How did you get that number ?
(Updated end of May)
It's quite easy James if you know the registrations of the Murena you want to check. You can go onto the DVLA website and check any car and whether it is taxed or M.o.T'd and if you check my website, on the index page you will find a figure for the number of Djet/Jet, M530, Bagheera, and Murena on the road at a particular date. Currently, at the end of May 2023, it is 30 Murena on the road, but it is often changing as owners have them SORN over winter and then put them back on the road for summer, or there may be other reasons why they have them off the road such as for repairs. But you have to know all the registrations and check each one individually, because if you try to do a general search under 'Matra' or 'Murena' you will never get any meaningful information!
Also with the Murena now getting into the 40 year bracket, some are being changed to VHI (Historic) class and will no longer need an M.o.T. and may be shown as 'taxed' even though actually it is off the road for a short time, say a month or two having repairs, or during winter if the DVLA are not notified as SORN. Also it appears DVLA don't record those 'over 40 year old cars' correctly, and some that have since been sold abroad can still appear as if they in the U.K. and taxed! I know of several Matra like that. Also if a search says 'Not found' it may be the car has been put on a personalised registration, so unless you know it, it can be missed.
The DVLA computer software was never set up properly (IMHO) and cannot really cope with anything other than the main manufacturers and their vehicles. The operators only have to input a code for any given car, the code given to them by the manufacturer, and that code number then inputs all the relevant car data. So the operator doesn't fill in things like Make or Model, configuration etc. they simply type in a code and it all gets filled in automatically. But as Matra was not a main manufacturer and didn't supply DVLA with any codes for their cars, DVLA have to input the information manually. The first problem then is how accurate was the information that was supplied to them? Many times not very accurate! So for instance one Murena is recorded as a Chrysler! Yet Chrysler had sold their interest in Rootes and Simca long before the Matra Murena was made, so that is recorded under the wrong manufacturer for a start. Others have been registered as Talbot-Matra, some as Talbot Matra (N.B. no hyphen) some as Talbotmatra (!), some as just Talbot, whilst one has been recorded as Tolbot, another recorded as a Matka and another as a Malra (all incorrect spellings!) and so on. I have found Matra listed under 36 different possible manufacturers 'names' as each minor difference is 'seen' by the computer as different!
Even your own Murena is recorded incorrectly as it has the name Murena and engine size as the Manufacturer!! That line should be the Manufacturers name, Matra in this case, not the model and certainly not the engine capacity! In fact many times the engine capacity is wrong anyway with two Murena being recorded as having 22cc engines!! Some that came from Germany have 2128cc as the capacity but that is the German fiscal rating not the actual capacity which is still 2155cc.
When the operator has to fill in the manufacturers name manually, then the computer software prohibits them from filling in the model name (don't ask me why, but that is how it has been set up) so when they put Matra as the manufacturer, they cannot then put Murena as the model, so my log books show Matra as the manufacturer, which is correct, but there is nowhere on the log book that shows what model it is. (if you know, then the engine capacity of 2155cc would tell you it is probably a Murena although two have 3 litre V6 engines!)
So you are never going to get accurate information from DVLA for rare cars or manufacturers that on not on the list 'known to them' which supply codes for the vehicles, you'll only get accurate info. on mainstream stuff. Other clubs such as Alpine, and even Standard have trouble with DVLA. I have been through this so many times over the years and even taken it up with DVLA but they are never going to change.
Roy
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