Taxing a vehicle last used pre-1990 ?

If you have an old style V5 then you can tax at the post office with your MOT and insurance certificate. Been a couple of years since I had a car with an old V5 but not heard its' changed. I would then send the old V5 in to the DVLA for a new one which will let you do it online in future.

Old style V5 or a new one? Last time I did one at the post office and they sent the old log book off for replacement. Or you could send the old V5 to Swansea for replacement in advance - enclose a covering letter if you want to retain the old one for history purposes.

The cutoff date here is, I believe 1998, anything that changed hands after that is on the computer. But there are still records cos when I bought my Sprint (last taxed in 1995) and without a V5 at all, I just applied to DVLA for a new one and got it back, without comment or fuss and within a week, I had to declare it SORN too. When I got around to checking it, the name of the previous recorded keeper was not the name of the guy I got it from either!

My money says that, unless it has been officially scrapped (or something similar)in a past life, you should be fine.

I'd go to the Post Office, they seem generally less critical and more consistent than the Wombles on the phones at DVLA!

Steve

I had exactly your same situation. I've got a Fizzy, it to had not been taxed for yrs. I called dvla, the guy just asked for the ref. No that is on the v5, gave it him, job done, new version was duly received

Thanks for the info everyone

In no paricular order :
ax : noted, thanks
dodgerover : it's the old V5 (not the new red one)
s1105117 : will do, but not yet Maybe swap for the tale behind your username
carledo : sounds promising
All others : the info is much appreciated

I should have mentioned, the bike is pre-1960 so is mot exempt
It sounds like the quickest/easist option is just insure it, take old V5 and insurance to the poist office and see what happens
Will let you know (sometime next week if things go according to plan - they normally don't! )

Even if the bike is exempt from the MOT it wouldn't be a bad idea to get one on the system, just ticks a box on the DVLA's computer.
Is it already registered as 'historic' or will you need to change the taxation class?

Good points well made
mot's are not needed for anything manufactured pre-1960. my bike was registered March 1960 so it's a safe bet it should be mot exempt, but for now - with no proof - it will need an mot
The old-style v5 is fine but it was printed before the "new" tax-exempt / historic rules were thought of, so logbook still says "bike" (pay tax).
Next question - how do you change to histoic/tax-exempt these days? (we had a local DVLA office last time I needed to do it )

My to-do list has suddenly grown by an mot and a tax-class discussion with DVLA   

many thanks folks

^ I grinned..
Back when this first came to pass I took my Anglia log book into the post office and asked for a tax disc, lady behind the counter glared at me and held her hand out for the documents, rifled through looking for the money... with no apparent cheque or cash she glared at me over the top of her glasses and held her hand out ... I pointed out that there was a change of taxation class notified and asked her to send the log book off to the DVLA, she harumphed quietly, wrote me a tax disc and poked it back under the window...
As far as I am aware this is still the case. The post office seem to be more adept at doing these sort of things, maybe it's because they don't have 'consequences' for getting it wrong, who knows. I think you will need to have a read through this, INF34, changing a vehicles taxation class to 'historic'.

I had the same with a Matchless I bought.

I had an early 90's V5 and had to send it off with a V62 to get it converted into a V5C and the vehicle put on the computer database.

After this I MoT'd the vehicle and then went through the INF34 scheme to get it changed to historic.

To do this you apply for a tax change (V10) and provide an copy of either the original manufacturers build records or the glasses logbook for the vehicle showing the build date. They then declare the vehicle build date from that.

It took time but did work.