All this talk of VED got me thinking. One of first acts of the current government was to
freeze the rolling zero rate VED for vehicles over 25 years old ? so that it now only applies to those built prior to 1973. At the time I recall listening to a load of piffle that if this were not done the number of zero rated vehicles would expand massively. The fact that many get scrapped/SORNed/etc. seeming to be ignored. Looking around it seems that the average age of cars has gone down in the interim.
Does anybody know: -
a) How many cars were zero rated at that time
b) How many are still in use (i.e. have a zero rated VED disc)
c) How many cares it would apply to now if the 25 year limit were re-introduced? I realise that the chances of this are similar to those of winning the jackpot in tonight?s lottery!
Sorry lost the fight to get c) to display properly!
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The next thing to go will be the concession for electric vehicles. These things are only window dressing - as soon as concessions become popular, they are magically removed!
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My supra was first reg'd in 1984, so from next year would have been zero VED under the rolling 25years program
You don't see any cars of that vintage anymore (not round these parts anyway) so I would guess that cars older than 25years only make up a tiny amount of cars on the road. I reckon less than 1%.
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Any car that makes it to 25 years old with a valid MOT deserves free road tax. At least the Tories have promised to reinstate the rolling date if they get back in.
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Yes, I agree that any 25year old car with valid MOT should get free road tax, that will save me £180 a year :)
It's worth pointing out that 25 year old cars are currently from the 80's - most cars (if not all) from this era suffered badly from tin worm. My supra has to spend its winters in a heated garage to have any chance of surviving.
As 25year old cars start to come from the 90's thing might start to change.
I guess the point is that 25year old cars are owned by enthusiasts rather than being £50 bangers which are generally cars from the 90's.
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What would be interesting to know is trhe number of cars running that are over 25 years old compared to when the rolling exemption was frozen. I personally suspect it is lower. Some years ago I was at Billing for the Mk 1-IV Ford Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac gathering. There were less than 100 cars in total compared to over 100 Mk IIs some ten years previously. You also see less Morris Minors, VW Beetles and MGs about than a decade ago.
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The difference between my 1967 Lotus Elan - Zero rate - and my Yaris diesel is £35 pa.
I consider £35 well worth paying for 57mpg and comfort vs 25mpg and discomfort and unreliability. The Lotus was more fun tho - on journeys up to 30 miles. :-)
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