Registration of Older/Classic Vehicles

The Motor Vehicle Register was computerised in 1986 by NZ Post. Any vehicle with a live rego in 1988 will be on the current system (the MVR was copied to the current system in 1996). Between 1986 and 1988 Post deleted a small number of records but most 1986 live regos should also be available.

In many cases the chassis number recorded differs due to spaces, dashes etc - this was one of the reasons VINs were introduced. When these older vehicles with incomplete or vague history are presented to an inspector for registration, the NZTA will provide a search service to look for the old registration plate and record. This is only provided for the inspectors and will typically only be done when you present the car for re-registration. As there are some potential security issues if we inspection, VINing and document checking are not all done together.

The NZTA Motor Vehicle Register does not officially hold any inspection data prior to 1994. Some records may be present which are from inspection records dating back to 1995 and some odometer records which from change of ownership when the customer used to record the odometer reading on the form and which was then entered in the system. These old readings can not be considered 100% accurate.