Road tax rip off

[Grumpy Northener]

Anybody else other than me that is totally pi**ed off with the DVLA / government's policy on historic road tax - My Rover is first registered 3 weeks in to January of 1973 - I don't use the car that much but like to use it when I want to - so I don't want to tax it for 6 months of the year - So £215 lighter for another 12 months road tax for a car that I probably do less than 1500 miles a year in - in comparison my modern hack covers over 30k miles a year and costs £120 in road tax - that aside is it not time that a 30 year old rolling policy was introduced for historic (free) road tax - I know it has already been put and tried to the present government - and we stand little chance in the present economic climate so I will probably just have to put up with my gripe on here - Grump over

[TerryG]

I would rather have the current system than a "pay by the mile" one but i do appreciate how people that do very low mileages can suffer.
As my weekend fun car has become my daily driver i don't mind taxing it so much but even when i was buying tax for 2500 miles a year i think it was worth it for the enjoyment i get out of the car.

[Mrotwoman]

Have you looked in to when the car was first manufactured though ?
It may well be built in '72 therefore tax-free

[OneCarefulOwner]

Aye, tax is based on manufacturer not registration. There's every chance your car's exempt & you've been paying for nothing.

[rich.]

if you don't like road tax move over here, the government stopped it years ago.. although they always find new ways to screw you.....

[Dave3066]

I think the policy is great......

....says he with 2 tax free cars.....

I'm sure I more than make up for it in the tax I pay on fuel though....

Dave

[harvey]

My Rover is first registered 3 weeks in to January of 1973 -

I'd be very surprised if that wasn't tax exempt. I think you'd be very unlucky to have a car that was built, delivered to the dealers, sold and registered all within 3 weeks. Remember it was 1973, the BL machine had that length of teabreaks every month.

Contact BL Heritage at Gaydon (IIRC) and get a build date.

[Mrotwoman]

They'd probably still be on their Christmas hols...

[Martin Evans]

Having corresponded at length with the governments of Blair & Brown, I concluded that the reason the rolling tax was frozen, was down to a personal whim on the part of Gordon Brown.

The reason now given, for the freeze being maintained, is the state of government finances. I have raised the issue of the owners of cars like, for example, 3 Series BMWs getting away with £20 per annum; surely this is giving away far more than extending the historic concession. However, I suspect there are more voters with cars in that tax band, than have post 1972 classics.

It is pretty clear that the pre 2001 tax band (Particularly the over 1549cc part of it) is a punitive band. It pre supposes that all cars in said band are bangers and I should imagine that some of the newer cars in it are bangers. Whether the government are justified in taxing these cars off the road, is not the issue here (Though there is strong evidence that making cars last longer is better for the environment, than a regular cycle of short life vehicles). However, if that is the objective, then genuine historic (Classics if you like but please lets not get hung up on that) vehicles should be classed as such and not penalised.

I can say that in the dealings I have had with members of the present administration, the attitude is more apologetic than dismissive. There a faint glow of light at the far end of a very long tunnel, whereas when Brown was in charge, all you got when, you destroyed one spurious “Reason” was another one on which to work. Let’s hope that before the next election, the date is moved forward from 1973, even if it isn’t set as a rolling date. My own view is that an exemption based on age should be rolling but that in the absence of this, a cut off at the end of old “Y” reg would pretty well tie things up (I think most of the cars, that people keep as classics, are pre new “A” reg – for example the TR7 was dropped at the end of 1981 and I think there are more preserved Cortinas and Marinas, than Sierras and Montegos).

So far as Grumpy Northener's Rover is concerned, I doubt very much that it went from factory to road in three weeks. It's almost certainly a 1972 car and therefore entitled to free road tax. You just need to prove it.

[Grumpy Northener]

Guys - The build date of the car is 21st Jan 1973, and registered mid Feb - so I stand no chance - it's galling when you go to a meet - same car / spec etc - few weeks older - free road tax - talk about disproportionate - Rich - where exactly is over here ? - not that I'm planning on moving !