It's a load of rubbish... (the whole pre 2001 thing)
Well, "Road Tax" used to simply be a tax to use the roads. A car was deemed an, er, car, whatever the model, so what you were paying for was the right to use the road and for some of that money to go towards road maintenance. Then the whole emissions game came in and you were taxed on the amount of emissions your car put out. Small engines on the whole put out less than large engines hence the original two tiered system introduced in the 1990's. Then in 2001 taxation was based on the
actual amount of emissions that your car put out irrespective of engine size.
To encourage people to buy new and fuel efficient cars these new tax classes only come into effect from the point they were introduced (2001) rather than backdated, which would be a bureaucratic nightmare anyway. Particularly as older cars were never designed to meet such stringent requirements. If you look at the MOT emission regulations you'll see that they changed considerably over the years and off the top of my head I know the following applies to UK road cars (note the years apply to the date the car was
registered):
Pre 1975 - visible smoke test only, no emission test required
1975 to 1979 - First series of cars required to meet emission limits
1979 to 1983 - Emission limits become stricter
1983 to 1990's - Emission limits stricter still
1990's - Two tiered road tax brought in dependent on engine size
Late 1990's - Emission regulations become stricter still (again)
2001 - Multiple road tax bands brought in dependent on actual emission figures of vehicle.
Anyone who can run a 5.3 ltre V12 Jag or a 3.0 V6 rust bucket capri obviously has the money to do so. Whats the justification for that still having "cheap" tax compared to modern cars.
As above, it's not about whether you can "afford" to run them it's about the emissions they put out in respects of the regulations in place at the time they were registered. When was the last time you saw a 5.3 litre XJ series Jag/ Daimler on the road? When was the the last time you saw a 3.0 V6 rust bucket Capri? Most that are left are now classic cars, are probably restored and probably only come out in the summer for shows and enjoyment. And I seriously doubt you'll see many "rust bucket" 3.0 litre Capris on the road now as they are worth quite a bit of money to collectors and most are restored. They are classic cars rather than every day drivers!
Just to make you even happier about car tax, vehicles registered before 1st January 1973 are tax exempt
Why? Well, just about any vehicle still left pre - 1973 is part of our motoring heritage, is a definite classic car and is extremely unlikely to be in every day use. As they get such little use compared with a modern car why should they have to pay as much tax anyway?
Enjoy your motoring while you can, because the future isn't so bright and soon we'll probably all be driving around in electric car abortions restricted to 20mph