Imported vehicles - 40 year tax/mot exemption

[Gad-Westy]

I thought this would be easy to answer via google but I'm seeing some vague wording that is giving me doubts.

If a car is 40+ years old but was imported to the UK 30 years ago for example, it is tax/MOT exempt? I think it is but some language refers to date of first registration rather than date of manufacture.

[Kerniki]

Year of manufacture is the reference point for determining this in france, not import date.

Here in france they have First registered date in country (imported to country) and also a date the car was manufactured, does the uk V5 have the same?

[TarquinMX5]

Built or registered.

https://www.gov.uk/historic-vehicles

Seems straightforward to me, though might require 'proof of manufacture', often available from owners clubs etc..

[aeropilot]

Gad-Westy said:

I thought this would be easy to answer via google but I'm seeing some vague wording that is giving me doubts.

If a car is 40+ years old but was imported to the UK 30 years ago for example, it is tax/MOT exempt? I think it is but some language refers to date of first registration rather than date of manufacture.

I think that is because, in the old days an imported car was given a number plate for the year it was imported, in the days before age related plate allocation, but I can't remember when that changed.....pretty sure it's more than 30 years ago though, as I think this changed to issue of age related plate on import in the mid to late 80's at least?

[Gad-Westy]

Brilliant. Thanks all.

[Peter3442]

It's definitely the date of manufacture. When I registered my Jaguar Mk2 as historic, the DVLA insisted that I obtain a Heritage Certificate to prove the date of manufacture even though it's always been UK registered and appears in their system, and that's in spite of the original registration being well over 40 years before I made the application.

If you can obtain some sort of Heritage Certificate, it will facilitate your application.