Much as it goes against the grain to reccommend giving money to the DVLA, it is very much worth your while to bung them a fiver attached to a letter asking for the full keeper history of your car.

I've done this for both of my classics and come up with some fascinating information.

The DVLA just send you copies (created on the worst photocopier in the world) of all your car's old V5 ownership documents. For the Rover, I discovered that it had stayed with its first owner for 19 years. I wrote to her and discovered a lovely old couple, who were very pleased to hear that their beloved Rover had survived. They sent me its original bill of sale and owner's handbook, which I treasure.

The GS's story is different. It had had nine owners before me. It was originally sold in Ramsgate, only a few miles away from where I was working when I received the history. Then it spent a few years in Bickley and Orpington, near where I was brought up. Up to Herefordshire for a few years, where the history that I already knew happened; it was passed around various members of the Citroen Car Club.

Doing this probably doesn't add anything to the value of your car, but I think it's absolutely fascinating. You might get lucky like I did with the Rover and get some useful paperwork, or you might discover, like the GS, that no-one's ever kept it for more than a couple of years. Either way, don't you want to know where your classic car's been all its life?