MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Period Tax Discs

Now we in the UK will no longer have to display a valid tax disc after October 1st its the perfect opportunity to display a reproduction period one. See the link. No connection just s very satisfied customer. I've just order a 1957 disc for the MGA and a 1973 for my TR6 the quality is fantastic and at only £7 you get 3 discs, He can even print the post office stamp of your choice.

www.poplargreg.com/
p anderton

I got one from Greg last year and they do look very authentic............Mike


m.j. moore

I must get one, but I am not sure about having my local post office stamp in the far flung north of Scotland. That was the registration I was given when I imported the car from the USA. If Scotland goes independent I wonder if I can apply for a different registration somewhere in England?!

I need to get a disc holder something like Mike's. I have a polished Octagon MG holder that is held on by double sided sticky pads. The holder fell off at 30 mph the other day, bounced across the road, missed a pedestrian by inches and came to rest on the Basingstoke canal towpath. Quite a lethal weapon.

Steve
Steve Gyles

My registration is also Scottish (isle of Bute), I'm told there was a surplus which were allocated when given a period reg. However I've had Greg put my now local post office stamp on the disc. (Bromyard)
p anderton

Steve, When we were travelling out one evening to a local pub I heard a bump and thought I'd gone over a stone but on reaching the pub I found that the holder (the suction one in the picture) had dropped off together with the tax disc. I asked my wife whether she saw it come off but she said she normally has her eyes closed when I'm driving! So I wouldn't recommend you get one like that. It was one of the cheap ones you see advertised on Ebay. I don't think they use the correct sealing rubber, in fact it felt more like plastic than rubber and didn't seal too well.

I have been looking for an original chromed Barnacle or Desmo holder in good condition but they go for quite a high price.

A few weeks ago I bought an old Nusticon holder (see pic.) but I haven't decided yet what adhesive to use to fix it to the screen. I used to have one of these on a very early car I owned.

I often wonder what the thoughts were of whoever found my 1960 tax disc!...........................Mike



m.j. moore

Mike,
I hope you will excuse me picking up on your story above. I couldn't help noticing the juxtaposition of the sentences:
"I asked my wife whether she saw it come off but she said she normally has her eyes closed when I'm driving! So I wouldn't recommend you get one like that."
I couldn't possibly comment!
Shane
Shanerj

I have just got my tax disc. Very pleased with Greg's reproductions.

I have also posted it on my website along with the factual datasheets that Greg supplied with the disc. Just scroll down my front page: http://www.mgaroadster.co.uk/

Steve


Steve Gyles

I got some for MGA some years ago but bought some recently for my VW camper - the disc was only in the window a few weeks and faded badly - see photo of new and faded one for comparison.


Cam Cunningham

I would like to get one for my son-in law's Triumph GT6. I know the reg. No., but do not know where it was first registered.
Is there any way of finding out?
Regards
Nigel Munford

Nigel

It does not particularly matter unless you are a purist. They will put any post office stamp on that you wish or even a fictitious one. I had them put my local village post office stamp on and they have never issued tax discs in their life! It could be a nice touch for your Son-in-Law to have his local village stamped on the disc. My disc also shows the date of build in the centre of the stamp.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Maybe I should put Trumpton on it, for his TOY car!!
Nigel Munford

Steve, I am glad you have owned up: I lived in Church Crookham in 1974/5 and was sure I had to go to Fleet for my tax discs: MGA 1500 FHC and 1948 Austin 16. Still, it's nice to have a local one, wherever your car was on day one... Happy New Year - shortly. Shane
Shanerj

Here's a useful site which will tell you where a registration number was issued...

http://www.vintage-plates.co.uk/?xhtml=xhtml/general/where.html&xsl=homepage.xsl
Dave O'Neill 2

Thanks, Dave. I had assumed that my 'HHG' plated A was first registered in Sussex, because of the garage sill plates. A quick check of the brown RF60 registration document confirmed that it was registered in Burnley on 1 June 1959. The Sussex connection came with the 6th owner in 1968. 10+ owners in c.20 years and 2 in the last 32. Shane
Shanerj

Shane

My car was first registered in the UK in 1998, being a USA export. So any earlier tax disc was obviously going to be just for visual effect. The Crookham Village post office has asked me for a copy for their display board!

Steve
Steve Gyles

My MGA was exported from new - so I put Abingdon on Thames on it's tax disc with it's build date.
Cam Cunningham

If your car was built, or registered in, say, 1956, do you have the tax disc dated 1957, i.e.to expire 12months later?

Also, re Dave's link above, it is the second two letters that determine where a registration was effected, which seems strange.
Nigel Munford

I've got one with the year it was made, the date it was first registered and the date stamp with my village name on (well it used to have a post office !) but of course its a personnel choice. I think its nice to have a date that means something to me, I am not too bothered about accuracy.

Colin, from the midget side.
C Martin

Nigel

In those days I am pretty certain the tax ended on 31 December regardless of when you bought the car. The tax disc I have supports this view.

Steve
Steve Gyles

There is an interesting article in the December issue of Octane magazine on UK tax discs, issue 138. They reference a source of replicas to be Earlswood Vintage and Classic. This is a different supplier than "Greg" mentioned above. Further on in the same issue, page 164, there is a suggestion that "custom replica tax discs" can be obtained from the Heritage Motor Center. Seems that various disc holders are also available. I'm trying to decide now if I must have one for my '59 coupe!

George
George G.

You are correct George. Greg is not the only supplier in fact there are at least a couple more. Earlswood's are far more costly than Greg 's at around £25GBP, whilst Greg's are £11.00 for three and this includes his sourcing and printing the tax office of your choice. He supplied a Belfast Corporation stamp for my MGA and made up a disc with a registration number using the chassis number of my YT with an Abingdon stamp for Berkshire County Council (the YT was exported to the U.S. in June 1950 following its construction at Abingdon that year). He provides an excellent service.

On Earlswoods website a chrome on brass tax disc holder is a whopping £44 plus VAT and postage which amounts to over £50. In fact if you just type in tax disc holders on your browser you should find a suitable supplier offering various tax disc holders from £1.99 each. Of course at present there is probably a glut of such disc holders as they are now no longer required in the UK. Buy now!

Happy New Year!

Jerry
J P BIRKBECK

I can recommend Greg. Very good communications from him, even though he's had a 'tsunami' (his words) of orders since the abolition.
I was expecting a few weeks delivery but it came within a fortnight.
His website lists the original tax offices for your car registration.

David
David Wardell

I had a problem with the tax disc from Greg that I obtained nearly two years ago. I found that some months after putting it in the disc holder and mounting on the windscreen the white parts of the disc had started to change colour to a reddish pink. I had a conversation with Greg, who is a very helpful person, and I returned the affected disc suggesting that the problem could be due to either the type of paper used or that some chemical was being given off by the 'rubber' seal in the holder. The spare discs I had kept in the original envelope in darkness had not been affected.

Greg thought the colouring would most likely have been a result of the rubber seal but he sent me a replacement done on some alternative paper. Unfortunately this was the one I lost when the holder came off the screen when driving but up to that time the disc seemed OK. The white parts of the annual discs were originally not perfectly white because the words 'Licence for a mechanically propelled vehicle' were printed on them in extremely fine print presumably to prevent forgery in those days

Greg said that he would expect the green colour on the 1960 annual discs would slowly fade to a blueish colour but I hadn't noticed this.

One other point I can just about recall from memory is that the tax discs on cars in the 1940s and 1950s were mainly 4 month ones expiring at the year end or one of the quarters thereafter. I suppose the 12 month tax was hard to find for many people then. When we did see a 12 month disc we use think the owner must be some really wealthy person!

The 4 month tax disc was different to the annual one with printing done in a colour e.g red, rather than black.............................Mike
m.j. moore

You could buy 4 months tax right up until 1980, when I bought my first car - an Austin Minor van.

I went to the local tax office to tax it for 4 months, only to find that it had just changed to 6 months and I didn't have enough cash on me.

I had to go back the next day with more money, but in the meantime I managed to get a ticket for not displaying a current tax disc!
Dave O'Neill 2

Creativetaxdiscs.co.uk recently did three tax discs for my 1959 MGA. You get one with hand written car information on and two spares. Thought £10.49 well spent.
R Gill

This thread was discussed between 03/09/2014 and 03/01/2015

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.