Importing Series 3 to Australia

The Series Landrover station wagons were designed as ten seaters, but for the UK market, to quote John Smith's book "..in early 1962 a 12 seater version also became available. This was primarily intended for 'Home' consumption, as Rover had found a nice little loophole in the law" - it became a bus hence no purchase tax, making the price UKP950 not UKP1293. The side seats were about six inches longer.

I am certain these were never sold in Australia, although a few may have found their way here. Most if not all Counties were sold as nine seaters, possibly because of the NSW bus definition, or simply to provide more storage in line with the 'County" specification.

John

My 110 (1988) has an omnibus compliance plate with seating for 10 persons marked on it - yes it has the front centre seat and 2x2 side facing seats in the back with seat belts.

I'd love to make it a 5 seater, but recompliancing it is not something I really want to do....

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Originally Posted by EchiDna

good in theory, bad in practice - rebirthing is illegal.

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Yes it is but REBUILDING/ RESTORING is perfectly legal and done by everyone. Most cars over 50 years that where actually driven are grandfathers axe cases(how many s2 and 2a have s3 front panels, county doors etc!?) with almost every part from the headlights to the rear bumper replaced , repainted or restored over time the only diff. being it's usually done 1 bit(a respray this year, a reco carby the next and last year reco'ed the gearbox,etc) at a time not the whole shebang. Rebirthing is what they do to stolen/ written off vehicles and is recorded at the RTA so just make sure it's not down (have a look here for $18 can check its history Vehicle history check) as a write off and it can be your restoration project for as long as it takes.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

The Series Landrover station wagons were designed as ten seaters, but for the UK market, to quote John Smith's book "..in early 1962 a 12 seater version also became available. This was primarily intended for 'Home' consumption, as Rover had found a nice little loophole in the law" - it became a bus hence no purchase tax, making the price UKP950 not UKP1293. The side seats were about six inches longer.

I am certain these were never sold in Australia, although a few may have found their way here. Most if not all Counties were sold as nine seaters, possibly because of the NSW bus definition, or simply to provide more storage in line with the 'County" specification.

John

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At GM-H we had a related problem with the first Isuzu small buses imported about 1972. I forget the actual number of seats they had but they were definitely a bus by legal definition and a driver required a bus licence. This was a bit of a marketing drawback as many potential buyers, clubs, schools, churches and so on did not have a licenced bus driver. If enough seats were removed to avoid this requirement then it became a passenger car and seat belts were required to be fitted to all seats. This would have required local engineering, compliance testing, and local modification to provide anchor points, and belt supply and fitting. This was all too much for my seniors and the Isuzu buses were dropped from the range.

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Originally Posted by frantic

Yes it is but REBUILDING/ RESTORING is perfectly legal and done by everyone. Most cars over 50 years that where actually driven are grandfathers axe cases(how many s2 and 2a have s3 front panels, county doors etc!?) with almost every part from the headlights to the rear bumper replaced , repainted or restored over time the only diff. being it's usually done 1 bit(a respray this year, a reco carby the next and last year reco'ed the gearbox,etc) at a time not the whole shebang. Rebirthing is what they do to stolen/ written off vehicles and is recorded at the RTA so just make sure it's not down (have a look here for $18 can check its history Vehicle history check) as a write off and it can be your restoration project for as long as it takes.

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rebirthing is moving a Vin from car A to Car B - aka removing the compliance plate and moving it to another vehicle. What you do is your business, but personally I would not recommend anyone to remove a compliance plate from a firewall and put it on another vehicle without getting approval from the authroities...

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

At GM-H we had a related problem with the first Isuzu small buses imported about 1972. I forget the actual number of seats they had but they were definitely a bus by legal definition and a driver required a bus licence. This was a bit of a marketing drawback as many potential buyers, clubs, schools, churches and so on did not have a licenced bus driver. If enough seats were removed to avoid this requirement then it became a passenger car and seat belts were required to be fitted to all seats. This would have required local engineering, compliance testing, and local modification to provide anchor points, and belt supply and fitting. This was all too much for my seniors and the Isuzu buses were dropped from the range.

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IIRC 19 seats.

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Originally Posted by EchiDna

rebirthing is moving a Vin from car A to Car B - aka removing the compliance plate and moving it to another vehicle. What you do is your business, but personally I would not recommend anyone to remove a compliance plate from a firewall and put it on another vehicle without getting approval from the authroities...

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Just to put this in context, I don't think that a 1970 2a will have a compliance plate! Certainly mine does not.

John

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

At GM-H we had a related problem with the first Isuzu small buses imported about 1972. I forget the actual number of seats they had but they were definitely a bus by legal definition and a driver required a bus licence. ....<snip>

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Back in 1975 when I bought my first SIIa 109 10 seat wagon the rules in NSW were that a "class 1" (now "C") licence were permitted to carry no more than 8 passengers.

All I had to do was go the the motor registry tell them the issue about my privately registered 10 seat wagon and my licence was endorsed to drive a vehicle with the additional seats. From memory the number they endorsed the licence for was 16 seats, which came in really useful when the UNSW x-country ski team wanted to go on training weekends, we could get one of the Uni's mini-busses and I drove it. It was also a problem as being the only one so endorsed I had to drive both ways and also ski on the team. :( :( :Thump:

My series 3 stage 1 3.9d was registered as a bus here in Queensland.The bloke I bought it from was a Clerk of Petty Sessions in a Queensland country town.He probably knew how to get it registered as such. It had the double rear seats.
It's long gone now.
Cheers,
John ( disco 44)

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

It is quite possible that the number of seats that make it a bus is different to the number of seats you can drive on a car licence - the answers to this are probably on the RTA website somewhere - but I always find it impossible to find anything on that website - it would have to be one of the worst ones I know of!

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Originally Posted by thethink

I did some digging...

[snip]

...So the threshold is 10 seats.

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Thanks Geoff - seems I am incorrect! :angel:

I'm not sure I want to know how my former employer has all these 12 seater vehicles registered as cars! :eek: Having experienced their methods of 'problem solving' I would put nothing past them... :o


My apologies John. :)