How come this Corolla 121 has CBL number?

firstgear · January 11, 2022

I suppose this car is manufactured in 2008?

I am confused as to how it holds a very recent number.

mazdaspeed · January 11, 2022

could be a harbor auction which has come out.

What I find difficult to understand is when selling they advertise it with less millage , newly registered and what not but want a very high value for it. yet the car is few years old anyway.... and what not.... came across a few Fords recently......

Edited January 11, 2022 by mazdaspeed
wanted to add some info

matroska · January 11, 2022

This is probably a harbor auction as mazdaspeed mentioned. There are even older cars with new CB* Plates - for instance there was an EP91 running CBL or CBK plates if i remember correctly.

@mazdaspeed I guess the high prices are due to the sri Lankan mentality of 'new number is better' 'less mileage is better' this is deeply rooted. Picture two identical Aquas : One has KW plates the other has CAA plates : The CAA one fetches a lot more. In the past a pristine b/new imported 302- car fetched less than a crapped out specimen of the same car with GA plates even if you consider old cars like 1970's datsuns and corolla Ke20/30's people pay more for a car with 10,11,12 SRI plates from 1976 than maybe a 6 Sri Brand new imported car from the same year.

Edited January 11, 2022 by matroska

firstgear · January 11, 2022

What is a harbor auction?

Hyaenidae · January 11, 2022

On 1/11/2022 at 8:28 AM, firstgear said:

What is a harbor auction?

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An auction which they get rid of items detained/confiscated by harbor/customs I guess

matroska · January 11, 2022

On 1/11/2022 at 8:28 AM, firstgear said:

What is a harbor auction?

Expand

AFAIK and as Hyaenidae correctly mentioned these are confiscated items. People try to sneak in cars using various methods. For instance you cannot import a car that is older than 3 years to the country - so what people do is try to import one classified as spare parts, or produce false documents to indicate the car is from a different YOM, or incorrectly categorize vehicles to avoid taxes etc.

Once these items are detected by customs they confiscate them until their investigations are complete and then auction to the highest bidder. Upon obtaining (and as they mention in their website) "*Successful Bidder must provide Gross weight for vehicle and comply with RMV requirements prior Registration" - so basically you need to provide the proper documentation from customs and weigh, and register the car as you would do with a new car.

If you're curious you can head onto the customs website where they have their latest auction details. for instance take a look at this - there were apparently a couple of hummers (minus engines) and a jag up for grabs last week

https://www.customs.gov.lk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Vehicle-Item-Report.CDU-TS-2022-02.pdf

Edited January 11, 2022 by matroska

firstgear · January 11, 2022

Thanks all

iRage · January 12, 2022

On 1/11/2022 at 12:18 PM, matroska said:

AFAIK and as Hyaenidae correctly mentioned these are confiscated items. People try to sneak in cars using various methods. For instance you cannot import a car that is older than 3 years to the country - so what people do is try to import one classified as spare parts, or produce false documents to indicate the car is from a different YOM, or incorrectly categorize vehicles to avoid taxes etc.

Once these items are detected by customs they confiscate them until their investigations are complete and then auction to the highest bidder. Upon obtaining (and as they mention in their website) "*Successful Bidder must provide Gross weight for vehicle and comply with RMV requirements prior Registration" - so basically you need to provide the proper documentation from customs and weigh, and register the car as you would do with a new car.

If you're curious you can head onto the customs website where they have their latest auction details. for instance take a look at this - there were apparently a couple of hummers (minus engines) and a jag up for grabs last week

https://www.customs.gov.lk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Vehicle-Item-Report.CDU-TS-2022-02.pdf

Expand

To add a bit to this: The cars can be detained or confiscated for not meeting ANY of the regulatory requirements. These include anything from age to engine capacity restrictions as allowed by permit (don't forget some permits allow you to bring older cars have valuations, engine capacities, etc...) Then if the auction detects that there is something wrong like chassis numbers not matching or documents not in order or the car not actually being dismantled, etc...then it gets detained. Sometimes cars get confiscated because people are just simply stupid...I have seen several instances where people when moving back to SL just simply put their car in a container with the rest of their belongings and shipped it over...the result being the car getting detained. Yes..the customs carries out an investigation.If there is no criminality or something seriously wrong with it..the importer is usually given the opportunity to clear the item after paying fines and such. In most cases what happens is that these people do not have the funds to pay the fines and charges or is cheaper for them to just not pay it and let it go (e.g. that Corolla in Japan would have cost about 1000USD...so losing that much is cheaper than paying 30-40K USD in fines and taxes. Sometimes the exporter in Japan does not een get paid (which is also a reason why Japanese owned car exporters do not sell to Sri Lanka).

Edited January 12, 2022 by iRage

PRAGIN · January 12, 2022

I saw these two paper advertisements last month. I guess that Minuwangoda place has started business operations again. If so we can see more old model vehicles with the latest number plate on the road in the future.