Following the recent thread on the relative merits of buying ex police cars, does anyone have any experience of purchasing ex MOD cars. There is a dealer local to me in Cornwall, Direct2U who supply these vehicles.
On the plus side I would assume that the cars are likely to have good service histories. On the down side they may have been used as pool cars with all the abuse that entails.
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Some of them are bullet proof, great if your on a hit list but not very good for the petrol consumption.
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For East Midlands members there is a dealer selling ex-MOD vehicles, off the A1 to left, about 2 miles South Of Colsterworth southbound (signposted Honeypot Lane Industrial Estate). Most MOD cars (RAF at least) are leased from Avis and presumably get moved on by them. The site I am speaking of has Land Rovers and the like.
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Don't forget Leavesleys @ Alrewas, just off the A38 north of Lichfield at, believe it or not, Alrewas.
Once went to one of those MOD auctions. Chiefly remembered for the opportunity to climb behind the wheel of a Mighty Antar tank transporter.
Could not believe the prices. Stupid money paid for Landies which looked as if they'd been dropped, sans parachute, out of the back of a C130 Herc and then run over by a tank.[1]
[1] pink Chieftain naturally ;-)
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I've no experience of the company, but this is a handy website:
www.witham-sv.com
Gareth
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Thanks to all for the advice and URLs.
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A friend of mine had an Ex MOD diesel Mk4 Escort estate.
Only problem was, cambelt went and he decided to say goodbye to it.
Otherwise OK
H
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You will be looking at base or even special order, low spec, in most cases.
Colours will be limited & mileages, all over the place.
service history is vague, but you can find some OK vehicles, if you like diesel Astra estates & Corsas.Choice of around 120 or so R plate plate Corsas, miles 20-80,000.
You don't need to do any more than visit a Lex Defence sale,(Lex Leasing) within British Car Auctions, selected sites only.
But don't expect to drive it home, as it will be on military plates,you'll have to re-register, no MoT,it'll need to be trailered, as it won't be road legal, & you will pay hefty buyers premium & VAT, in addition to bid price.It may not be as cheap as you first thought!!
VB
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I bought an ex mod Vauxhall Astra from Indianna Queens five yeas ago and the car was great, low mileage and good price. Am now giving to my daughter and would buy another one.
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where is this dealer please/ Could you give me contact details - thanks
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There is such a broad choice for instance MOD orders the general cars in non metalic colours plus with very low spec very often to their own spec. Usually Vauxhalls Astra's and Vectra are favorites. Although as pointed out these are stopping and the army will lease a standard car as it works out cheaper than buying a non standard car and it going for peanuts.
Army (Northern Ireland) used some more attractive stuff - Subaru's Volvo s60 turbo's etc high spec and very very well maintained. V5 gives it away as re registed over on the mainland.
Germany - I brought back 7 Rover 75's which had been staff cars, a few MOD Police cars etc. Very good spec with Sat Nav etc and went to be broken - reason all LHD and worth far more for parts.
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There's not much in the auctions just now - only 15 entries listed - only one car = Astra estate.www.auctionview.co.uk clik on Lex Defence as the sale type search.
That's assuming the search facility is same for non-account customers.
The auction will be able to deliver your purchase, allowing you to sort out the paperwork required to register, once you have everything in order.
VB
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I used to operate an MOD facility as a private contractor, seeing all kinds of vehicles. Broadly, the more up-market the vehicle, the better it was treated. Jags and Rovers were usually driven (well) by MOD drivers and well cared for. "My" Land Rover was driven by all and sundry and felt like it - I'd still like to get my hands on the guy who broke the detent spring guarding reverse - in that vehicle it was a lottery as to whether it would go forwards or backwards when you started off.
659.
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In my experience you can only buy bullet-proof ones for export. You would have to export to France and reimport to get around it, or swap the parts over in France to another car of the same type.
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"where is this dealer please/ Could you give me contact details - thanks"
I believe the dealer in question is now long gone. I just checked the local Phone Book and there is nothing listed under that name at Indian Queens. As I recall, the premises were fairly impermanent in that it was just a large open warehouse, so guess they have just moved on.
Indian Queens is now a lot quieter than it was due to the completion of the new section of the A30, so that may have something to do with it with less passing trade. Previously, all the A30 traffic ran through Indian Queens.
Note the original post was made back in 2003.
Edited by Designer on 28/12/2007 at 19:21
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I noticed that once too when browsing one of these sites, that armoured cars were not to be sold to UK buyers - anyone know why, is there actually a law against this?
Seems a bit odd that the general public can't protect themselves should they be paranoid enough to desire that, even though the chances of being shot at on UK roads is ludicrously small and I've no desire to ever own one myself!
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