Defining what makes a car classic is difficult, as the border is blurred and subjective characteristics come into play, such as design or presence in audiovisual media. However, a determining factor seems to be age, as all classics are old, but not all old cars are classics.
Most municipalities set the age of 25 years for a vehicle to be considered a classic and thus be eligible for tax exemption. However, this is for each administration to determine, and there are some that claim that classics are only those that were 25 years old when the regulations were passed.
For a vehicle to be considered historic, certain requirements must be met that would make the car part of the Spanish Historical Heritage. These include that it be completely original or, if modified, that it be in line with the preparations of the time.
For a vehicle to be classified as historic, it must have been manufactured or registered for the first time 30 years ago, according to the new Historic Vehicle Regulations, which will come into force on 1 October.
The advantages of registering a car as a historic vehicle are the exemption from the MOT; the ability to circulate in Low Emission Zones; a simplification of bureaucratic processes with respect to the previous regulations, such as the elimination of the cataloguing phase.
Now, historic cars are classified into groups A and B: Group A includes vehicles that can be automatically declared historic, without substantial modifications that call into question their originality, while Group B includes those cars that are imported, modified or deregistered for circulation.
Furthermore, since they are classified as historic, the sale value is practically guaranteed, given that the vehicle is in original condition.
The new regulations establish a circulation limit of 96 days a year, “in no case as a means of daily transport.” There is a mistaken belief that the number of kilometres travelled per year for historic cars is limited to 5,000, but this is due to campaigns by insurance companies, which offer affordable policies for these cars, as long as they do not exceed this limit.
For this reason, it is assumed that historic cars are cheaper to insure, but this is not true and their policies have much more restricted coverage than those of conventional cars.
To register a car as historic, a report from an official laboratory is required to classify a car as such, present in each autonomous community. The rates for this service range from 150 to 400 euros.
In addition, it must be demonstrated that the car is of interest as a historic vehicle on the part of the manufacturer or a classic car club. With these two steps, the request can be made to the regional delegation of Industry – normally the laboratory itself can do it.
Once this is done, the vehicle inspection must be carried out, which will determine whether the car can be driven normally or with limitations. And finally, once everything has been approved, it is time to go to the Provincial Traffic Headquarters to request the historic registration. The total cost varies between communities but is usually between 400 and 1,000 euros.
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