we have to deregister them with the Forces VLO and re-register them with the DVLA, this involves 'importing' the car to the UK (even if this was where it originally came from) and there are various forms to be completed and submitted to reflect this happening. As I said, it's a long shot, but your 'imported' car could just be a UK Cougar that went on a squaddie holiday for a bit, it might even be my old one (it's not black is it?....)!

If this is not the case, are there any visual clues that indicate an import, such as an unusual colour or spec, the shape of the rear number plate aperture (US cars have square rear plates) or even LHD (!)? Some pics would be good, as would your number plate if you're happy to post it up here.
 
ok now i am getting really confused... i have used that ford etis thing and it says it was registered in the GB. BUT it says registration number V***KGE which matches the service book i was given BUT now the car is on plates V***LCS and the mots are using that reg too. it also says that it was built on 12/10/1998 but was first registered on26/11/1999 why did that take 13 months? and the paperwork i have is a EXPORT sheet? the spec it has on it says standard 15"alloys optional extra 16"alloys but all uk cougars came with 16 as standard didnt they? ill post on a picture of the sheet soon.
thanx everyone
 
Hi Andy. I'm in Ellon but nobody south of Dundee has ever heard of the place so the profile says Aberdeen :LOL: My first one, T688 UAX is currently SORNed according to DVLA, but my second S958 WHJ is still running around town, but is untaxed according to DVLA - both are silver.

What I can offer is that the Ford systems were/are a mess. My VIN was logged as a Ford Explorer in their systems. Basically they were all built in the USA, then all European ones went to Germany where things like the rear window wiper were added. Most of the US spec cars were rubbish, with manual a/c, drum brakes on the rear, 15" wheels and jelly suspension taken straight from the Contour. Euro spec cars were all specced to equate roughly to the Mondeo's Ghia and Ghia X spec.

Rich may be on to something about a temporary export/reimport, and lots of these cars have had private plates at some point, so may not have kept the original reg on retention. How far back do the service history and MOTs go?
 
Could still be a Forces car. Ordered brand new but delivered to Germany/Cyprus/Gibraltar etc rather than collected in person, first registration with relevant Forces VLO (still GB) under V***KGE. Repatriated to UK and given registration mark V***LCS which then appears on the MOT certs. Cars are not MOTd whilst abroad with the Forces (we have our own equivalent roadworthiness test instead) and wouldn't be needed in any case until the car was 3 years old.

Alternatively, it could originally have been UK registered under V***KGE and then changed to V***LCS as a personalised plate (someone's initials perhaps?) in the three years before it needed an MOT.

That gap between the build date and first registration is not unusual, plenty of cars sit around for that long in massive factory storage yards or even in showrooms before somebody buys them. They will not be first registered until bought (excluding the notional amount that manufacturers register to themselves to massage their sales figures) as dealers want to be able to put whatever is the latest plate on the front of the car they're flogging to Mr Punter, that way they can charge top whack.

Does the export paperwork have any clue as to it's country of origin? A company name perhaps?
 
Thanx for the help its just frying my brain lol. it cant be a private plate because the standard plate will still be registered to the car incase they change it back and there is no record of KGE at all lol. so you think it could be a ex forces car which could have been anywhere? lol no nothing much on the export paperwork but as i said ill put a picture up soon once i get it on my laptop.
 
It's a possiblty mate. Have you asked the previous owner if they know anything of the car's history? If you get no joy elsewhere, I'm sure I can get you the address of the BFGVLO (British Forces Germany Vehicle Licensing Office) who may be willing to check their records for the chassis number for you.
 
The car may have also had a cherished index issued at some point, but not had the original reissued when the cherished was taken off.

e.g. I had a Sierra a few years back, K144 TEY. That index came back to a Ford Fiesta according to Ford(from memory)

type in the VIN to ETIS, that will give you all the original information/index.

With Cougars, it's not unsual for cars to be registered way later than when they were made - mine was made December 2000, but not reg until Aug 2001
Alternatively, write to the DVLA (there is a form plus fee) and they will give you a break down of the cars' history with them, plus previous keepers
 
Welcome to the madhouse Andy. :)

I think the myth of RHD conversion in Germany is a complete load of codswallop. Why would Ford build a LHD car and send it to another country for it to be stripped down and rebuilt with the steering wheel on the other side?
No the UK ones were built as RHD in Flat Rock. All European models had the USA 'sports pack' option as standard (stiffer suspension, better front wishbones, stiffer rear ARB and rear disc brakes). They were all shipped to Germany for distibution around Europe and may have had Euro lights and Ford badges fitted but these were most likely fitted in Flat Rock. (Were the Canadian and Australian Ford Cougars shipped via Germany? - of course not!).

As for the build date, it's pretty common for these cars to be built several months before registration, sometimes more than a year. When it was launched at the end of 1998 it was a swift seller but after about 6 months sales slowed considerably so many sat around unregistered for a long time.
 
too right - not even Ford are that silly!
makes sense that they were either fully assembled in Flat Rock, then simply 'euro-fied' in Germany or partially assembled to a point where they were completed in Germany for distribution there-on
Be interesting to find out perhaps from someone from Auto Alliance/Ford Cologne.
 
I'm with manos on this, why rip out a load of stuff that was installed in the USA, even production lines at that time were more than capable of handling many different guises of the same car, hell even different cars on the same line, as previously posted it may have had a cherished plate added then removed later, they usually like to keep the same nuber but if it had been reallocated, would have issued a new age related one
 
Welcome aboard. I had a rhd sierra ( no laughing please ) in germany which had uk plates and log book. When I came back to the uk it was re registered with another uk plate with same year prefix.
 
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