Veteran Vehicles Still Have a Place on UK Roads

CHESTER, England, June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

• Volkswagen dominates the list of most insured older cars

Analysis by MoneySupermarket has identified the most popular older cars on Britain's roads, with Volkswagens topping the list of the pre-1996 vehicles which are still going strong today.

The analysis by the UK's number one comparison website looked at 34 million enquiries through MoneySupermarket's car insurance channel in a 12 month period to the end of March this year.

Veteran vehicles have survived the Labour Government introduced scrappage scheme for cars over ten years of age in 2009, the analysis shows there are still hundreds of thousands of 'older' cars on the road.

The Volkswagen Beetle, star of the 1960s 'Love Bug' films tops the list of pre-1980s cars still on the road, with fiction meeting fact, as it seems, just like in the films, these cars refuse to die. The German carmaker also tops the list of top 10 cars from the eighties and pre-1996 - with the Volkswagen Golf being the most popular car.

      Top 10 Surviving     Top 10 Surviving     Top 10 Surviving early
      Pre-1980's cars        1980's cars        1990's cars (Pre 1996)
    1. Volkswagen Beetle 1. Volkswagen Golf   1. Volkswagen Golf
 
    2. MGB               2. Austin Rover Mini 2. Nissan Micra
 
    3. Austin Mini       3. Ford Escort       3. Vauxhall Corsa
 
    4. Land Rover 88     4. Land Rover 90     4. Vauxhall Astra
 
    5. Morris Minor      5. Ford Fiesta       5. Ford Fiesta
 
    6. MG Midget         6. Peugeot 205       6. Honda Civic
 
    7. Ford Escort       7. Ford Capri        7. Volkswagen Polo
 
    8. Triumph Spitfire  8. Volkswagen Polo   8. Peugeot 106
 
    9. Triumph Stag      9. Porsche 944       9. Ford Escort
 
    10. Triumph Herald   10. Ford Sierra      10. Land Rover Discovery

The analysis also looked at the most popular tax-free car on the road, those cars registered before 1973, and therefore exempt from vehicle excise duty. The Volkswagen Beetle was again the most popular car with 70 per cent of all 'classic cars' being this model. Still popular was the British classic MG B which accounted for almost 20 per cent of road tax exempt vehicles in the analysis.

Most Popular Tax Free Cars (Pre 1973)

70.30% VW Beetle < £5k

19.30% MG £5k-£13k

4.00% Triumph TR6 £13k-£21k

4.10% Jaguar E-Type £21k-£60k

2.20% Bugatti Type 101 £60k+

Peter Harrison, car insurance expert at MoneySupermarket, said: "Britons' love affair with their classic cars continues, and it seems that although the Government introduced a scrappage scheme to take older cars off the road, many veteran vehicles are still going strong. The Volkswagen Beetle, so popular in the seventies and eighties, continues to be the most popular pre-1996 car on the road.

"Although owning an older car seems like a good way of keeping your motoring costs down, insurance on these vehicles could be more expensive than newer models. Insurers could see you as a greater risk driving an older model which comes without many of the safety features in modern cars and is typically not as secure and therefore more easily broken in to. Because these cars are classed as more risky it is vitally important to shop around for your car insurance and make sure you are not paying over the odds for your cover."

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