Another car tax

[sheerwater]

Hi,
Just read that the DVLA has introduced a £25 charge for transferring your already owned personal numberplate onto a new car in addition to the £25 new car registration charge. Some garages are also depreciating the trade in value of your trade in by up to £1000 unless you re-register your old car yourself prior to the trade in. i.e. you have to re-register the old car and place your plate on retention. Cheers Nige

[George Holmer]

Frankly, Nige, if you have money to throw away on a personal number plate, then I think you deserve that tax. You obviously have too much money.

George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/ZF22, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230ET/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K/M55, 90k)

[migrator]

Hi All,

Let's not get personal about this.

We each have our own way of getting rid of our hard earned. Some of us are inclined to put it on our car. Others need to spread it over a number of cars. Some of us have other hobbies / necessities.

If this government of ours in the UK ( ... no new taxes ... ) can find a way to get its hands on our cash then it will.

[cootuk]

We put on a personal plate to hide the age of the vehicle....ok, anyone who knows about cars can take a good guess, but it's more about a feeling of less pressure to trade up when I see my plate rather than an N reg.

[tonyflynn1]

Yep, same here, dumped the 'n' plate for a cheap dvla plate and it allows me another 50,000 miles on the car without the clients noticing for £250

[Peter Milnes]

I got one which keeps the original registration letter and also the county of registration. Unfortunately P K 1 M is not a legal number or I would have had that. PM 1 used to belong to Peter Murray (the Disc Jockey) and was used for the titles to Pebble Mill at One (BBC TV).

All the best, Peter

[sheerwater]

Hi George,
Ive got loads of money to spend on things I like !!! That is whatever is left after the Govt has taken before I even see it!!! Yep the personalised plate is to hide the age of the vehicle otherwise the car would have to be thrown away as it is written down on the books anyway.
The thing about personal plates is that Volvos have a long life...see my other posting but who wants to turn up in a 10 year old Volvo (however shiny) and persuede people you are a success at what you do. Cheers Nige

[wjp01908]

Depends entirely how you define success sheerwater.

If the only good thing people can say about me at my funeral is "at least he didn`t drive a 10 year old car" I`d be very sad.

BTW my Volvo is 15 and is still very shiny!!

[sheerwater]

Hi,
Wrong meaning perhaps on my last post. In my business a posh car is seen as a ''flash B*****'' but a tatty car is seen as not having the money to transact. Twice I have had worried people phone my solicitor to see if I am actually financially viable.(a justifyable thing to do) On the other hand I know of others in my business who deliberately drive Volvos as they fit the image. i.e. a working car. The problem is that if you turn up in a new car the negotiators take the attitude that you have loads of cash. If you turned up in C reg they think you are not serious. As Volvos look good the easy option as pointed out in another post is to polish the Volvo and stick a personal plate. My wife used to throw away business cars at 2 years old until she got a personal plate. I used to cry as they were always better than our personal car!!! I dont know what my epitaph will be but they will probably bury me standing up to save land!!! Cheers Nige

[wjp01908]

I know what you mean sheerwater about the image thing - it just makes me a bit sad that this attitude is so pervasive.

I reckon the answer is to drive a "classic" - something so obviously off the image treadmill that is self evidently kept for it`s own sake rather than for needing to advertise a particular monetary worth.

Perhaps in another 15 years my 340 will be one!

[sheerwater]

Hi,
Yes image is everything to some of the younger generation. My brother in law paid multi thousands to move a couple of hundred yards because it is the in thing to live inside the M25. Same in my business. The youngsters want a house ready to move into with all mod cons ,washing machine etc.
Suits me to buy up the stuff they wont look at, spend 2 weeks doing it up and re-selling it to those to lazy or stupid to see the potential. I recently saw a house at £64k which needed about £5k-£10k spent on it. Good area but damaged by last occupant. The youngsters were not interested at all. Rough living for 2 months at the most with builders doing all the work. Cheaper for DIY. Put back on the market by a builder for £125k two months later!!!! Plenty of buyers then!!! Cheers Nige. PS when people ask you hat you drive I bet you say VOLVO whereas if you had a Ford you would say Escort or similar.

[Mav_UK]

I would *love* to find a house that's in dire need of work (I'm only 26) (providing it's structually sound) unfortunately they are a bit hard to come by in Holland, and if anyone knows differently please mail me with details :)

As for the classic car, the problem with that is the image that a classic gives. My other car is a Spitfire, one of the cheapest classics you can buy and my old boss wasn't overly keen on me driving that to some clients as it gave the wrong image. People seem to think that they cost a fortune to keep up.

Stu

[wjp01908]

I usually tell them that it`s a 340 - only to be met by a blank stare - If they`re about my age I tell them that their grandad probably had one at some point. I`m not sure the various volvo models have the same brand image as other marques - I certainly wouldn`t be able to identify the newer ones in the same way as I would for example, a Polo or an Astra