Road Tax question

[Scoobimax]

my car is currently having work carried out and has been on a SORN since i dropped it off at the garage last November. I am i allowed legally to drive it back home from the garage on the SORN if i don't want it back on the road until say March or April? or will i have to potentially take a hit as it were on payig for and from February?

might have to leave it with RT until 1st March

[Griffinr]

The only time you can drive on the road if you are on SORN is if you drive to and from a pre-booked MOT.

Rob.

[Scoobimax]

kind of what i thought - bugger.

just hope it's ready for 1st March then!!!

[tozerman]

The only way to drive it will be on trade plates or just re tax it, you could always chance it but the fines are massive and your insurance will be void.

Cheers.....Tony..

[ChrisGadd]

Max is RT doing an MOT ?

[mep12345]

Griffinr said:

The only time you can drive on the road if you are on SORN is if you drive to and from a pre-booked MOT.

Rob.

I cannot find where now but I did read (and it was on one of the DVLA documents that they sent me) that you could drive un taxed to "a location for MOT repairs". This surprised me as it means you can effectively drive it to any "booked garage appointment" if you have a failed or out of date MOT. As I said I can't find the document I read it in now or I'd cross refer to it, so on your head be it if you take the option and I'm wrong.

Either way for you the easy way would be to book MOT drive from RT to MOT have MOT done then drive home that would definitely be legal, or as OP says get RT to do the MOT as part of their work.

[Barkychoc]

I would MOT at RT & Tax it, and if required SORN it again straight away - it will cost you a months tax but a lot cheaper than getting caught by Plod.

[ChrisGadd]

Max I would take a look at your insurance details as well just to make sure you are still covered in case of a prang

[v8s4me]

On the wider subject of road tax, isn't it about time the government changed the rules on tax for classic cars? Many cars registered after 1973 are rightfully regarded as clssics (some of which aren't even TVR's!) so shouldn't they be looking at changing that qualification date? I'd suggest 20 years old, 5000 miles pa limit and insured on a "classic" type policy. If you agree, why not write to your MP.

[Dave_M]

mep12345 said:

I cannot find where now but I did read (and it was on one of the DVLA documents that they sent me) that you could drive un taxed to "a location for MOT repairs". This surprised me as it means you can effectively drive it to any "booked garage appointment" if you have a failed or out of date MOT. As I said I can't find the document I read it in now or I'd cross refer to it, so on your head be it if you take the option and I'm wrong.

Either way for you the easy way would be to book MOT drive from RT to MOT have MOT done then drive home that would definitely be legal, or as OP says get RT to do the MOT as part of their work.

You can MOT a car at any time so you do not need a failed MOT

However, as said you must have a pre-booked appointment for an MOT (not for JUST repairs etc.). This also means you can return the car following a failure (unless the examiner puts a restriction on it IIRC).

In this caset the MOT could done early, that would of course be a cost of circa £45 but that could be partially offset by not taxing the car yet.

[MJG280]

Make sure the MOT has the car details recorded including registration number. Go personally and make sure they write the details down.

[Scoobimax]

thanks guys. i think the MOT is early April so might be able to wangle it to fall right. probabaly safest to wait til March and just Tax it and hope for some nice sunny weather during March.

[Donnysoutherner]

You'll have to bring it round when its done, I've seen it a couple of times at RT.

[Scoobimax]

yes, definitely. desperate to get it back.

[Gentleman Geoff]

v8s4me said:

On the wider subject of road tax, isn't it about time the government changed the rules on tax for classic cars? Many cars registered after 1973 are rightfully regarded as clssics (some of which aren't even TVR's!) so shouldn't they be looking at changing that qualification date? I'd suggest 20 years old, 5000 miles pa limit and insured on a "classic" type policy. If you agree, why not write to your MP.

Any car that was more than 25 years old used to qualify for zero-rate road tax. This system was frozen in 1998, which is why the cut-off date is now fixed at 1973.

[ketvrin]

I bet "Frozen" is not a word you use often these days Geoff

Hope its still going well over there mate

Is there not a campaign going anywhere regarding taxing of older cars that we could add our collective voice to? writing to our MP's wouldnt be very effective I reckon as we are so widespread - MP's all over the country would be unindated with literally two or three letters... It would be far more effective if owners of ALL marques wrote to a single MP (preferrably a sympathetic one)

K

[phillpot]

Would be something to look forward to if the 25 year thing was still rolling but with Governments set on ridding the World of any car over ten years old think it would be a brave or daft MP who proposed any scheme for helping to keep old polluting cars on the road unfortunately ?

[Gentleman Geoff]

ketvrin said:

I bet "Frozen" is not a word you use often these days Geoff

Hope its still going well over there mate )

Going great, thanks Kevin. I'll be back in the North East at the end of May for a friend's wedding. I'm not quite sure how long I'll be back but if there's any chance of hooking up I'll give you a shout.

Hope the TVR is running well? The only drawback to living here is that it's definitely not a suitable place to run a classic car!