DVLA Hitting the Breaks Older Cars Face Car Tax Hike this Spring

Reg Plates Article

DVLA Hitting the Breaks Older Cars Face Car Tax Hike this Spring

Get ready to pay more to keep your classic clunker on the road. Spring brings a fresh set of challenges for British drivers, particularly those behind the wheel of cars manufactured before the turn of the millennium. Come April 1st, 2024, the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) – commonly known as car tax – will rise across the board, with older vehicles facing the brunt of the increase.

The hikes, justified by inflation adjustments, will see some engine sizes bear a modest £10 bump, while others could climb by as much as £20. For example, owners of pre-2001 cars with engines under 1550cc can expect their annual tax bill to jump from £200 to £210. While this might seem like a small change, it adds up over time, particularly for those already struggling with rising fuel costs and the general cost-of-living crisis.

But the burden doesn't stop there. Newer, supposedly greener cars won't escape unscathed either. Owners of vehicles pumping out over 255g/km of CO2 will get slapped with an additional £140 first-year tax fee, bringing the total to a whopping £2,745. This move, while aimed at encouraging environmentally friendly choices, stings even more considering the current affordability crisis faced by many households.

The government defends the tax increases, citing the need to generate revenue for road maintenance and air quality initiatives. However, critics argue that it disproportionately penalizes low-income drivers who rely on older vehicles due to budget constraints. They point out that many of these cars lack newer emissions technology, making them easy targets for tax hikes despite often being essential for daily commutes or running errands.

The looming price hike raises several questions. Will it prompt a shift towards smaller, fuel-efficient cars, even if it means abandoning beloved classics? Will it push some drivers off the road entirely, further crippling those who depend on cars for work or accessing essential services? These are concerns that the government needs to address with more support measures for financially vulnerable motorists.

While the future remains uncertain, one thing is clear: the spring breeze will carry not just floral scents, but also the chill of an increased car tax burden for many British drivers. Whether it becomes a gentle nudge towards greener driving or a financial hardship for those clinging to older vehicles remains to be seen.

How close a series of letters or numbers are to a real name of word: if the match quality is high (and the numbers and letters are very convincing in making a popular word), the value of the registration plate will be higher. This means that a match like 5IMON, for the name Simon, will be worth a lot more than a more obscure set of letters and numbers that are not as convincing a match, such as S17 MMM for the name Sam.

The style of the plate: this means establishing if it is a new-style plate, an older-style format or if it is dateless or Irish, for instance. Other options are that it is a prefix-style plate or a suffix-style plate. New-style number plates, which have been produced since 2001, tend to be the least valuable because they are a bit less appealing to some collectors, plus the rule about not having plates that are newer than your car can also come into play, putting people off from buying a newer-style plate for their older car. Prefix-style number plates, which were in production between 1983 and 2001 can be more popular as more vehicles are entitled to have those licence numbers, and they may have fewer characters in total. Suffix-style plates, issued from 1963 to 1983 are relatively rare, which means they can attract higher prices than prefix-style plates and newer designs. Dateless number plates, also known as cherished number plates, were produced between 1903 and 1963 and are nearly always the most valuable number plate configurations; they have fewer digits and their dateless nature means that people can hide the age of their car. Irish number plates are similar to dateless number plates, especially because they don’t have a year identifier. They also tend to be cheaper than other types of vehicle registration plates.

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