Lancia Beta Forum

hi all , could anyone enlighten me here . i know its zero tax if car over 40 years old , would my spyder be classed historic tax exempt -bah196w registered 23-01-1981, i tried local post office unfortunately they didnt really have a clue , i was hoping to find out the build date

Hi Darren,

I'm just in the middle of registering a historic vehicle, only mine has 2 wheels, not 4... :D The rules as I am aware of them are that you can apply for historic vehicle status on April 1st of the year following that in which your vehicle turned 40 years old. As an example, my motor bike was first registered on 8th August 1980, but the earliest I could apply for historic vehcle status was 1st April 2021 which I duly did. So unfortunately you will need to wait until 1st April 2022 to apply for HV status.

If you Google 'DVLA Historic vehicle' you should get the official position, which I believe is as I have stated.

Graham

thx for that, i was hoping for better , never mind more tax money it is then  :)

If you message me the chassis number I'll tell you when it was built, it could easily be a 79 car.

chassis number is 828bs1004945-engine number is 3339789 thx

Just checked on the DVLA pages, and if you can prove the car was built before January 1st 1981, then you can apply for historic vehicle status now. I'd forgotten about the 'date built' angle, and was only thinking of the 'date registered' and as we know with Lancias they could be sitting around for a long time before being registered.

Good luck!

i would  agree build was probably a year or two , but its trying to prove it

Hi Darren

I’ve just been through this and #rossocorsa provided me with a build date for my May 1981 registered Beta Coupe as 1979. So I joined the Lancia Motor Club and contacted Neil who was the DVLA expert for Lancia he then agreed that my car was built in April 1979 and provided me a letter of verification, which I sent off to dvla with my V5 and 2 other dvla forms and 3 weeks later I received my new V5 with historic status and taxed for a year and mot exempt.

Cheers Kev.

Hi Neil

I see you are going up in the world!

Peter

And rightly so, worked a treat for me.

It's March 1980

thx alan

That sounds like a result... :D

Darren

As above the LMC can do you a letter which is acceptable to the DVLA as proof of date of manufacture. It's a members only service though.

Neil

Hi I didn't realise that you could do that via build date. I will ask about my Monte as I undertstand they wee all build by the end of 1981, hence next year I could apply for zero tax in April. Every little helps!

The information I have is sketchy around this time, this is because they appear to change records from Lancia to combined fiat/Lancia mid 81 and a chunk of data is completely missing for about 6 months. If you send me your chassis number I can check though.

This is fascinating stuff.  I too have just been in touch with Alan #rossocorsa and it seems my May '83(!) S2FL Coupe was actually built in Jan '80! Could even have been Dec '79 but there were no factory records that month.  But that's still over 3 years between build and registration!

Neil... I'll be in touch shortly.

Chris 

Thank you Alan and Neil for your help with dating my Beta Coupe.  My May '83 registered car turned out to be recognised as a November '79 build, the 'Historic' class V5 arrived today from DVLA and I'm now tax free!  Yes... I will get the beers in when I next see you both. 

Chris

good stuff , thx to neil and his letter dating my spyder back to feb 1980,  i too have sent off to dvla, so should be back soon .  ;D

Hi

Given that most of our cars are now in the category, I was curious if anybody was NOT going to have an MOT on their car?

Just to say I am in the camp of having the test done regardless. I had a fail on the Saab a few years ago which was due to broken front spring. I could not see it was broken, due to the position of the break, until I removed the strut, but the tester said it was very common fault. Not having the MOT would not have found it.

Peter

Unfortunately I don't have a high level of confidence in MOT testers with old cars and I suspect there is a temptation to rubber stamp 40+ cars in good condition. It was the trade that wanted the exemption, not the Government, because they considered testing old cars not to be cost effective. I'm not getting the Beta tested this year, but will revue this going forward.

Coincidentally I got a reminder to tax the car yesterday. It only took 5 minutes online, but it seems a pointless bit of bureaucracy. Not sure why they don't just let it roll over unless you SORN....

While it may seem a pointless from the car owner's side it's an important way of officially keeping tabs on where cars are and what is in use on the road. For example, without it the fbhvc couldn't have recourse to official statistics to promote our cause.

Hi Neil

I understand your point and when I look at some cars/vans on the road which are much younger you have to question how thorough the tester actually was. I think it all depends on your view of why you are having it tested. I therefore would be looking for someone who actually took an real interest in checking the car out which would help me keep the car in good shape and feel safe when driving it.

Peter

Hi Frank, I'll still be taxing my Beta every year through DVLA - just like we do with our '67 Moggie and the '25 Chummy - it's just the charge is £0.00 so surely this generates a stat for FBHVC of cars on the road?

Chris

Well believe it or not the Stratos replica has historic status.... Thank you DVLA & pre SVA/IVA procedures.

So, whilst I don't officially need to take the car for an MOT every year I will continue to do so, taking it to the same garage that it's always been to. Rarely gets the same examiner mind.... And the one who attempted to pass it without giving it a proper look over was asked to do it right by myself! I struggle to get underneath the car these days and whilst i am familiar with it enough to know when something isn't right, an examiner, with a pit, can spot things before it gets expensive.

Plus the thought of an accident and the insurance company asking for proof of proper maintenance... Nah, always going to MOT it at a garage that understands it and will take the test seriously!

Guy

Chris, being "exempt" may be one of those popular misnomers. Technically they are exempt from "paying" not exempt from being taxed, similar to new zero emissions cars. The rules may however change in future so from a government standpoint everything has to stay recorded. There may also be a computer dimension whereby something like the ANPR system needs to a current tax status less than twelve months old in order to work. I had that with my work where my department would have been charged tens of thousands of pounds by the I.T. provider to reconfigure a system to remove a taxation item that was obsolete. It was more practical to record a nil return than rewrite the system.

Frank, That’s exactly my point from your earlier post. DVLA, and hence Govt, know what cars are on the road through the taxation process even if you choose not to record an annual MOT.

Hi Rossocorsa, is it just the chassis & engine number you need to determine the build date? Thanks.

Just the chassis number and model

I'll have a look & PM you the details if that's ok. Thanks.

Sure no problem

So how do I prove build date for my S2 Montecarlo? I have a VIN number and the mysterious build numbers behind the right headlight.
I know S2 Montecarlo build started January 1980 and stopped September 1981.

As I understand it to be eligible for historic status and tax free it needs to have been built before January 1981.

Can Neil validate this directly or does he need help from Rod at TMH for example?

The car is registered in 1983, but as we know that has nothing to do with build date.

Help gratefully received. I am in the LMC and tax is due in August this year.

Thanks

Eric   

Eric

Email a copy of your V5 and a photo of the chassis plate to dvla@lanciamc.co.uk and I'll have a look. I'll need your postal address for the letter too.

DVLA had a little spat about the last Monte I did, but the owner had wound them up with an email from Pininfarina which they objected to (God knows why!) and demanded the relevant page from Glasses Car Check. This is useless as it only quotes the prefix of Lancia VINs.....

Cheers
Neil

The 1981 records that I have are incomplete due to a change over to joint records with Fiat, in some cases I think that only Fiat heritage might have the information or with a monte pininfarina as they were the actual manufacturer something which DVLA are unlikely to understand.

Hi Neil

You have email including VIN and build date number which I think Rod at TMH has worked out.

Please let me know if you need more.

Thanks

Eric