Don’t mess with the VIN

Got an old dunger of a car and planning on selling off its parts?

Thinking you can sell the VIN tags?

Not on Trade Me, mate. 

Believe it or not, this practice is actually against the law under the Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Standards Compliance 2002.

Any tampering with the VIN tags is illegal and therefore the tags cannot be sold on Trade Me.

What the heck’s a VIN?

A Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is a unique 17-character code that identifies your vehicle. The VIN is used to combat fraud and for the NZTA to identify a vehicle for registration purposes.

The VIN can be found stamped into the body of your car (often the firewall), stamped on a metal plate fixed to the body of your vehicle or etched into the rear window of the vehicle.

If a vehicle has been identified by a Transport Service Delivery Agent (TSDA) as having the VIN tags tampered with, they must report this to the police and the NZTA.

This means that your vehicle can be blocked from receiving a Warrant of Fitness, making it un-roadworthy.

Hang on a minute, what if I’m selling my rear windows and the VIN has been etched into the glass?

This is fine and can be listed on Trade Me, however it’s probably wise to mention the etching in your listing description for transparencies' sake.

The moral of the story here is to ensure that any fitting/removal/transferring of VIN tags is performed by a TSDA to ensure your vehicle can stay on the road

Any listings found to be offering vehicle identities for sale on the site will be removed.

We also note that we have a strong working relationship with NZTA who have demonstrated a keen interested in such listings.

Creative Commons image used courtesy serialnumberplate on Flickr.