Browns proposed tax changes

[sixdogsisback]

Does anyone know if Brown is intending to include classic cars in his witch hunt against older vehicles and scrap the tax exemtion ? I don't see how he reasons that old cars are damaging the environment, it would be more damaging in my view to scrap cars after only a few years life. Most old car owners don't do all that many miles in them either.

Cheers, Clive.

[paulhumphries]

The Tories introduced the "Historic" road tax class on vehicles over 25 years old to bring the UK in line with the rest of Europe so doubt it'd be dropped. Labour then froze the date as pre Jan 1973.
In fact I recently wrote to the Conservatives to confirm it was still on their agenda to reintroduced it on a roling 25 year basis when / if they win the next election.
It was one of the policies at the last election and they confirmed it is still one now.
The reply said they will have many things to sort out so it might not be included in the first budget when / if they get into power but probably the year after.
That means my 1983 Land Rover falls within the 25 year rule so I'm keeping my fingers crossed
Only problem might be if they decided to come more into line with Europe where there are strict limitations of use of historic vehicles - mainly distance you can travel from the registered address. In that case if you want to use a "historic" vehicle as an everyday car then the normal full road tax is applicable.
I reckon existing pre 1973 vehicles would be OK but maybe '73 onwards could have the limitations imposed.

Paul Humphries

[rayofleamington]

I've not seen or heard anything from the government on this - All I've heard so far is the media making random comment on the issue. Currently the media is having a witch hunt against road/car taxes so it's hard to now if there is much truth in what they say.

In the UK, the carbon emmissions from houses are bigger than cars. Hopefully the government will see sense and start to penalise those who have big wasteful houses instead of people who run economical cars.

[Robins]

When you consider that the biggest amount of pollution from a car is when it's being made. And as already said most classic cars dont travel that many miles a year anyway. So the long a car lives, the smaller its carbon foot print gets. Did I get that right?
It seams to me they want to make everything 'green' yet on the other hand they don't like anything that does benifit the planet because they can't tax it.
I heard in the week they want to introduce registration plates and road tax for a bicycle!

[Willie]

heard in the week they want to introduce registration plates and road tax for a bicycle!

About time too (although I am not too sure about road tax)and that should include compulsory third party insurance. They should have an identifyable number and the means to pay for accidents which they cause. Seems fair to me.

[kennatt]

you obviously arn't a cyclist hope you are not one of the drivers who cut me up at corners when turning right,pull out in front of me ,overtake with inches to spare when theres nothing coming the other way. overtake me within a hairs width when there are cars coming the other way.Instead of simply waiting for two seconds. Blast you horn at me because you have been delays for a few seconds even though I;m going considerable faster than a walking horse,and sometimes faster than a tractor or jcb.Pull out to the centre of the road when in a waiting line of traffic to stop me overtaking on the outside,pull over to the side of the road to stop me overtaking on the inside,park over cycle lanes to stop me using them forcing me into the road.Polute the air .Use up the worlds oil .Kill , disable or cause serious injury to me when all I can do is cause you a slight scratch to your door.Cost the tax payer via the N H S to treat you for cardio vascular problem. You asked for it

[ndevans]

To get back to the original subject, the FBHVC have been very quiet on this.

Time for some sensible lobbying. We can't expect to go on having tax free status for ever. It would not be unreasonable to impose a minimum road tax on classics. All motor vehicle users should contribute to the cost of upkeep of the road infrastructure, and we cannot escape the fact that we are living in a world that is becoming increasingly aware of environmental issues.
Our cars do emit more emissions than more modern cars so it will eventually become politically unnacceptable for them to remain tax free when more modern less polluting cars are taxed.
The FBHVC needs to start making the point that classics are generally kept in a better state of tune than a 10yr old car, tend to be driven more carefully for less miles by more considerate drivers, and are far more environmentally friendly in the sense that they are being re-used rather than used, thrown away/recycled, and replaced by new build.
I'm pretty sure that I've read somewhere that more energy is used in making a car than it will ever consume during it's working life-perhaps someone can confirm that for me?
cheers,
Neil

[chickenjohn]

To get back to the original subject, the FBHVC have been very quiet on this.

Time for some sensible lobbying. We can't expect to go on having tax free status for ever. It would not be unreasonable to impose a minimum road tax on classics. All motor vehicle users should contribute to the cost of upkeep of the road infrastructure, and we cannot escape the fact that we are living in a world that is becoming increasingly aware of environmental issues.
Our cars do emit more emissions than more modern cars so it will eventually become politically unnacceptable for them to remain tax free when more modern less polluting cars are taxed.
The FBHVC needs to start making the point that classics are generally kept in a better state of tune than a 10yr old car, tend to be driven more carefully for less miles by more considerate drivers, and are far more environmentally friendly in the sense that they are being re-used rather than used, thrown away/recycled, and replaced by new build.
I'm pretty sure that I've read somewhere that more energy is used in making a car than it will ever consume during it's working life-perhaps someone can confirm that for me?
cheers,
Neil

I dont fully agree with this, for a start, the FBHVC stated some time ago on their website that these moves to remove free tax for classics was a myth, as was the petition which was posted as a hoax! I think running a classic is far more environmentally friendly as resources are being re-used and the only usage is a small amount of petrol each year and a few gallons of oil (which i re-cycle anyway). After all, when our cars were new none of these alleged envrionmental problems existed. Global warming had yet to be invented. In 20 years time it will all be forgotten.

[rayofleamington]

All motor vehicle users should contribute to the cost of upkeep of the road infrastructure, and we cannot escape the fact that we are living in a world that is becoming increasingly aware of environmental issues.

My classics emmit far less CO2 (carbon) emmissions than your average mum-V 4x4. The trabi manages 40mpg commuting in a busy town and up to 50mpg on a run, hence the low carbon emmissions. It's got a very small engine and the vehicle is extremely light. Despite this, many people assume it's got a really bad carbon footprint - I guess that's because the particle emmissions are poor, as it's a 2 stroke...
The media and governments have managed to confuse people to think that MPG and carbon emmissions are not the same thing (The CO2 is just burnt fuel, so the more fuel you burn the more CO2 you make) so that 'vehicle emmissions' are only to be understood by reading the published CO2 numbers. I regularly get comments about 'carbon footprint' for the Trabi but it's rarely worth to explain that they don't really understand what they're saying.

As for paying for the road infrastructure, surely the people who use the roads more should pay more. I think this already exists and is called road fuel duty... The big mum-V gas guzzlers damage the roads more but they already pay through the nose for the amount of fuel they use. The tax paid by road users is greater than the money spent on roads

If they introduce a mileage limit for the free classic car tax, I could at least see some logic to that, but as already mentioned, a lot of the media/internet stories about car tax are more myth than reality, so I'm not expecting any change.

[harrysaunders]

Quite right chicken john, most scientist that i speak too will say that they believe that there is no proof to climate change, it is merely one of many theories. When Brown and the EU found out about this, they could see some revenue potential. The problem is, when any scientist try to speak out, they are simply dismissed as being paid by the oil companies.

I recently had the idea of a national fuel protest, whereby everyone that fills up works out what the price of the petrol is without any tax (about 70% tax). They then leave this amount and drive off. If everybody does this, everyone can't be prosecuted and then the government will be forced to remove the tax!

[themadmoggy1965]

Keep old cars on the road It's definitely cheaper than running my freelander.

Lisa
"Hannah" 1965 morris minor 2 door saloon.