Pre Reg Cars after the 1st April - malct

Just reading a few a articles on pre reg cars and saying about buying one before the tax rules come in on the first April "New car buyers looking to beat the new VED rules will now have to opt for a pre-registered vehicle to get a car before the new road tax rates commence on 1 April"

The way that i look at it, You will still be able to buy pre reg cars after the 1st April 2017, Just has long as the car registered before the 1st April 2017.
I am thinking about buying a pre reg car or a car that was a demonstrator after April with that will come under the old road tax rules, But i just found some articles that i have read confusing.

Malc


Pre Reg Cars after the 1st April - skidpan

Its simple.

Any car registered before the new VED rules are introduced will benefit from the current rates.

My new car is being delivered in March and will be taxed under the current VED rules. If delivery slipped into April it would be taxed under the new VED rules. Since I have made it a condition of purchase that its registered in March if its late I simply walk away.

How hard can it be?

Pre Reg Cars after the 1st April - daveyjp
The article is about anyone ordering a new car.

If you want factory built chances are it will be on a 10-20 week lead time so no way of having it registered before 1 April and new rates will apply.
Pre Reg Cars after the 1st April - RobJP

As already said. It is the date of first registration that matters.

March 31st is on the old system, April 1st on the new system.

Pre Reg Cars after the 1st April - Engineer Andy

My local Mazda dealership said (when I was starting to look aroaund for a replacement for my 11yo Mazda3) they could get CX-3s on a 4 week order. Normally I'd be surprised at such a quick lead time (more like the 2-4 months daveyjp says), but given there appear to be very few buyers for CX-3s (list price too high and dealers not reducing prices much) it may be true.

I still wouldn't either risk buying it, if it was arriving just after the new VED rates came in (even if the model I'm looking at will only be £10pa more expensive to tax), unless I could get a 'cast-iron' deal like skidpan, or buy it at all because of the idiotically high prices (I don't care about residuals as I'll likely be keeping it for 10 years+ again).

I'm probably going to go for a a pre-regged car, if at all (not many CX-3 SEL-Nav 2ltr petrol autos around, even second hand). I suspect there'll be quite a rush (whether real buyers or pre-regged cars) to sell lower CO2-grouped cars (i.e. that attract band VED bands up to C/D), especially smaller (cheaper) cars (I doubt if expensive car owners that happen to be in low VED groups care what they pay).

Pre Reg Cars after the 1st April - daveyK_UK

a few points -

Dealers can register cars as soon as they arrive in the UK, even if they are still in the port. On occasion the dealership I worked for did this to hit end of month targets. Customers were always told as long as it didnt effect the registration plate year there was never a problem as the cars were normally delivered and with the customer within 10 days. Only 1 customer ever complained and some complimetary mats did the trick.

I know of one dealer (Renault/Nissan/Dacia) who have put in a bigger than expected order (20% higher than last years March figures) as they have been told to expect public panic as the media cottons on that car owners could effecitvely pay ££££'s more over the life of owning a car in road tax.

We could have a strange sitation where pre registered carts on the 31st Martch are more in demand than brand new on the 1st April and pre-reg cars hold a premium. This is also the view of the dealer i mentioned but they are going to wait until mid March to see if its worth pre-registering everything they have in the compound.

Likewise, some used values could be affected.

Edited by daveyK_UK on 19/02/2017 at 10:02