Hi, My Mk1 was first registered on 1st Feb 1981. It was manufactured end of December 1980. According to DVLA historic vehicles need to have been manufactured before 1st Jan 1980. I thought that they just needed to be over 40 years old. Have I got it wrong? Thanks
Pretty sure it's in the following year it becomes exempt, but it's a few years ago I read that, and policy may have changed. So an 81 car wont need taxing from 2022. That's how I understood it when it got reintroduced, my mate had an mgb that was similar issue when it hit 40.
If you can prove it was manufactured in 1980 then you should be able to register it as an historic, tax exempt vehicle. If you can't then, as the Dodgy man says, you will have to wait until whenever it is you tax it in 2022. It's needlessly complicated like all government things.
It used to be the 25 year rule, rolling, then a cut off of a certain point in 1973, build date as could get a heritage certificate which satisfied dvla, Then the 40 year rule came in, but it IS quite difficult from memory, and you have to apply for the vehicle to be classified as historic, sure there was a clause about modification of said vehicle, they tightened up on it all, any bulkhead mods, chassis notching if lowered, engine swaps can only be like for like if you read it, or it was last time I enquired, hence why so many cars on ebay with conversions are "still registered as a 1.3, up to buyer to change" in the listings. I tried registering one of my old 1976 minis as tax exempt when it came to getting it back on road couple years ago and was a bit of a trek to do it, mind you did have a lot of other stuff going on at that point too. And when the original tax exempt rule came in, I had just sold my anglia to a friend and as in those days you could sell the car taxed, he got all the rebate back, didn't even buy me any chips.
It's not difficult really. I've done it and I even went the extra mile to get a certificate of authenticity to save me an extra year's tax. If you go on to the DVLA government website and read the criteria, although not straightforward, it's not difficult. Also, the rules on modifications are pretty grey and open to interpretation. There are no problems with engine size increases as long as the engine is of the same type and number of cylinders. Download the PDF which explains the process and the allowed mods quite clearly. https://www.gov.uk/historic-vehicles
