Sounds stupid, but bear with me.

I have only ever owned new cars and swapped them before the three years is up, or have owned older cars that needed an existing MOT renewing.

However, this is the first car I have owned which will bridge the three years/first MOT gap.

The tax runs out at the end of February, but the three years is up on 18th March. Does this mean that I should be able to tax the car at the end of Feb and then take the car for it's MOT in March?

Hope this makes sense...

Take your V5 along to show date of registration and you should be fine. ISTR this is what I did!

The tax renewal form will tell you exactly what you need, but yes you can tax it at the end of February and do the MOT in March.

tax it on line. That way you will always do it right, don't have to worry about losing the forms, and you don't have to queue up with the wrinklies....

I've just done mine on-line (so easy you wouldn't believe it) and you can tax your vehicle from the 5th of the month, so you should be able to do it before your MOT is due...

I tax mine on line as well. The system will check the required documents and then within 5 days a nicely printed tax disc drops through the post!

You can get the MOT done up to a calendar month early, i.e in your case from the 19th February onwards. Get it done early to give you time to get any (if any) fail items that are covered by the warranty fixed. The warranty will expire midnight 17 March (assuming a 18 March registration date), so if you have it done on 18 March the warranty would have expired. By far the easiest way to tax a car is online here:

DVLA Vehicle Licensing Online | Apply for a tax disc NOW

Online = for the win.

Online vote

You can tax a car a few weeks before the MOT runs out. Do it on-line and you might get another one for free as well!

Online it is then.

I've used this method before, but was unsure if they'd let me with the car being out of warranty within three weeks of the disk being issued. I guess I was worrying about nothing.

...I have only ever owned new cars and swapped them before the three years is up...

Don't stop now! :eek:

Online is much easier than queuing at the post office, but I'm not happy that you have to pay extra when you use a credit card online. It must be cheaper for DVLA to do the tax online, so there's no need to rip us off a little bit more.

Online

Apart from that it tells you what to do etc, it also means the right information is on file (and if it is wrong, it will show).

Online

Hopefully they won't make the same meal of it as first time I taxed last car .

Day 1 - wouldn't accept my insurance as it was for previous car

Day 2 - accepted new cover note ,but couldn't tax car as it had been no fee previously

Day3 - went to DVLA on last day of month (needless to say it got taxed from next day :eek:)

On the other hand ,the PO that do car tax are few and far between (could this be a ploy to ditch them completely )

Online is much easier than queuing at the post office, but I'm not happy that you have to pay extra when you use a credit card online. It must be cheaper for DVLA to do the tax online, so there's no need to rip us off a little bit more.

But you're happy that you have to pay the credit card fee if you retax at a PO or DVLA office? :confused:

I think the pertinant points are that the requirements(MOT /Insurance ) must be in force on the date that the new VED disc comes into force (huddles down to make less of target for rocks and flames:P)