And whilst on the subject of MOTs, local Councils operate MOT testing stations that are open to the public. They usually don't do repairs so have no vested interest in failing your car. However I checked with the one nearest to me (Coventry) and the test fee is the full £45, whereas many 'conventional' testing stations will charge a reduced fee, such as £29.95 at Halfords in Solihull. Having dealt with that branch for many years with three cars I have never had any doubts about any defects or advisories they have raised.

The first response started off OK saying I wouldn't be able to change the class until 1st April 2016 as expected, but the remainder of the email referred to the vehicle as needing to be manufactured before 1st January 1975, not 1976. A phone call wasn't much better. Initially he said I would have to wait for the Budget to state that the concession had been rolled forwards one year. However the Finance Act 2015 i.e. last year's Budget has already stated that vehicles constructed before 1st January 1976 will be eligible from 1st April 2016. He then changed his tune and said to go to a PO on 1st April with the amended V5C and apply to retax. If they say there is no fee then all well and good, and to send off the V5C to the DVLA. But if they still want the fee then go back again the next day. If they still want a fee then get back to the DVLA. Asked if I would need to SORN it before the end of March he said no, but if I can't get it retaxed in the first couple of days then I'll probably have to. A second email reply from the DVLA apologised for and corrected the error in the first reply, but after four different responses from them who is to say that this last one will work out in practice?

However this response from the DVLA received on 30th November 2015 said:

So an improvement in that you can do it at a Post Office if the date of first registration is in the qualifying year, otherwise it has to be done through Swansea. Even doing it at a Post Office you still have to send off the amended V5C to Swansea for reissue. Does not mention the extension of the qualifying period to 7th January as in the then current INF34.

Now INF34 (dated 18th November 2015) says:

So on the face of it a further improvement in that you can now do it at a Post Office even if the date of first registration is outside the qualifying year but the date of manufacture is inside, but what does '... if you think the age shown is incorrect ...' mean? Also it talks in terms of the V5C showing the date the vehicle was made or first registered, and dating evidence being needed to 'change the change the date of manufacture for an already registered vehicle.', as if V5Cs can now show date of manufacture.

I'll repeat that only the new-style The British Motor Museum certificate is acceptable as dating evidence. This has a large gold The British Motor Museum logo impressed into the lower right-hand corner of the certificate, issued from September 2001. The older certificate with the small The British Motor Museum logo in the centre at the top is not acceptable. If you have an old certificate it will cost £24 to replace it with a new-style, you will have to supply a valid Heritage Certificate number, or a copy of the old Certificate. If your certificate was issued before 2001, it will not appear on The British Motor Museum database so you will need to email a scan to The British Motor Museum.

I'll also repeat the advisability of sending documents to the DVLA by Royal Mail Signed For at least if not Special Delivery Guaranteed, due to the risks of significant fines if the documents go astray.

It remains to be seen what happens when Vees paid-for tax expires on 31st March this year, and she becomes eligible for Historic status on 1st April. I'll try getting the class changed and the road tax renewed at a Post Office a couple of weeks prior to that (although what one gets back as evidence now no charge is made or paper disc issued remains to be seen), but Roger Parker writes that he has known of people having everything done at their Post Office including sending the V5C off to Swansea at one extreme, to the other where they wouldn't even renew the tax even though they was no class change. 'Plus ca change', as they say, and I may have to SORN her for a while.

It's all very confusing, but for the last two years the Finance Bill has contained a clause stating that the Historic Class ('exempt vehicles') will be advanced by one year, although it doesn't come into force until April 1st the following year. For example the Finance Act 2015 Part 2 Section 59 states:

The second part of subsection 2 has caused some confusion, but I think all it means is that as long as you have paid road tax still in force at 1st April you don't have to apply to change the Taxation class to Historic immediately if you don't want to.

However this DVLA document on black and silver plates states:

The remainder of this update has been replaced by January 2016 above.

Incidentally once made SORN is now continuous, it doesn't have to be renewed annually.

It's all explained in this DVLA video - or maybe not, this has to be the crassest piece of government information of all time.

Perhaps you pay for the car but have to leave it with the previous owner until your new V5C comes through, 2 to 4 weeks, as that is needed to tax it? Surely not!

If the car is currently taxed and not on SORN you could drive it away without the rozzers or ANPR picking you up - but I wouldn't put it past them to retrospectively see if the car had been picked up on any ANPR cameras between the seller saying he sold it and you buying a new tax disc. The Telegraph says "Under the new rules, car sellers must tell the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) immediately of the change of ownership, and the new owner must register to pay tax before driving the car away." Immediately? The requirement is to post back portions of the V5C, which is hardly 'immediate'. What does 'register to pay tax' mean? Is that something less than paying up there and then? The AA is slightly different with "you will have to get new vehicle tax yourself before you can use the vehicle", does that include before driving it home after purchase?

As well as having to tax it before you can drive or keep it on the public highway - and that includes driving it away from the seller - you also need insurance of course. When retaxing a car you already own online it tells you it has checked the insurance and MOT database. But with a new car you may only have insured it a day or so before, and it takes time for the insurance company to get the details onto the DVLA database, which would seem to be a show-stopper. However following proposals in 2012 the DVLA no longer check for insurance when retaxing a car online or at a Post Office, only for an MOT. They do however use the Motor Insurance Database to check that a car with road tax is continuously insured.

The AA section also includes a link to a new DVLA online tax-disc renewal service, but just like the existing system that only allows you to purchase a new tax disc if the existing V5C is in the purchasers name, which it won't be! October: This services does now include an option for those just having purchased a vehicle. But the page says it is a 'Beta' service i.e. still under test. The page offers a link to the original service, which also now appears to cater for those having just purchased a vehicle, but at the time of writing that service is 'currently unavailable', and it routes you back to the new service. However it is a different page, which doesn't include the new purchaser option. But if you persevere you do then get to the page that caters for new purchasers! End of update.

You can phone - lines apparently available 24/7 but you will be at the mercy of answering delays - while you are at the sellers premises having paid over your money: Telephone: 0300 123 4321; Textphone: 0300 790 6201.

You can also renew it at a Post Office, but would have to wander off to find one, having left both car and money with the seller? I don't think so. You can't even legally leave it parked outside his premises, having paid up and got the keys, while you find a Post Office. Also the DVLA page says to do it at a Post Office you need either the V11 reminder or the V5C, which a new purchaser won't have, as well as the MOT.

And how about when you phone or go to the Post Office and they tell you there is some kind of problem and you will be unable to tax it in your name, having already handed over the money? You will have to go part way through the process beforehand to confirm that you will be able to tax it in your name before handing over the money, then complete the sale/purchase, then complete the process of taxing it in your name.

Maybe the seller should drive you to the Post Office, you tax it in your name, and only then hand over the money, then drive them back home!

The only other option is trailering it away from the seller, but make sure you cover up the number plates, as ANPR cameras won't know the difference between being on the road and being on a trailer. Towing is probably out as the vehicle is still 'on the public highway', and if you can't park it I don't see how they will allow you to tow it. Even then you will have to SORN it at the time of purchase.

Once you have agreed with the seller how it is to be done, the seller gives parts 10 to 12 of the V5C to the purchaser, and sends the rest off to the DVLA. The purchaser keeps part 10 (V5C/2) and sends part 11 off to the DVLA in order to get a new V5C. It looks like the purchaser can use the V5C/2 to tax the car once, at the time of purchase, using one of the above options with the V5C/2 document reference number and the registration number. Hopefully this will ensure you give the right details and don't tax someone else's car! Note that you won't get a new V5C until 2 to 4 weeks after the seller has returned his parts of the old V5C, and they have been received and processed by the DVLA. If that doesn't happen you won't get a new V5C, even though you have sent in part 11 of the old one, and after 4 weeks you will have to submit form V62.

  The DVLA only refund full month portions of the old tax disc (automatic when the seller sends in his parts of the old V5C) i.e. starting from the 1st of the next month, but the buyer will have to tax it from the 1st of the current month. So either the seller loses a month bar one day (transferred on the 1st of the month), or the buyer loses a month bar one day (transferred on the last day of the month, but see the 'Gotcha' for the seller with this), or something in between, which means the DVLA will always trouser a months tax every time a car changes hands, that's up to 7 million times a year - a nice little earner! The purchaser could buy it near the end of the month, and not re tax it until the 1st day of the next month, but that leaves a gap in the 'continuous taxation' that the purchaser will be liable for. Which leaves SORNing it at purchase, trailering it home, then taxing it at the beginning of a subsequent month.

There is an online database - AskMID.com - where you can interrogate the insurance database using the registration number to check that another vehicle is insured, but at the scene that is only available to owners of smart phones. And what do you do if it turns out they aren't - arrest them?

The DVLA has also announced that "Motorists will no longer need motor insurance policies to be checked when getting their vehicle tax.". Presumably this affects those that renew their road tax at a Post Office, as those doing it online have it checked automatically as part of that process anyway. The implication is that Post Offices will issue tax discs (for the time being) regardless of whether you have insurance or not, as the DVLA makes regular checks of the insurance database that taxed vehicles do have insurance at that time.

Another change is an improvement to SORN, once declared it doesn't have to be renewed annually, it remains in force until the vehicle is taxed or sold.

  From Top Gear - this How Many Left? website using DVLA data. Note the MGB is found under 'MG B', and the MG Montego under that description whereas the Maestro and Metro are found under 'MG'. Also note that the model list pages shows only licensed vehicles, you have to click on the model name to see the additional number SORNed (Statutory Off Road Notification) in any quarter. A slight decline in roadsters taxed (figures don't include cars off the road before 1994) but the numbers did go up quite a bit around 1999. Significant and steady decline in GT numbers, and even V8 GT numbers. V8 conversions of 4-cylinder cars shouldn't be included in this but should be an engine change to the original entry, but there are 20 appearing as first registered outside the normal GT V8 production period (some of those are outside the whole of the MGB production period) and no less than 581 MGB roadsters with first registration dates after 1982! Generally speaking the older the model (of MG) the flatter the curve i.e. less scrapped, which is probably to be expected.

Because my insurance expires on Feb 24th the DVLA system won't let me renew the road tax (which expires on Feb 28th) until the insurance has been renewed. Fair enough you may think, but the renewal isn't notified to the DVLA by the insurance industry until the renewal comes into force no matter how far in advance you renew it. This means there is only 3 or 4 working days for the notification to get to the DVLA, to apply for the new disc, and to receive it via the post. This can take up to five days so I could quite easily end up not having received to disc by 1st March. The DVLA blame the insurance industry for this situation, and say they are looking into it, but I'm not holding my breath. I suppose I'm going to have to wait until the tax rates do go up, renew for 12 months, then renew the next time for 6 months, and hopefully avoid the situation after that. But knowing my luck our illustrious Chancellor will change the effective date of the new higher rates from April to October and I would have been better off leaving it as it was! In the meantime it is back to driving to a Post Office (one that still does it) and queuing.

Subsequent speculation is that all of the increase will be postponed for at least a year as part of the regeneration package.

Go here if you want to report an unlicensed vehicle online.

There is information on a petition against this at the FBHVC site but I think the chances of the government changing their minds once the policy has been considered and published as a consultation paper is slim to non-existent.

• You still can't keep or use a vehicle on the road unless it is displaying a valid tax disc.
• You can still buy a tax disc up to two weeks before the start of the month if renewing without a gap or two days before if there has been a gap.
• You can still buy one up to the 15th of the month backdated to the first of the month, but you can't keep or use the vehicle on a public road in the meantime.
• If you make a SORN declaration you must renew it annually or buy a tax disc.
• You can still travel to and from an MOT station for the purposes of a pre-arranged MOT test without displaying a current tax disc i.e. if you had previously made a SORN declaration and now want to put the car back on the road or you took it off the road before 31st January 1998 and did not need to make a SORN declaration.
• You still must have valid and current insurance cover in force before taking it on the road for any purpose including getting an MOT in advance of the tax disc.

The only change is that now people who let the tax run out and don't renew it or return the SORN will be fined automatically after about four to six weeks, instead of having to be caught on the public highway as before. Unfortunately it does nothing about the hundreds of thousands of cars in daily use that are not properly registered and have no tax insurance or MOT, and as such doesn't go far enough IMO.

Owners of cars off the road since before 31st January 1998 don't have to take any action until they next tax the vehicle see above about obtaining an MOT before the tax disc.

You can declare SORN by phoning 0870 240 0010 or taking the relevant form to your local licence issuing Post Office. Don't post it to Swansea, in fact don't post it anywhere as you will have no evidence that you have done so if it gets lost.

From 1st January 2003 number plates can only be obtained from registered suppliers on production of the vehicle's registration document or licence reminder and a photocard driving licence, see the DVLA info. If you don't have a photocard driving licence you have to produce two other forms of identification. Intended to prevent the fitting of false plates to stolen cars, it seems much like banning law-abiding citizens from owning guns in order to prevent gun crime. Even more ridiculously it only applies to England and Wales, you can still buy number plates as before in Scotland or Northern Ireland, or anywhere else for that matter.

From 1st February 2003 you will only be able to obtain a Tax Disc from a Post Office if you present the registration document or the licence reminder, see the Post Office info. This is to prevent 'owners' of cars that have dropped below the radar of the DVLA from buying a Tax Disc. Pre-supposes that such people who probably have such a car to avoid payment of speeding fines etc. want to MOT, insure and tax the vehicle. Me? Cynical? Never!

From 7th April 2003 (why not 1st April, I wonder ...) cars that have been written off or scrapped as a result of an accident and are subsequently repaired must undergo and pass a Vehicle Identity Check before they can be returned to the road. Following that the registration document will carry a note to show the identity has been confirmed. From the same date someone wishing to sell or dispose of a car with significant unrepaired accident damage will have to return the log book to the DVLA, see the DVLA info. Again intended to prevent criminals passing off stolen cars as repaired accident damaged ones, this legislation will have an obvious effect on the buy-back and repair or sale of classics.

Another change on the same date concerns the use of 'black and silver' plates instead of reflective. Up until now it has been illegal to use black and silver plates on a car registered after 31st December 1972 irrespective of when it was built. From September 2001 the cut-off changes to cars built before that date i.e. the same as for free road tax. So my 72-built, 73-registered roadster will then be eligible to wear black and silver plates instead of reflective. Well what a much needed change that is! Since my roadster has probably carried reflective plates all its life I shan't be changing.