There are now a number of tax groups depending on amount of exhaust emission. Am I correct in assuming, that at MOT time, if a vehicle has emissions higher than the upper limit of it's tax group, it will fail the MOT test? - or will a higher tax band apply? I cannot recall seeing this clarified anywhere, but feel it must be somewhere. I was thinking, that keeping emissions low may become a problem when vehicles are a getting a few years/miles old, but perhaps not the case.
Road tax groups
Jun 16, 2010
7 Replies
Not currently
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4square gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Nope. The only figure that's relevant is the manufacturer's official CO2 figure for that model & spec of car, as set out when it was new.
Not all new cars even have those - some low volume ones do not, so the old breaks by engine size (and prices) apply.
tax groupings have no relevance to the mot test at all.
Not quite. With imports it is date of first use.
Conor gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Umm, yes. If they're EU imports, they'll almost certainly have that figure from when they were new. If they're not EU-spec, then they'd fall under the "low volume" bit...
Err, no. My wife's FTO comes under the "date of first use"
Whereas pretty much every US import falls under the old breaks. The 7 litre Excursion costs the same to tax as my Rover, or less than a 1.6 automatic Focus.
Which is exactly as it should be. I'm still of the opinion that if anyone ever buys a car purely because of road tax then they should have to hand in their driving licence upon purchase. Cheapskates.
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