Have your say on government e-petitions

Reduce age required for historic/classic vehicle status from 40 to 30 years

Submitted by Robert Alliston on Wednesday 7th January 2026

Published on Thursday 5th February 2026

Current status: Open

Open until: Wednesday 5th August 2026

Current Signatures: 72
(count is updated approximately hourly)

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

30 years ~ 40 years ~ British ~ Cars ~ Classics ~ Europe ~ European countries ~ Europeans ~ Historic ~ Owners ~ road tax ~ ROADS ~ status ~ Tax ~ testing ~ Vehicle ~ Years

Petition Action

Reduce age required for historic/classic vehicle status from 40 to 30 years

Petition Details

Historic/Classic vehicle status in the UK can be applied for when a vehicle becomes 40 years old, whereas many European countries allow this status to be applied for when a vehicle is 30 years old. We want to bring the UK rules into alignment with most of Europe.

Additional Information

We feel that owners of historic and classic vehicles in the UK are penalised for a whole ten years more than most of our European cousins. Make “Historic/Classic” vehicle status available for vehicles when they are 30 years old. Many owners of classic vehicles have collections of multiple cars, and each one is required to go through annual MOT tests and pay road tax, even though owners really only use one vehicle at a time on UK roads. We believe this makes preserving British historic vehicles unfairly expensive.


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