I've owned my current 2CV since April 2002, so it's approaching 15 years now, which is almost half the age of the car. It has 7 previous owners, having been registered new in the Exeter area in March 1989. I bought the car directly from the previous owner in north Warwickshire, but other than that I have no knowledge of where the car has resided prior to that, and who its first 6 owners are. I have always meant to fill in a V888 form and send it off to Swansea with a cheque for £5 to have DVLA send me copies of the paperwork they have on file, but never managed to get round to doing so. Well having bought the 1932 Minor last year, I decided to throw a stone at both birds and yesterday I sent two forms off. It's a waiting game now. Funnily enough, both cars have the same number of previous owners, but the Morris is over 55 years older than the 2CV!

I did that DVLA info thing. It was interesting actually.

Received two envelopes from the DVLA today. One for the Morris Minor, the other for the 2CV.

The 2CV was registered new by JFE Citroen, in Exeter, on 31st March 1989. They sold it to a lady from Paignton, Devon, on 22nd April 1989. She kept it until 16th Sept. 1996, when it was bought by a chap in Stafford. He only kept it until 7th March 1997, selling it to Castle Garage, in Walsall. It looks like they sold it the next day to a chap in Walsall, who kept it until 1st Aug.1998, selling it to another chap from Stafford who only kept it one month. He sold it on the 1st Sept.1998 to the couple I bought the car from on the 16th April 2002.

1st Keeper:JFE 31/3/89 - 22/4/89 Exeter
2nd Keeper: 22/4/89 - 16/9/97 Paignton
3rd Keeper:16/9/96 - 7/3/97 Stafford
4th Keeper:Castle Garage 7/3/97 - 8/3/97 Walsall
5th Keeper: 8/3/97 - 1/8/98 Walsall
6th Keeper 1/8/98 - 1/9/98 Stafford
7th Keeper: 1/9/98 - 16/4/2002 Atherstone, Warks.
8th Keeper: 16/4/2002 - Present

.

Been having lovely weather here the past few days, so today and yesterday I used the 2CV for my drive to work.

Senior moment Jonathan. You're repeating yourself

Shh, its best not to alarm them...

Today was the first proper meeting of the cars.

Back in November I replaced the exhaust manifold gaskets with the modern 'carbon fibre' type sold by ECAS, as one of the previous gaskets had blown out. Over the past month I've noticed an increase in exhaust noise from under the bonnet. I was a bit concerned it was one of the new gaskets, but I've just been out for a run in the car and on my return I decided to have a look. It was the driver's side manifold/heat exchanger clamp. I removed it, fiddled around with the heat exchanger to get a tighter fit, and refitted the clamp. A quick 2-mile drive suggests I've fixed the issue.

So the weather has been mostly kind over the last few days, so I used the 2CV to get to work yesterday. It almost didn't start, as the battery was clearly depleted, but it just managed. When I left work for home the car refused to start. It gave the same symptoms I'm currently getting with the Morris. A click and nothing. The strange thing this time, which hasn't tended to happen before, is it didn't affect the fuel gauge and oil warning light. Exactly the issue I am getting on the 85-year-old. I jumped started off the work's van, and all is well. I'm going to remove the battery from the Morris and check it with a volt meter. I'll recharge it and keep a check on the voltage with the meter. I bought a cheap charger and it only has LEDs to tell me when the battery is charged. Wish I'd bought a better one now.