Records As to the History of Your Citroën Are Available
The records of Citroën, Panhard and Peugeot cars are held in the archives of Association l’Aventure Peugeot Citroën DS. By contacting them, they can provide a certificate of the build date, (written in french). It will show:
- Date of manufacture
- Body version (Sedan, Roadster…)
- Finish level (Pallas…)
- Confirmation if the provided numbers (engine, body, bodyshell) are a match together.
And if the car was built after the ’70s, there are other details:
- Version (2CV Charleston…)
- Colour
- Name of the dealership
The amount of information available about your car varies depending on its brand, model and year.
Recently they received a Microfilm Scanner, so they can, if available, provide a digital copy of the record at a fee of €20. (€15 if you are a member of L’ Amicale Citroën Internationale).
You can apply here: https://www.laventurepeugeotcitroends.fr/attestation-documents
Or ask them to send you the order form (a PDF file) at this email address: contact-avpcd@mpsa.com
L’ équipe du Service Identification Véhicules
Association l’Aventure Peugeot Citroën DS
Centre d’Archives d’Hérimoncourt
1 rue du Stade
25310 HERIMONCOURT
0968404776
http://laventurepeugeotcitroends.fr/
I contacted « L’aventure Peugeot Citroen DS» regarding their so-called « Certificat de naissance de véhicule » . That certificate is not of interest to Citroen owners outside France and has no value for Citroen owners elsewhere in the world. It specifies only the year of production of a vehicle and verifies its VIN accuracy. Because everywhere in the world, the registration document of an imported vehicle displays that piece of information, I don’t think it is worth paying €40 to confirm information already on hand.
For a collection vehicle, to be registered in France only, the certificate’s cost is even more prohibitive. It is €75 for the vehicle’s information with mention « véhicule de collection » and €220 for a « certificat de conformité » acknowledging that a car is collector’s vehicle.
Anyhow, I found that communication useful, and so I am pleased to share it with you.
I had some further thoughts on the potential usefulness of L’aventure Peugeot Citroen DS’ certificate that arose from my experience with a fuel injected black DS23 I sold in Ontario. As I put it in a previous Citroënvie article, “Tackling VIN Rectification Challenges” (published in the Fall 2013 issue pdf), the first certificate on that list may be useful when an imported car had originally been registered with a fake VIN to make it pass for older than it actually was. In this instance, the advertised certificate may be used as a first step toward getting that car re-registered under its genuine factory identity. But, I don’t know whether that process would work in jurisdictions other than Ontario.
They only have records of javel cars. No information about Slough build cars like my roadster number 125200.
Seems like limited utility, especially in the US, but from my limited car show experience, some people will accumulate almost any scrap of paper related to their vehicles, and display lots of things nobody else cares about.
Maybe this would be useful for me as I own deregistered citroen cx going 1982 that has lost all its papers.
Does anyone know if this certificate would help
Regards Benjamin
Be aware, they are not professionals and the certificates they issue has mistakes, like transcribing the VIN number wrong.
Or, making a certificate for a 1964 car when, indeed, it is a 1962
Also, there are mistakes in their books.
They were more thorough with their work.
Now, they refuse to cooperate with anybody except the insurance experts who have very limited knowledge of the collectors cars
So, a Citroen certificate is not any indication that the car is authentic.