Alarming news from DVLA

[Keith Bennett]

Spotted on page 6 of the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs - Newsletter issue 2, 2023 - in which a clarification exercise is causing considerable alarm within the classic vehicle community. The following is a very shortened abstract:

DVLA report
The clarification exercise results from the many complaints that DVLA received from the Federation and others that over the last few years they have changed long-standing practices and apparently reneged on existing agreements without warning or explanation... In outline some of the issues involved are:-

Dating certificates from an existing manufacturer rejected for having a "digital" signature despite them having been accepted for many years;
Non-acceptance of build date stamped directly on the vehicle;
Non-acceptance of model year information encoded within VIN;

and most worrying of all -
Contrary to long-standing practice that like-for-like repairs to a vehicle were not considered to affect its identity or status, it now appears that any repairs to a chassis or monocoque will be regarded as a modification and the vehicle will no longer be considered as historic.

This last paragraph would of course drive a coach and horses through the entire restoration business, whether amateur or professional and naturally the FBHVC is totally committed to pursue this seemingly arbitrary set of rules. I urge you to visit www.fbhvc.co.uk and study the entire DVLA report.

[Clive]

That does sound worrying Keith and, if correct, would affect a huge percentage of vehicles. I'm not a member so can't access the newsletter, does it say what the implications are? Maybe we would have to tax and mot our cars again, which wouldn't be too awful.

[Keith Bennett]

Hi Clive, I'll try and scan the relevant page and put it up on here as a PDF.

FBHVC says the DVLA aren't very forthcoming about their progress with these issues but, as always, the Fed fights for all classic vehicles' owners and their rights.

[Keith Bennett]

Right, here's the page, reproduced with grateful thanks, from page six of the Fed's Newsletter Issue 2, 2023

FHBVC abstract.pdf

(4.42 MiB) Downloaded 421 times

[Clive]

Thanks Keith. It does read like something is afoot but little actual detail. Luckily the classic car industry is huge so I wouldn't have thought anything too drastic would happen just yet. I can imagine though that there will be pressure from the green lobby to get our cars off of the road eventually.