Road Tax Heroes

The amount of road tax (VED) you pay to use an older vehicle in Britain can be pretty confusing. I have a slightly unhealthy interest in searching out the cars that sneak through the system and pay surprisingly little tax. Saving hundreds of pounds a year is particularly gratifying when you’ve cunningly planned it!

Unless your car’s over 40 years old and road tax exempt it’ll fall into one of three different tax systems depending on its age. The amount you stump up each year then depends on engine capacity, CO2 emissions or cost when new.

So today we’re running though a few of my favourite examples of interesting cars which are cheaper to tax than you might imagine. The exact date on which they were registered is the crucial factor. Without getting too into the weeds, two key dates are 1st March 2001 and 23rd March 2006. Being registered just before rather than on or after these dates can make all the difference.

Jaguar XK 4.2 (X150)

With it’s aluminium monocoque the X150 was vastly more capable than previous XKs…the old XJS underpinnings had finally been banished. A small percentage of cars pay £300 less annual tax than the rest. Those registered before 23rd March 2006 (which means they’re capped to Band K) are taxed at £395 per year rather than £695. You’ll have to hunt them out but it’s worth doing, they’re often very well spec’ed too having been the the first cars to reach dealers.

Porsche 996 Turbo

Offers levels of performance and usability that no other 20th century vehicle can match. Early examples of these Mezger-engined supercars sneak into the pre March 2001 tax system, so the annual tax road tax (£325) is the same as a 1.6L 90s hatchback for example, which certainly feels like cheating.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

This shape of vantage continued until 2018 and for us these remain the prettiest of all modern Astons. Just like for the XK, you can find a very early examples registered before 23rd March 2006 and enjoy a £300 saving each year, which could be handy when running an ageing Aston!

Whilst this is all well and good, I admit that deciding which example of a modern classic to buy based solely on its date of registration may prove unwise! If you’re buying a car in the hope of enjoying it for years to come however, it might turn out that being just over the threshold of one of these tax systems makes a big difference in the future.

It seems likely that (in the UK at least) classic cars will continue to be given preferential treatment, we have a hunch that anything registered the right side of March 2001 might be in with a better chance of being grandfathered into classic status. Of course this is all a guessing game but there may come a time when some ICE cars, especially those chucking out high levels of CO2 are treated more harshly than they are currently. Lines will need to be drawn somewhere for any future legislation or tax hikes and we’re guessing the lines that are already in place will probably be used.

~S