vehicle tax

how old does a car have to be to get 'free' vehicle tax - i've been told 20,

25 and 30 years and the DVLA website is pretty useless

any help appreciated

Alex

Reply to
Alex
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Has to have left the factory before 1st January 1973.

Reply to
Ian Dalziel

It was 25 years and *was* a rolling limit. ie: you just had to wait for your vehicle to come of age and you had a free tax disc. This was eventually fixed at around 1973 and has not been moved since.

Originally it was for people who only drove one or two thousand miles per year to and from events and on club runs so they wouldn't have to pay the same VED as someone who covered 100,000 miles or more per year.

If the rolling limit had been kept going then vehicles from 1980 would now be having free tax discs. As a 1980 vehicle could easily be used as an everyday vehicle and there are still plenty about it makes sense to the government to keep the cut-off year at 1973 for now.

Reply to
PDannyD

Not sure if my memory agrees with yours there. I thought it was introduced when the gummint where trying to insist that all vehicles where permanently taxed whether on the road or not. SORN came later, but for a while it looked as if we were all going to have to lose our spares cars and resto projects. This was a major campaigning issue in Practical Classics and the like for a while until the "historic" class was introduced to pacify us all.

The problem I have with any arbitrary cut-off date is the way in which identical cars built a little too late become devalued and in some people's eyes, no longer classics. It makes no sense at all for a 1974 Rover P6, for example, to be treated any differently to one built in 1972. The problem is, if you apply a cut-off date to the design rather than the build of the car, the tabloid press would have a field day as the great unwashed in their 2CVs suddenly got given free road tax.

Reply to
Willy Eckerslyke

I suspect there'd be a huge amount of people looking for the last of the proper Minis as well, but I'd be happy at having my 1989 Range Rover and the

911 on free tax :-)
Reply to
Pete M

In message , PDannyD writes

So that I have to pay £170 a year for my November 1973 car that averages less than 1000 miles a year going to shows :(

They could bump it forward a few years without bringing into the exemption many cars that are in everyday use.

The government have stated though that they have no intention of re-introducing the rolling exemption as it conflicts with the policy of reducing emissions by financially penalising higher polluting vehicles.

Reply to
Philip Stokes

In news: snipped-for-privacy@stokes.nildram.co.uk, Philip Stokes decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

we have to pay £170 a year for our Nov 1973 Jensen Interceptor, and that hasn't even done 17000 miles in its life yet.

I reckon they should change the free tax rule to anything I drive...

Reply to
Pete M

Problem is that this doesn't make sense. There's no evidence that my lovingly-rebuilt 1975 Firenza which does less than 1000 miles per year (and per emissions test) is polluting the atmosphere anything like as much as a two-year old Vectra that's never had an MOT (and therefore an emissions test) and does 60,000 miles in a year. Even if it only emits at the same level as my car, it's doing 60x as much harm.

Mike.

PS - I use Vectra as an example of any modern mass-market vehicle favoured by companies. If it offends, substitute Mondeo / Focus / Toyota / whatever.

Reply to
Mike

Which is bollocks anyway as a ten year old 1.9TD that does 45mpg is taxed at the maximum, the same as a 12mpg 4x4.

Reply to
Willy Eckerslyke

"PDannyD" wrote in message news:ddra8q$hp0$ snipped-for-privacy@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...

A 1973 vehicle can easily be used as an everyday vehicle too. I'd like to see it rolling again - of course I'm biased having a 28 year old car.

Reply to
DougP

I only have one car newer than 25, out of 4. Yet none of them are tax exempt.

I can hardly drive all of them at once, can I. Bloody silly rules.

Reply to
Stuffed

Is that november registered or manufactured? ISTR If you can show that it was manufactured before the cut-off date you can be exempted regardless of registration plate.

Reply to
D Peters

yep you're right.

Reply to
DougP

In news:ddtk7u$rlg$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com, DougP decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

and it's November manufactured :(

Reply to
Pete M

In message , SteveH writes

Don't get me started, or I'll be on about speed cushions next. Most of them are higher than the ground clearance of my car, meaning I'm effectively paying £170 a year for the privilege of not being able to drive it on half the roads round here anyway :(

Reply to
Philip Stokes

Which is totally daft because the emissions and pollution caused be scrapping one car and manufacturing its replacement vastly outweigh the marginally higher pollution caused by keeping a lightly used older car on the road. It would make more sense to close car factories!

Reply to
Richard Porter

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