Steven Smith
CCCUK Member
Relaying my attempts to obtain history vehicle status for my C4.
The following criteria from the DVLA website must be met:
Vehicles exempt from vehicle tax:
If your vehicle was built before 1 January 1986, you can stop paying vehicle tax from 1 April 2026.
My C4 is an 86 model but was built in November 1985 so it should be easy !!
So in February I contacted the club and obtained a dating letter which was posted off to the DVLA with the V5 document and photos of the car including the data plate showing the month and year of manufacturer as November 1985.
About 6 weeks later I received the unchanged V5 back, then the following week a letter stating the application for historic tax has been declined as I had provided insufficient evidence and they wanted an official letter or receipt from GM.
I left it for a few weeks pondering how to obtain the "evidence" they want.
I emailed the National Corvette Museum who put me in touch with The Vehicle Invoice team at the GM Archives (vehicleinvoice@alliedvaughn.com).
They claim to have every vehicle receipt since 1977, so for the sum of $50 they will send me what they have for my C4.
Twenty four hours later I was in receipt of the original sales invoice for my C4 from Chevrolet Motor Division to Pop Taylor Chevrolet Inc which shows it left the factory on the 13th November 1985.
This was printed out along with a copy of the receipt for the information and posted back to the DVLA with their letter asking for this information and the clubs dating letter again.
It was sent back to the DVLA on the 17th April, so far I have received nothing back but I am hopeful because at the MOT on Friday the year of manufacturer was showing as 1985 on the testers computer and the app I use to manage the family vehicle fleet, which gets information from the DVLA, now shows the manufacturer date as November 1985
The following criteria from the DVLA website must be met:
Vehicles exempt from vehicle tax:
If your vehicle was built before 1 January 1986, you can stop paying vehicle tax from 1 April 2026.
My C4 is an 86 model but was built in November 1985 so it should be easy !!
So in February I contacted the club and obtained a dating letter which was posted off to the DVLA with the V5 document and photos of the car including the data plate showing the month and year of manufacturer as November 1985.
About 6 weeks later I received the unchanged V5 back, then the following week a letter stating the application for historic tax has been declined as I had provided insufficient evidence and they wanted an official letter or receipt from GM.
I left it for a few weeks pondering how to obtain the "evidence" they want.
I emailed the National Corvette Museum who put me in touch with The Vehicle Invoice team at the GM Archives (vehicleinvoice@alliedvaughn.com).
They claim to have every vehicle receipt since 1977, so for the sum of $50 they will send me what they have for my C4.
Twenty four hours later I was in receipt of the original sales invoice for my C4 from Chevrolet Motor Division to Pop Taylor Chevrolet Inc which shows it left the factory on the 13th November 1985.
This was printed out along with a copy of the receipt for the information and posted back to the DVLA with their letter asking for this information and the clubs dating letter again.
It was sent back to the DVLA on the 17th April, so far I have received nothing back but I am hopeful because at the MOT on Friday the year of manufacturer was showing as 1985 on the testers computer and the app I use to manage the family vehicle fleet, which gets information from the DVLA, now shows the manufacturer date as November 1985
