Please read! Tax exemption.

[swallowtaillee]

SIGN THE PETITION BELOW!

Re-introduce a 30 year rolling vehicle excise duty exemption scheme, for classic vehicles. For too long now the tax exemption of classic cars has been frozen, to only apply to those manufactured before 1973. History did not simply stop in 1972. These are not cars which are driven everyday but rather on sunny weekends, to attend enthusiast shows etc.. It is vitally important that we help to preserve this important part of British motoring history.

TAKES 30 SECONDS AND COULD SAVE LOADS OF POTENTIAL CLASSICS FROM THE SCRAP YARD!

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/183

USE A GENUINE EMAIL AS IT WILL NEED TO BE VERIFIED TO COUNT YOUR SIGNATURE.

POST A REPLY WHEN YOUVE SIGNED IT TO KEEP THIS THREAD ALIVE! IF THE PETITION GETS 100K SIGNATURES IT HAS TO BE DISCUSSED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. GOT TO BE WORTH 30 SECONDS OF YOUR TIME!

[nas80]

Worthy post my good man. I have signed it cos I'm sick of being pwned by vosa! !

[harleytrike]

i have signed lets just hope it happens

[Reck]

Well, I tried to sign it when I saw it on your FB Nas but apparently my email address has already been used for this petition.. I know I've got a bad memory, but not that bad! Who signed it on my behalf then?

[swallowtaillee]

Well, I tried to sign it when I saw it on your FB Nas but apparently my email address has already been used for this petition.. I know I've got a bad memory, but not that bad! Who signed it on my behalf then?

whoa thats a bit bad! if someone has used it, it would've sent a confirmation to your inbox that you would have click the link to confirm your signature! unless someone knows your email password as well?

[TopCat]

have added my signature (using UK address)

now do be aware of the issues here since we have just come out of a similar debate here on IOM!

We had a rolling 30 year exemption until the Govt proposed changing the tax on historic vehicles to £20 pa (from 0)
guys here often have 10 or 20 historic motorcycles in semi open museum collections

Huge outcry

Govt "capitulated" - reduced HED to £10 pa - but crucially stopped it rolling forward and now we have pre dec 1986 as the cutoff.

Are we better off???
caveat what you wish for!

I shall post up on CCCUK as well!

[drjim]

Posted before but seems to have gone AWOL

My new focus will do 15000 miles a year, first year tax £0 after that £20

Baur will do 1500-2000 miles a year. £215 a year.

Wrong in so many ways!

Signed the petition and hoping they look at it!

Jim

[rob0r]

This issue is discussed a lot on the Retro Rides forum, the consensus is that reintroducing it will be more harm than good. If this comes in then "historical" car legislation could hit the UK also, severly restricting mileage, modifications and where you can drive it. This is in line to what many EU states have to put up with, such as Germany, who are apparently the model country that EU historical car legislation might be based off.

Personally I don't mind paying £220 to drive what I want, when I want and how I want. I won't be signing this petition. I'm broke as f'k but I don't think car tax is that expensive in the scheme of things.

[cobbler2u]

Thats me all signed up

[arshad76]

I actually posted a similar petition on this forum a few years ago asking for the same thing and nothing came off it in the end sadly. Not to say that It's not a good idea, which is why I've signed it.

I guess I'm looking at it through a very simple prism Rob. I see the cars that are tax exempt currently, that don't have a lot of mileage restrictions? Why I'd love this to come into force again. As much as I like driving my E21, I only use it for relatively short commutes and use the train/hire a car for work stuff (on their dollar). So I guess I do half the mileage of normal drivers.

[nas80]

if your driving on a classic car policy your restricted to a certain mileage anyway and your not allowed to drive it on tracks and your not allowed to leave it parked outside between 10pm and 7am and you need a modern car to daily drive (at least on my policy!)

The government dont put any restrictions on historic vehicles for pre 73 at the moment, so I woul dhave assumed it would be the same for cars before 1980 (30 year old +)?

If for some reason the government did decide to give us free road tax, but then made owning a classic car difficult, then im pretty sure there will be another petition for us to sign!

[rob0r]

There's talk of following the European model that includes "booking in" your car for use (asking permission to drive it) and cars being restricted from towns and cities because they pollute. Also they are dead against modifications so all your M5X engine conversions, coilovers and trick wheels could be threatened. If we get free tax it's extremely likely some sort of restriction will be implied. Also, there is nothing stopping you having a daily policy on an E21 (I have done in recent years) and doing as many miles as you like. If you relied on it to commute then what if you were restricted 2-3K miles per year, I don't think Mark would be happy having mileage restricted on MIB!

Personally I don't think and I hope nothing will change. I can't see the government being as cash strapped as they are to give away such a tax opportunity. The UK has some of the most laid back car legislation in Europe, I don't want free tax to threaten that. I'm happy with the status quo thank you very much!

[m3gaz]

I would be interested to hear how Historic vehicles are treated in other countries.

Be careful what you wish for.

[nas80]

You see Rob, if they did do like the europeans then this would end up cost the UK economy a lot of money, not just for the extra admin but if classic car parts industry couldnt supply upgraded parts they would go under, also in some cases to keep an old car going you need to adapt parts from something newer, i dont see how it we would be able to keep these old sheds on the road.

if the governement considered it carefully - classic cars are driven much less than normal cars and there are much less of them about, therefore the polution is a lot less, not forgetting the fact that the carbon footprint of keeping a classic on the road is a lot less than building a new car.

also, they dont restrict modifications on a pre 73' so why would they do that with every car that is 30 years old?

so that argument about putting restrictions in just doesnt make sense my eyes, that doesnt mean to say that the government wouldnt do it though! besides all that - if its law in europe its only a matter of that they impose that crap on us too? we cant even eat bananas that arent the right shape?!!!

One of the reasons I own a classic is the fact i can get insured for a decent price and im keeping something cool and old and not have to buy a generic soul less modern pile of plastic.

Defo would be the final straw for me with living in this country, Id simply take everything I own and move to Dubai or somewhere like that. cheap as hell petrol and tax free wages and no speed cameras! i vote everytime and nowt eevr seems to get better! for once (in my little bit of the world) id appreciate it if i got something back off the government instead?!

[rob0r]

That's not to say they won't restrict mods in the future for cars of any age . I think we have bigger fish to fry than trying to get free car tax. I saw this today:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22251

A guy in Spain:
"Well this is already in place in Spain and other EU countries, both for cars and bikes.

It's called the Anti-tuning law.

No braided brake hoses, no drilled discs (forget about different diameter or calipers), no bigger wheels, no cut down rear mudguards on bikes, no aftermarket suspension, no aftermarket lights or mirrors... You want to put in a bigger engine or chip your ECU ??? don't even think about it.....Need I go on ?

The law came in at the beginning of last year and they were failing loads of vehicles in the "MOT", loads of motorbikes failed because they had non OEM topboxes fitted. Cars usually failed for having bigger wheels than OEM or sometimes bodykits (loads of E30s for Tech 1 and Tech 2 kits), even sunroofs.

Luckily the aftermarket parts industry demanded a meeting with the government and the law has been slightly relaxed (bikes are now allowed Topboxes for example) but if I want to put 15" BBS on my E30 which originally came with 14"s, I need an engineers report, then pay the homologation process and get the details added to the cars documents.

The police here will now stop cars and bikes and do a technical inspection and copmare measurements with the stardard specs, and if it doesn't match an there's no homologation certificate, you're fooked. Gippo vans are exempt however."

"If it goes the same way as over here, there are various "homologation routes" to take.

You can register a car which is over 25 years old as an officially recognised classic, which means that the "MOT" is less strict and more tolerance is given to light modifications.

Alternatively you can register the car as "for competition use" which again allows more modifications but then the test is very different and even more stringent, and I believe there are restrictions on road use, but I'm not that clued up on this one.

But at the end of the day, for people with money none of this is an issue, because if you pay enough, you can get anything homologated by paying for engineers reports and by paying approved workshops to do the work for you.

The ones that suffer are the people who do the mods themselves at the weekends and can't afford engineers reports and thousands in homologation processes. But that is the aim of the change.

I know this won't be a popular comment but to a certain extent I understand it. There are many people out there who should not be fitting V8s to 316i chassis or changing braking systems....."