NSW Elan owners – please help!

[BarryDalHerbert]

The NSW Motor Registry are living up to their reputation of being total money-grabbing turds.

The VIC registered car that I bought a tad over a year ago was incorrectly registered in NSW with a TARE weight of 1270 kg, but I did not notice this until I received the renewal notice. This registered weight puts my car into a different payment class for another $55 a year.

The mistake stems from an innocent enough error where the fella doing the approval inspection read the 1270 kg from the crummy Lotus under-bonnet placard which shows the Max (permissible) Vehicle Weight which is the weight of the vehicle including a full tank of 46 litres of petrol, two occupants and luggage.

The TARE WEIGHT is the weight of the vehicle including 10 litres of fuel.

My calculation:
The S2 owner's manual (page 69) states that the KERB WEIGHT including a full tank of fuel is 1085 kg.
The fuel tank capacity is 46 litres.
Petrol weighs 0.749 per litre.
46 litres of petrol would therefore weigh 34.45 kg.
10 litres of petrol would weigh 7.49 kg.

So the TARE WEIGHT = KERB WEIGHT - 46 litres + 10 litres.
1085 - 34.45 + 7.49 = 1058.04 kg

I wrote to the NSW Motor Registry providing the above information including the attached picture and asking what I had to do to get the weight figure corrected.

I was told to complete a form, take it to the testing station, pay the fee, job done. So I did this, but the same bloke that made the original error didn’t even glace at my calculation, he just directed me to have my car weighed and gave me directions to the nearest public weigh station.

That weigh station is in a private business which has closed. Despite the “find a public weighbridge” heading of a NSW Service web site page there is no information there to find a public weighbridge! The internet tells me that the next nearest public weigh station option is what I consider to be a completely unreasonable three hour round trip total of 220 kms from my home.

I am now in an email fight with the NSW Motor Registry who answer none of my questions in a definitive manner. I have asked them to approve my calculation so that I can avoid having the car weighed, but they clearly don’t give a s**t about my situation and the public servant dealing with my emails is not prepared to actually make a decision in writing that might come back to bite his bum.

My rego has now expired, so I can’t drive the car. But when I do get the car re-registered, the NSW Motor Registry will renew it from the expiry date, so I pay for the the entire period that it was unregistered and I was not allowed to drive the car. Oh yeah! I said that they are total money-grabbing turds…



Finally I come to the point of the help that I need from NSW Elan owners. Please have a look at your registration papers and tell me your registered TARE WEIGHT (bottom left). I can then use this to argue that there has been a mistake for my car and that these vehicles have the correct figure. I will also need your registration number(s), so you can private message me the information if you prefer.

Thanks for the response(s) that I will hopefully swamp me.


BdH
Tuross Head NSW
23-Jun-21 17:44

[attachment=0]TareWeightJustification.png[/attachment]

[Simon_P]

A few suggestions not knowing about your local requirements.

Presumably Approval 8505 has the details that you need, so try and get hold of that. Contact Lotus directly or through the local importer or whoever in
Government keeps the approvals.

Often a letter from a recognised car club will do the trick.
Ask Club Lotus - they have the contacts and standing to provide the relevant detail.

[robertverhey]

I have an elan that has been registered in Qld and also (currently registered) in Tas. Have rego papers from both jurisdictions that should show tare weight. But I’m currently in NSW and should be back in Tas next week (subject to current Covid restrictions). Will see what the papers say. Meanwhile a couple of things

- you may find it easier in the long run to cancel your current registration and go with a blue slip inspection and new registration. A new tare weight could be entered in the paperwork as part of that process.
- it is legal to drive an unregistered car by most direct route to nearest convenient weighbridge for purposes associated with registering vehicle. In your case that might be a long drive, but technically legal, just make sure you have a record of some sort (email or text exchange) to show the wallopers in case you get pulled over.
- have you considered club registration? You only need a pink slip for this (no matter how long since your rego has lapsed) and then the rego will only cost you $46 a year, with limited days on the road (60 a year I think).

Robert

[BarryDalHerbert]

Both are good suggestions, and thank you.

I fear that the NSW Motor Registry person I have been dealing with is just being bloody minded, and using common sense and logic with him has proved to be pointless, he just provides tick and flick replies. Standard bureaucracy I suppose, and it differs very little the world over.

There are currently solutions for me, the long drive, the payment to have the car weighed (which wasn't necessary when the Lotus maximum vehicle weight figure was used in error as the TARE, so why now are figures also supplied by Lotus that do by calculation arrive at the correct TARE not acceptable?), payment for the blue slip (kinda like the annual MOT test in the UK for those reading along), all to correct a mistake not of my making. All of this will cost me about double the $55 refund from last year that I will no doubt have to work hard to be paid.

I'll keep working at it...

BdH
Tuross Head NSW
24-Jun-21 09:50