Found an interesting report on the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs' website concerning how much money historic vehicles put into the British economy. The historic vehicle industry has an over £4.3 billion a year turnover and produces £960 million a year in exports. 28,000 people earn some or all of their income from historic vehicles, and the average historic vehicle owner spends £2900 on their hobby (so if your wife complains about how much you spend, just tell her that it's below average).
I would never have thought that anywhere near this figure was spent, and if you added in the size of the industries in other countries (I see from the Web that both Germany and the US have big 'classic' scenes), it makes you wonder how much is spent worldwide.
Also in the report it mentions that 82% of historic vehicles are only driven on the road no more than once or twice a month, and 50% do fewer than 500 miles a year.
The UK Government has published a consultation document on exempting pre 1960 vehicles from the annual MOT test (under an EU Directive) and there's an online survey form here. To be honest, if historic vehicle as used so rarely, it's hardly worth the effort and expense to get them tested, so get clicking classic fans!
Hopefully your government will see the sense of that, and maybe save some more old vehicles from the scrapyards.
ReplyDelete