Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi folks, I don`t as yet own a minor so in the meantime I am learning more about the car and I can ask you guys lots of silly questions. If the question has been asked before I would appreciate the link.
When is a classic car exempt from road tax as I have seen minors for sale which are taxed but I thought due to the age of the car that they were exempt. Thanks in advance,
Brian

I think its manufactured before 31st Dec 72

Whilst the cars are in effect "tax exempt" they still have to be taxed and display a valid disk - the difference being that its free!

Thanks for the very quick reply.

Brian

I believe that the exemption date is before 1st Jan '72. Originally it was on a rollng 25 years. However one of the 1st things our wondeful Labour Party did when it got elected was without telling anyone, to freeze the date at the current 25 years which was then 1st Jan '72.
Vehicles exempt tax are classed as historic but still have to display a valid disc meaning that they still have to be MOT'd and insured at the time of issue of the disc. If they do not have a valid disc then SORN has to be declared. (There are exceptions)

nope - its for cars MANUFACTURED up to 31st December 1972.
There are some 1973 cars that are tax exempt if the owner could proove the 1972 manufacture date.

Yep - manufactured up to and including 31 December 1972. Could then lie in a showroom for a while before being registered.
As an aside - could one STILL be lying in a showroom waiting to be registered ?? I don't think so - because any car registered now has to comply with so many rules/regs that a Minor would never pass.

Can't be right all the time!

mike.perry wrote:Can't be right all the time!

You are not alone Mike I am a member of that club

Me too

As has been said, it's down to the date of manufacture.

It was brought in for vehicles of over twenty five years of age, on a rolling basis, by John Major's government. In 1997 Brown wasted no time in curtailing the system, hence the fixed date of 31 December 1972. It's a wonder he hasn't said that nobody married after 1972 can have a silver wedding; its the same logic .

At the time, the reason given was potential loss of revenue. Time proved this argument to be nonsense, as there is no glut of 1980s cars left on the roads. The popularity of MGBs, Midgets and Triumph TR/Spitfires would have meant a reasonable number of 1970s cars would have become eligible for free tax but still small change by comparison with the number of 1970s cars which have (And had already) been scrapped.

The next spurious argument was the environmental one. Given that Blair's government gave the "Green Apple Award" to Charles Ware, that surely should have meant an expansion of the scheme back to rolling exemption (Lets not kid ourselves, Morris Minors are only tax exempt because they went out of production before 1973).

I have engaged in considerable correspondence with the Government on this issue. All the buck passing and giving answers to questions I hadn't asked (But not to questions I had asked) convinced me that here we have (Moderated by LouiseM) who simply dislikes classic cars. As chancellor he wasted no time in carrying out his vendetta and as Prime Minister, he makes sure that it remains government policy.

Whether the smooth talking salesman will change anything if (Or more likely when) he displaces Brown, remains to be seen. I think the only party openly supportive of rolling exemption is UKIP but I think I've got as much chance of forming a Government as them, with British politics being something of a tennis match between just two players.

The original posters question "when is a classic car exempt from road tax" has now been answered. People are entitled to their opinions but lets keep party political comments off the board please.

The whole issue revolves around party politics and as classic car enthusiasts we should fight our corner

This is not a new Government policy - it has been in place since 1997. Of course people are entitled to oppose this policy, if that is what they wish to do, but as has been stated here before (on more than one occasion) this is not a forum for discussing party politics. It just leads to arguments and disagreements.

I'll lock this thread now. If anyone has any objections please contact me by pm.