TheHaflinger.com

The UK Budget was announced today, and I see that this was included:

2.153 VED: classic vehicle exemption – The government will introduce a rolling 40 year VED exemption for classic vehicles from 1 April 2014. (Finance Bill 2014 and future Finance Bills) (39)

If this becomes law (& it should?) then within months no UK Haflinger owners will be paying an annual fee to keep their machine on the road.

WOW, the Government are actually giving us something Mind you they introduced a rolling program before and then stopped it, hope they implement this one and stick to it

Lurch has a current "Tax" disc at £140 that runs out at the end of March - I phoned DVLA up about a month ago and they said they had not been told how the system would work. I.E. What owners of 1973 vehicles would have to do to get the "free" TAX DISC.

I bet owners of 40 year old vehicles won't just get a new V5 - They will quietly forget to tell them in the hopes most will carry on paying like model citizens!

I would assume that owners will have to go out of their way to contact DVLA via the post office (who now deal with all DVLA issues since the local offices have shut). Hand in their current V5 to get the taxation class changed from (in the case of Lurch) PLG to HISTORIC in order to get a disc with out the payment figure on it.

I wonder if the Post Office knows anything about it if DVLA dosen't?

As you can get your MOT done up to 1 month before the existing one runs out and the same with the Road fund licence, Lurch now have a current MOT can apply to have his status changed - at least that is what I am hoping.

John

My advice would be to get a £140 disc valid from 01-APR and then start the process to re-categorise it to Historic, and when done get a pro rata rebate for the remaining months***. Not great for cash flow, agreed, but less stress too.

*** In fact this will probably be automatic, as when they re-issue a new V5 they will probably need to re-issue the tax disc too.

You Uk guys go chat amongst yourselves as I have no idea what you are taking about. Here is costs me 490 pounds a year to register and pay 3rd party personal insurance on full rego - plus about 150 pounds to insure the vehicle itself. I have gone onto Historic registration with its usage restrictions so about 50 pounds a year on rego/3rd party. So even under your old system you were far better than us.

Garry

Garry, those figures are not great!

In the UK, for a pre-'72 (and soon to be anything over 40 years old on a rolling basis) it costs nothing to "tax" a car for road use, with no limits on mileage. Insurance is approx GBP 100 a year for a fully comprehensive classic car policy, but that does usually have some mileage restrictions, anything between 1,000 miles a year through to 7,000.

The only other compulsory cost is the annual MOT (~GBP 55/year), for any post 1960 car more than 3 years old.

Have you considered club rego Gary?

I am on Historic rego now but basically you cannot use the vehicle - suits me at the moment but is a bit of a pain.

I would prefer my Territory to bring in the 90 day system where you can use your vehicle as you see fit for up 90 days a year but in the ACT we are lucky to have Historic Rego.

Garry

As it was the 1/4/2014 yesterday, I took all my paperwork for Lurch to the Post Office. I changed the taxation class on the V5c (registration document) and handed it over with a request for a current Tax Disc under the Historic rule - i.e. Nil payment. The lady behind the counter looked at her machine and it has "Historic" as an option so she said, "I take this bit" and took half the V5c document. Wrote me out a new Tax Disc and that was that.

Now I wait to see if DVLA send me a new updated V5c document or if they quibble over it and want more paperwork filling in etc.

Apparently I was the second person who had gone in there that day to do the same task. If I understood the banter behind the counter correctly, they sent them away saying they couldn't do it.... I did have to explain to the lady that the budget had changed the rules to include all 1973 vehicles not just PRE Jan 1973 ones.

Now to quibble with the insurance company over "modifications".

John

Excellent - let us know how the DVLA respond.

DVLA haven't sent me anything yet, but my insurance company finally got round to telling me that the headlight change I did is going to cost me another £9.99 to be put down as a "modification" to the specification of the vehicle. Then the broker has added another £25 as an "administration fee" to cover their costs!! What, a couple of phone calls and pressing a few buttons on a keyboard!
I suppose they have to make their money somehow!

Just wish it wasn't out of my pocket.....

John

Why do you have to go through a broker - can't you deal with the insurance company direct?

Garry

I haven't used a broker for insurance for many many years, but they can sometimes get a good deal. Mind you, even dealing with insurance companies direct , a change mid year can often incur a GBP25 admin charge.

The insurance company won't deal direct with members of the public. They "deal" through their "owned" broker..... So basically it's just a department of the Insurance company, but you have to go through them.

Like most car insurance, people forget about it until it comes up for renewal and then scrabble around to see if they can get a better deal but because they have left it until the last moment end up having to go with the original company. So, I must remember to start looking for insurance for Lurch before September!

John

Gee, in the states we just shop online to get insurance, is the UK that far behind the times? My Hagardy policy is only $118 USD per year and I can drive up to 2400 miles a year

Well, we can shop online for insurance as much as any one but if its specialist then they quite often make you jump through hoops.