30.10.14
Filed Under: News
Dear all,
Please will as many of you as possible attend the PUBLIC consultation meeting set up by the IVVCC on the proposed NCT introduction for vintage/ classic vehicles. There were 300 people at the Cork meeting. It is This Thursday, 8pm (or slightly before) at the Spawell Hotel Templeogue Dublin 6W. (Darcy McGee’s). This is how to get there:
It is just off the N81/ M50 Tallaght junction. Go in the Templeogue direction (not the Tallaght direction), turn left and the roundabout shortly after the junction, left and left again into the hotel. The phone number is 01 490 7727. If you need more directions.
This meeting is really important if we are to prevent having to NCT our vehicles.
The Midland American Auto Club will not be meeting at Kilbeggan, this Thursday, our normal club meet. We will be at the Spawell Hotel. With our classic vehicles, proving they are in good order and very roadworthy. We will be in club jackets and hats to show ourselves as a concerned group.
Please bring your quality classic to show it is not a danger and wear your club colours with pride. Let’s fill that car park with roadworthy classics for the people carrying out this consultation to see for themselves how good they are!
Here are the facts;
It’s a public meeting, you do not have to be an IVVCC member, car club member to attend. You just have to be motivated to stop laws being introduced meaning we will have to NCT classic vehicles.
The IVVCC has been very active in fighting this. If we all line up together we will stand a much better chance of success than if we all do our own thing.
The IVVCC have appointed Pedar Ward, past IVVCC President to front this. Pedar is an ex-civil servant and has the ear of the government. The current Minister for Transport is understood to be sympathetic to our cause. We could be pushing against an open door. Let’s make sure that is the case!
The IVVCC’s has 3 preferred positions, in order of favour:
1. No NCT for vehicles over 30 years old. A rolling 30 years old. NCT as current for vehicles newer than 30 years old. This keep the maximum number of vehicles outside the NCT requirement and maximum number of potential classics on the road and potentially under a vintage road tax class..
2. No NCT for vehicles over 40 years old. A rolling 40 years old.
3. No NCT for vehicles built/ first registered before 1st January 1980. The current law.
We need to be clear what we are asking for. I would urge you to support no.1 – No NCT for vehicles on a rolling 30 year old basis.
Please also fill out your consultation form on the RSA website. Mine is below, feel free to read it and use it to help you with your own.
More facts for you worked out by the MAAC Club secretary:
Why is the government bothering? –
There are only 3500 classic vehicles on the road in Ireland. Compare that to the 4264 new cars were registered on the one day of the 2nd June 2014 when the 142 plate became available.
There are nearly 2 million vehicles registered in Ireland today
There are just over 1.5 million cars over 4 years old which need an NCT.
There are 500,000 (HALF A MILLION!) vehicles on the road which should have a valid NCT that actually don’t. This is 26% of vehicles on the road – 26%!! They are the dangerous ones; they are on the road without an NCT because their owner knows it won’t pass. They do ‘normal’ annual mileage. There are 2750 road miles done by cars with expired NCTs than all the road miles done by all the classic vehicles put together. They are the ones the government should be targeting.
5000 cars were towed out of an NCT centre because they had an NCT Fail/ Refusal and were deemed too unsafe to be driven out of the place. That’s 0.5% of cars in Ireland.
9% of vehicles failed on the NCT were never re-presented for re-test? Were they all scrapped?
In 2010 the Gardaí seized 29,000 vehicles for having no NCT, tax or insurance or a combination of all 3.
98,000 cars in Ireland (5%) have no insurance – if people are driving with no insurance do you think they have an NCT?
Most classic owner’s have 2 or more cars; that the equivalent of 1800 regular cars potentially on the road.
Most classic vehicles do one tenth of the mileage of ‘regular’ cars – that’s the equivalent of 180 regular cars potentially on the road.
If the same NCT fail percentages were applied to classic cars they would put only 17 classic cars a year off the road. Why bother?
Classic vehicles are already safe; most are very well looked after and driven safely. Usually by mechanically minded owners (you!) who look after them well and attend to anything mechanical that needs doing pretty promptly and often regardless of cost.
The insurance companies view them are one of the lowest risks on the road in Ireland today.
We should focus the government to enforce the current NCT laws – catch the 26% of cars on the road without a legal NCT – not make new ones for a very very small minority.
All this does is create an unnecessary burden on a hobby trying to preserve our National Heritage.
Please spread the word, be at the meeting if all practical for you & fill out and send back your consultation form.
Best regards & many thanks, Nick Stratta
MAAC PRO
