If I was to buy a registered pre 73 buggy and the engine was larger than stated on log book what would my be my best option ? Risk changing the log book or simply say it is the cc on the log book when insuring ? After all, I'm not a mechanic, so who am i to argue with the v5 ? Your opinions please.

Maybe not one to be discussed on an open forum if youre planning to commit any sort of fraud?

You can not tell how many cc's an engine is without stripping it down, who would ever strip it down to look 

Rob

I would prefer to be honest to any insurance company, always have been, but would they know what it is down as on the log book ? If so would they want a mechanics report on the engine change ? Am I thinking too much into it ?

If it's pre 73 then just change it. Dvla have removed the requirement for documentary evidence now for pre 73 vehicles.

Just send the v5 off and they send it back changed.

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/engine-change-documentation/

Jon

Wonder what an insurance perspective would be on it , could a-plan insurance assist in a perspective ?

If it's pre 73 then just change it. Dvla have removed the requirement for documentary evidence now for pre 73 vehicles.

Just send the v5 off and they send it back changed.

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/engine-change-documentation/

Jon

thats probably my best option Jon if I buy this buggy, change the cc when changing the owner, then insuring it with the new cc, I'm not exactly a whipper snapper so it shouldn't make my premium much higher anyhow.

change the cc when changing the owner

Do it after the change of ownership, just do one thing at a time with the DVLA, anything more just confuses them...

[change one thing at a time]

Exactly as Manx David says...

Go ahead and change the engine on the log book - there is no issues with doing that (its unrelated to the whole V5 debate).
But change it after change of ownership comes back - change one thing at a time. Also the same applies to colour change for the body.

And yes strictly speaking on a pre'73 car you don't need the letter from the garage confirming its been done. (though you may well get someone at DVLA who isn't 100% aware of that and still assume you do need a letter and start insisting you do. My advice would be change yourself but get a covering letter from your local friendly VW air-cooled garage just to confirm it in a letter, and send that in with the form anyway. No need to get DVLA chappie arguing with you about it)

[change one thing at a time]

Exactly as Manx David says...

Go ahead and change the engine on the log book - there is no issues with doing that (its unrelated to the whole V5 debate).
But change it after change of ownership comes back - change one thing at a time. Also the same applies to colour change for the body.

And yes strictly speaking on a pre'73 car you don't need the letter from the garage confirming its been done. (though you may well get someone at DVLA who isn't 100% aware of that and still assume you do need a letter and start insisting you do. My advice would be change yourself but get a covering letter from your local friendly VW air-cooled garage just to confirm it in a letter, and send that in with the form anyway. No need to get DVLA chappie arguing with you about it)

DEFINATELY wot they said 

H

Also when changing engine size they want the exact size, eg, 1285cc rather than a generic '1300'.

I made the mistake of changing two things (colour and engine number) on a motorcycle last year.  It was like the V5 went into a black hole, didn't get it back for months, and then only after a large number of phonecalls.  I'm guessing they have different departments dealing with different types of changes!

I won't be doing that again - it seriously isn't worth the risk.

There is no doubt that the DVLA records must be maintained as accurrate, and I`ve never had any issues when changing one thing at a time.

But you can understand their thinking if you try to alter lots of things in one go, as they are going to be wondering "what the hell do you have there?" and if they think that their records are so far out, then they may understandably start calling things into question.

Drip feeding the changes is the way to go 

Cheers guys, I take on board all you have said, one last Q.. If I insure it with real engine size without changing the smaller size on V5 will I get any comebacks ?

I wouldn't risk it, insurance companies are buggers and will try anything to wriggle out of a claim.

If you're going to insure it at its true size you may as well get the V5C changed.