Quote:
Originally Posted by nemo
What is the reasoning behind this.
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Money. We pay a TON of tax each year to own a car, and as a little tax break to people of classic cars, they made cars over 25 tax exempt. However, with certain cars being nearly indistructible in the 80's, people started using old cars as daily drivers, especially diesel mercedeses were imported from far and wide, people got big luxury cars without paying the huge tax associated with owning a heavy car, a diesel car, or the combination of the two.
So the government, annoyed at how much tax they were missing out on, moved the oldtimer age to 40 years and called it "because old diesel cars pollute". Thanks to some lobby club, at least petrol cars between 25 and 40 get a 75% reduction on the tax if they stay off of the road in the winter, Diesel and LPG cars pay the full price, leading to lots of oldtimers being scrapped, especially oldtimer 4x4's were hit hard (both high weight and diesel == lots of tax).