Dear LPG

They were part of every British car owner’s way of life for just under a century and then the computers got them and made them another of those things of the past.  Did you know that it has been four years since the car tax disk became obsolete?

I remember looking forward to the beginning of the month when my tax was due with both trepidation and anticipation. 

The first of those emotions continues to be a bit of a plague because of the need to part with so much money for the right to drive on the roads, and which annoys me even more when I think of all the extra mileage that one way systems and roundabouts force me to add to my driving journeys in order to get to the most straight-forward of places; not to mention that fact that the government force us to pay all this money to drive on the road so that we can get from A to B, while we have to pay so much more to be able to actually stop our cars and park them so that we can do what we need  to do once we get to our destinations.

But, childish as it may seem, at the beginning of each year I looked forward to finding out what colour the disc I would have stuck on my dashboard window would be.  I suppose it is a good thing that we no longer have to put up with the tax disc police road-blocks.  How many times were you in a serious hurry only to find yourself and your car in a queue of traffic that had been pulled over so that the disc could be checked while you experienced proof that the old saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ works in reverse?

I have a friend who has lovingly looked after his old run-around since he bought it in 1976 and he likes to call his car a classic now, but whatever you want to call it he no longer needs to pay car tax because it is over 40 years old.  I forgot to say that he is a retired car mechanic. 

I still have my old tax disk in the front of my car but after just four years I found out that some of those old paper discs are now becoming collectable.  So I think I will keep mine and suggest that if you still have one you do the same.  It could be worth something for the grandchildren in a few years’ time. 

HW, Crofton Park

LPG has found some evidence that tax discs are becoming collector’s items and offers a little information on that subject.

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