I'm Officially Historic!

[014 Phil]

Well, the car is anyway.............

It 30 years old, so eligible for Historic registration. Changed her over today. Use basically restricted to just club runs, but drops cost from about $700 per year to $50. Hard to say no to that.


(Will fit plates properly on the weekend)

[028 Sean]

Well done there Phil!

I bet you are well chuffed with that status and the money saving bonus too. I wish we had something similar to that here in the UK. Sadly none of my GM junk will ever be in such a class or valuable either mate.....I live in the wrong part of the World!

[001 Neville]

Cool! I'll have to check up on what that entails in NZ as the Rekord is over 30 years old.

Do you get brand new number plates with the H at the end, or is it the same number made up with the historic vehicle caption below?

[014 Phil]

The car doesn't need to be valuable, just 30 years of age, fundamentally unmodified, and you need to be a member of an approved car club.

The number plate is a new issue. They are a different size & colour to conventional plates. The idea is to have them stand out to discourage people using the car for unauthorised purposes.

[001 Neville]

...so who approves the car club? Would the OpelForum count? I'll definitely have to check what the rules are over here.

The idea is to have them stand out to discourage people using the car for unauthorised purposes.

... you mean, like robbing a bank?

[014 Phil]

...so who approves the car club? Would the OpelForum count? I'll definitely have to check what the rules are over here.

The idea is to have them stand out to discourage people using the car for unauthorised purposes.

... you mean, like robbing a bank?

I actually need to look into it a bit more, as the Brocks have just started turning 30 so I may start getting enquiries.

Briefly, as I understand it, the Council of Motoring Clubs has to accept the club as a suitable club for membership of the Council, and hence able to be part of the historic club registration scheme. The club then gets accepted by the Roads & Traffic Authority as eligible to administer usage within that club (or something along those lines....... ).

Rather than bank robberies, I was thinking things like driving to work, to the shops, or somewhere just for the hell of it. )

[010 Alf]

Rather than bank robberies, I was thinking things like driving to work, to the shops, or somewhere just for the hell of it. )

Don't forget Phil, Neville needs to rob banks to finance his Opel addiction!!

Over here in the UK we have a Tax Free scheme as well, to qualify, the car needs to have been manufactured before 31st December 1972, in my case, the Commodore was registered on 8th January 1973 so they wouldn't accept that, I then wrote to the Opel factory in Russellheim asking if they had any proof of the date of manufacture, they sent me the original build sheet by return of post which I duly presented to our DVLA, they then re-registered my car as an 'Historic Vehicle' so now I pay nothing and we don't have any restrictions either, I can use it as my main means of transport if I so wish!! I'm often seen shopping at Tesco, our local supermarket!!

Cheers,
Alf.

[020 Brad]

Very good there Alf.

Our system as I understand it is more similar to yours. The cars need to be over 40 years old I think it is, but it is a rolling time frame, more like Australia in that respect.

I also think there is different classes of registration here, so your car can be standard, classic, historic and vintage, or something along those lines. I'm sure a simple call or email to ltsa would provide a fact sheet giving details on it. The cars I play around with are early 80's on onwards, so I've never had reason to look into it. I'm fairly certain nothing changes at 30 years here in NZ I'm afraid Neville, but like I say, have a look into it and perhaps put up a thread. It would be great information to know for a fact and there may be some of us paying higher licensing fee's than we are required to!

[001 Neville]

Yep, I'll look into it, and post something up when I find out.

40 years, huh! Think of the amount of road tax paid on a car by that time!

[020 Brad]

Spoke to a friend of mine recently who confirmed it to be 40 years before the car becomes a classic and gets the cheaper registration etc, so keep counting fellas!

[001 Neville]

Maybe I'd better keep the Rekord after all as that is the closest to being eligible from 1972.

Huh, 40 years! Not many cars will still be on the road by that age, so it will keep down the number of vehicles they allow to be free registration

[028 Sean]

I cannot see many cars making the 40 years mark in any country Nev. I know my favorite models - Carlton's and Senator's won't live to see that sort of age. Had a shock today trying to sort out some Carlton panels for a mates restoration, when I was told that front wings....even pattern ones are NLS items!

So either an accidental tap on the front or the onset of some serious rust and that's it...my car will be nothing more than scrap.

[001 Neville]

I think the UK (and Europe?) is particularly bad with that bloody salt they put on the roads! That starts rotting the cars from the first winter. No salt on the roads here, so is only the coastal effect which may affect local cars.

Saying that, it was a bit of a timewarp over here with the number of older cars when we moved here in 1999, but that has been changing with the flood of ex-Jap cars coming into the country which mean it is cheaper to replace than repair an older classic.

[020 Brad]

I don't have too much of a problem with it. The older cars are just finding their way into the hands of enthusiasts. There is ALWAYS a way to fix something, often its not too expensive either. Parts can be brought in from Germany, the States, possibly even Japan depending on what you are playing with. Otherwise you can get patches welded in, have balljoints rebuilt, upgrade the engine/running gear/suspension/brakes to a more modern alternative, theres always a way. I'm often amazed when I see some of the solutions people running proper old cars come up with, talking cars from the 20's and 30's and sometimes even older! Makes me realise they mustn't like us very much when we are complaining about not being able to purchase a brand new part! haha

I definitely think 30 years isn't enough for the cars to become "classic" or "historic", in my opinion at least. As much as I would love for this to be the case, I just don't think its justifiable. My Commodore is 29 years old and is a true credit to its past owners, but I can easily buy parts for it and its still running the original motor. I think once it reaches 39, is on its second or third motor and very rarely leaves the garage, thats when it should be looking towards the classic status.

If I had an Omega or Senator that I wanted to take to 40 years and beyond, I would be purchasing a new loom, ecu and anything else electronic that I could find, sensors etc. Maybe bearings and gaskets for the motor also, just so the next rebuild is easy. I think the electrics are the only real weak point on them and once this is sorted out, theres no real reason it won't last. Rust is a problem over there but not here (that I've seen) so I don't think the problem is in the cars themselves, meaning if ANY car can last to 40 years over there, an Opel/Vauxhall can.

[028 Sean]

I'm sort of caught in that same replace with a newer vehicle catch 22 postion Nev. Over the past 2 years I've been totally shocked at how many of the older what used to be readily available mechanical parts and panels that have just dried up! What should we do when over 50% of parts for these cars become non-existant? I really do like driving my GSi 24v but using her as a daily hack is beginning to make less and less sense to me. All it takes is for one careless driver or a moment of lapsed concentration from myself and that's it, the car would be gone forever....So bad crash damage is what I'm mostly afraid of Brad. There are just 145 Carlton GSi 3000 24v's left taxed on our roads here in the UK!

Garaging this 18 year old Carlton a no-no for me as I've already got the 22 year old Irmscher Senator that I'm frightened to use and I don't want that fate to also happen to my GSi! So what should I do? Nothing I can afford to replace the Carlton with gives me as much fun as my old six cylinder does but the old girl won't be able to be used as a daily driver forever. The future is not looking too bright for this UK older Opel lover.