Rough as a donkey’s arse

brooksby wrote:

Govt website at

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

Quote:

You do not need to get an MOT if:

• the vehicle was built or first registered more than 40 years ago
• no ‘substantial changes’ have been made to the vehicle in the last 30 years, for example replacing the chassis, body, axles or engine to change the way the vehicle works

If your vehicle was built before 1 January 1981, you can stop paying vehicle tax from 1 April 2021.

If you do not know when your vehicle was built, but it was registered before 8 January 1981, you do not need to pay vehicle tax from 1 April 2021.

So if your vehicle was built and registered on 4 January 1981, you need to pretend you don't know when it was built?

It used to be a fixed date - the car had to have been built before 1974 (IIRC) and then all these people who had cars from the late 70s and 80s said that was unfair because their cars were old too, so it became a rolling thing ("more than 40 years ago").

No sensible owner of a historic vehicle would leave their vehicle alone and not bother with having a "like an MOT but not really" service at least once a year, mind...

Genevieve and Chitty would actually be classed as vintage rather than historic. I think they have their own set of rules, and are allowed to drive the London to Brighton run.

brooksby wrote:

You do not need to get an MOT if:

• the vehicle was built or first registered more than 40 years ago

This is nuts, cars do not get safer as they get older, they get more worn out and likely to have faults.

I think that the original idea was that historic vehicles wouldn't be driven around as much as a modern vehicle, so didn't need the MOT.