Hi Aussiecob.
Early Dax chassis had problems with their steering geometry. This was corrected on the MK4 chassis which they started to produce in late 1993 I believe.
To identify if a car has the MK4 chassis you need to have the chassis number.
The Dax MK4 chassis numbers are:_
SA9 DAX M4 R?A 038 ???
The first 7 digits of the Dax chasis number are standard.
The 8th digit denoted the MK number (In the above case this is MK4)
The 9th digit "R" is std.
The 10th digit will denote the year it was made. This could either be a letter or a number and is based on UK vehicle registration numbers.(See below)
The 11th digit, "A" is for variant and this is the same on all chassis i have seen.
As are the 12th 13th and 14th digits.
The the final 3 digits are unique to each chassis.
L= 1993
M=1994
N=1995
P=1996
R=1997
S=1998
T=1999 Or something like that.(The Uk registration system got a little messy around this point)
Later chassis changed to numbers:-
1=2001
2=2002
3=2003 etc.
Dax now offer 2 types of chassis. The other chassis (Known as the De Dion) was launched in 2003 and has a slightly different chassis number in that the the 7th 8th and 9th digits are changed to
"TD1" giving a number like this:- SA9 DAX TD1 ?A 038 ??? If the car offered does not have a chassis number that starts "SA9DAX" then the car is not correctly registered. And in the UK would require a type aproval test (Known as an SVA test). I would suspect that you might have similar problems on Oz.
It is possible to find cars in the UK that are "correctly registered" with the V5 (Registration certificate) showing that the car is of a suitable vintage. It is all a very grey area, so just because one car is registered in a particular way doesn't automatically mean the next "Correctly registered" car will be the same.
It all sounds like a bit of a mine field but once you have your head around it you will be fine in your search.
Good luck.
