What Car? Q&A - When does a car become historic?

A: To be considered historic, how old does a car need to be? Also, how old does it need to be to be called classic or antique?
Annie Schuler, by e-mail

A: Officially, historic cars used to be anything over 25 years old, but the Government fixed the date at which vehicles could be considered historic in 1998. Now only cars built before 1 January 1973 are classified as such.

If your car was registered after this date, but you can prove it was built before it, your car will still qualify. That means you'll be able to benefit from not paying road tax, as such cars are exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty. You'll still need to display a tax disc, though.

Classic cars are much more difficult to define, because there's no such date. Some countries say any car over 25 years old qualifies, but any car which is cherished can be said to be classic.

Our sister magazine, Classic and Sports Car, says a good indicator of when a car becomes classic is when it stops depreciating. Another sign is when owners begin paying to have the cars restored.

Under these criteria, comparatively modern cars are about to fall into the classic category - Alfa Romeo 75s are gathering quite a following now, for example.

Other modern cars will also eventually be cherished by someone - consider cars such as BMW 5 Series, Subaru Imprezas, MkI Ford Mondeo V6s (there are a lot of Ford fans out there), Vauxhall Calibras, any hot hatches such as Vauxhall Astra GSis and VW Golf GTIs, Volvo 740s or 850s, or poor sellers, oddities and rarities such as the Peugeot 605.

Owners of older cars may find that there are now owners clubs. Joining one of these could be beneficial, because they can often get insurance discounts and will usually know where to get spare parts to keep the cars running.

By 'antique', we think you might mean vintage or veteran. Vintage cars are vehicles that were built before 1938. Veteran cars are older still, being built before January 1919.