New insurance plans for 2011

You don't get a refund on part months. Equally tax has to be bought from beginning of the month.
I was hoping to have jimny up and running in a fortnight max then sell my other car. We already insure 2 cars and a motorbike.
No one should be forced to insure a vehicle if it's currently not in use for a shortwhile and parked legally on your own private driveway or garage. BUT it is a good idea to stop un-insured cars in use on the roads

A personal Rant !!! Please accept my apologises.
I fail to be convinced by the SORN concept in relation to insurance etc. I have a 1974 VW Cabriolet which has been off the road for about 10 years, no SORN required. Why not?

I believe the DVLA is just a government job creation scheme. The Excise licence fails to ensure valid or current Insurance or MOT.
1. Insurance. I feel all cars on the road should display a valid 3rd party insurance sticker on the windscreen. One of those stickers which cannot be taken off without tearing. It could be issued by the insurance company. Both dated and with the registration number, as per the Road Tax Disc now. Cut out the middleman i.e. the DVLA.
2. MOT. Again have this issued by the tester in the form of a sticker along with the MOT certificate as per the insurance sticker. Again cut out the DVLA.
3. Road Tax. Why not add a couple of pence to fuel tax. Thus the contribution to the roads is proportional to usage and the engine efficiency, plus no one can avoid paying their dues.

How stupid of me !!! Road tax has nothing to do with road maintenance, it is just another tax revenue stream to which successive governments are addicted to. They prefer to spend millions on technology to detect car numbers on motorway flyovers and employ an army of civil servants, (at our cost) to detect none compliers. Sorry for the rant.

teafortwo0789 wrote: 3. Road Tax. Why not add a couple of pence to fuel tax. Thus the contribution to the roads is proportional to usage and the engine efficiency, plus no one can avoid paying their dues.

That idea has already been done. The government put duty on fuel years ago with the intention of replacing car tax (as it used to be called). Trouble is they never quite got around to scrapping the car tax and have been steadily increasing the fuel duty ever since!

Thank for the reminder.I'd forgotten that. I suspect it was just a short term ploy to justify a tax hike and then, as you imply, our lords and better have convenient amnesia.

Again please forgive my ranting, I'm getting grumpy in my old age as well as forgetful. Like the MP's, manifestos, promises and expenses.

ANPR can't read non standard plates Facade i.e. miss spaced or itallic fonts - Thats why the RPU get all exited about non standard plates when there's time to deal with them. Other problem with it is most scammers know what info comes back on a normal vehicle check so they'll clone ( if they've got half a brain ) or just rob the plates off the same make, model and colour of car ( if they're really stupid- theft of number plates gets reported ) If there's no marker on the motor the reg actually belongs to and it's got valid MOT/VED/insurance which most will do, ANPR won't be triggered by it. This is the main reason my plate is covered on here, not that I'm saying we've got dodgy members

The only valid argument I can see for demanding insurance on anything thats off road but not SORN is that vehicle is maybe more likely to be used on the road if it has valid VED - If you've paid the tax rather than free SORN or got your money back on tax remaining when it went off the road, it doesn't seem unreasonable to think that you COULD be on the road with it. Not that not having any road rent usually bothers the muppets that don't have any insurance- no insurance listed and expired VED often go together. It does seem like the honest folks who declare everything and stay legal will be getting shafted while nothing changes for the scumbags, yet again