OT: Car Tax

As long as they’re “smart”. Disconnect it from your internet and hey presto, you have a dumb charger that works just fine.

Tim

Classic car tax (It it is over a certain age) is zero, also no MOT, but registration and insurance are necessary. Can take some time to set up, may need inspection, and must be roadworthy *as at date first registered" IIRC.

Its not automatic... ... there is a qualification criteria whereby some cars over 40 years old do need an MOT so there is a process to claim the exemption ...

I am sure you know this but for the absence of doubt you have to already have an appointment booked at the MOT centre, you cannot just drive it and if caught by the busies say you are taking it for its MOT.

Probably a lot LESS chance of damaging it trailering/flatbeding it than driving it . And it would be on that company's insurance .

Probably not that much dearer anyway (how much would the fuel cost? what running repairs may be necessary [it is a 70year old car] etc etc etc).

But that would remove the annual confirmation of the keeper confirming their details are correct.

I often said that this was the way to do it, but that moment has passed with the advent of EVs.

Except that every vehicle, to allow for being in a location with no charger, can just charge from a 13A socket. Overnight charging at 13A, every night, would be more than enough for most people. I charge at 7kW, overnight, once a week or twice if I do a longer journey - and I do a typical annual mileage which is pretty well spot on the average.

It's not perfect, but errors can be corrected. For instance, if you pay monthly, as many do, you can show the payments from your bank account, on your phone and prove that the vehicle is taxed there and then.

Not tax, but insurance - my cousin was stopped twice, a week apart, for having no insurance ... he did have insurance, the company had just not updated the database ... which apparently can take up to 10 working days!

It would have to be possible, as you need the insurance in place first to be able to tax a vehicle.

If it's a proper classic (more than 40 years old), then no MOT should be needed.

The stupid thing is that if it fails its MOT, you can drive it to somewhere to carry out repairs, but if you know in advance that it will not pass an MOT, you can't drive it somewhere for repairs UNTIL it has failed!

Similarly, when I SVA's my kiitcar, you could drive to and from the SVA (later IVA) with no tax, no MOT and no numberplates (it would have no registration number at that time), but once it passed and you'd driven home, the DVLA wanted to see it at the local office, before registering it - and it could NOT be driven there, only trailered!

You still pay annually (or six monthly).

The amount varies.

If you buy a new car over £40,000 list price, regardless of what you actually pay and any part ex etc, you pay a premium for the first 5 years or so. From memory it is about £500. (I took delivery of a new car last week and have the joy of paying this to come next year 😔

Under £40k, you pay £180 or £185 - I forget which. Although a PHGV, such as my current motorhome, pay less - it was £165 last year from memory.

Older cars have different rates.

Some pay nothing - we had a Smart Car which was free. Previously a Picanto I think we paid £35 for. My previous motorhome was about £280- it wasn’t classed as a PHGV.

Over a certain age of vehicle ( I think 40 years), it is free.

To be blunt, it is a b****ers muddle.

Plus, over 50% of the price of fuel is tax / duty. Even if you drive an EV, electricity is subject to VAT, green levies, …..

True, we don’t have many toll roads but there are plenty of tunnels / bridges etc waiting to dip into your wallet.

It isn’t as if, despite these taxes, we have fantastic roads. We recently returned from a touring holiday in Europe (France, Luxembourg, Germany and back to France, then home). About 1400 mile. We encountered more delays due to road works in the last section between the Tunnel and home, normally under 40 mins, than the rest of the trip.

Mine dropped from £490 to £180 this year ... I'll be hanging on to it for a while.

If it old enough to be vintage, you don’t pay ‘road tax’. But, at least for other free ones, you still need to renew.

You can do this online.

In the past, I passed my old car to my daughter / son in law, we cancelled my ownership ( which cancels my tax) and they taxed it at the same time.

The system checks MOT ( if needed - not all cars do, including some older ones) and insurance status but there must be a way around this for situations when you buy a car and get new insurance. I can’t remember if there is a box to tick etc.

The DVLA are surprisingly quick. I traded in a car just over a week ago. The dealer entered the details on the DVLA website and I received the notification Email within seconds. I received the V5 ( registration document) and confirmation of the cancellation of the old car by post within a few days.

No, you can ‘tax’ it online.

If it is old enough, it should be free and it is a more of a case of declaring the vehicle is still being used etc.

( We had a car which was ‘free’ ( although due to low emissions, not age) and had to renew the tax every year. )

As for the speed of the DVLA, I was surprised a week or so back. I traded in a car. The dealer entered the details and I had the confirmation Email within seconds. The salesman had just finished saying, you should get an Email after pressing the button.

Obviously it is automatic - it was a Saturday afternoon.

We normally keep or cars a long time. We look after them. There have been exceptions but only due to special reasons - wanting something small enough to tow behind the motorhome for example.

I only changed the Outlander as I wanted a car to see us to the end, or near to end, of new petrol cars. This one has a 10 year warranty.

Yes. I ordered a new car in October 2021, list price about £38,000. There were two price rises before it was delivered (14 months later due to the chip shortage, but boy did I get a good deal). Ford arranged to give me a cheque on delivery equal to the additional tax for the number of years it applied. In the event, they cut the list prices to £39,990 or something.

I just paid £170 for my hybrid. I knew there was a slight saving.

I have an account at the Dartford Crossing, which gets me a discount.

It was about three working days for my new driving licence.

Possibly only if you already have a valid passport with the required photo and/or send a digital photo and also renew on-line.

Otherwise your application sits in a big pile of unopened post.