I wondered if anyone has any advice about insurance for my Mazda Mk 2? I do not use it much and it therefore seems exorbitant to tax it for a whole year. Is there any advice from more experienced Mazda owners as the best way forward?
I tax mine on direct debit, usually from April until about September October, I then sorn it until April again.
Depends on the weather to be fair, if it’s tipping it down at the start of April, I won’t tax it… just keep it on sorn, if I start getting to round the 20th, I might hold off until may.
Taxing it on DD, whilst a tad more expensive, it does make it easier for taxing it for 7 months.
As for insurance, I declare 4000 miles, I probably do 2000 if I’m lucky. Insurance costs me £120 fully comp, but I’m knocking on a bit and got a million years no claims.
Not sure I would risk having a car uninsured - even if not driving it - theft is still possible.
Keeping the annual mileage down reduces cost of insurance.
As for road tax - you can SORN the car whenever you like - then re-tax it for the time you will use it.
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As above really, tax is the easy one to control, tax it for the months you use it, then SORN it. Insurance can be more difficult and awkward for short periods and probably not cost effective either if you can find someone offering short/temp insurance.
My advice, keep it insured for the 12 months, suck up the price, which for some is difficult these times.
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As insurers usually charge you an admin fee for changes, stopping insurance for 5 months may not be economic anyway.
Also, stating the obvious, the car must be kept off any public road if it is SORNed or uninsured.
I have three cars and do not SORN any of them over winter. In my opinion, the savings are not worth the effort and also risk of making an error.
I believe from what I’ve read before and a quick Google I just did that some insurance policies have tax as a condition of insurance. So in theory, a SORN might invalidate your regular insurance. I think you can get a SORN or laid up policy to cover fire and theft only. It seems to me that you need insurance you can modify online, without fees, that covers your vehicles both SORN and when taxed, and to be very organised to get everything right. The longest any of my cars might go without use is two to three months over winter, weather depending. It’s just not worth it to me.
Here’s a couple of links that might help. I have never used Chris Knott so can’t recommend for or against the company:
As an afterthought, I assume that declaring a car SORN works the same as getting a tax refund in that you only save the cost of complete calendar months that the car is off the road. So to get best value you need to SORN on the last day of the month and tax the car again on the first day of the month when you will use it again. What if the weather is good and something you really want to do is happening in the first weekend of November, or whenever you intended to take the vehicle off the road?
You may be overthinking this, you just don’t SORN it when you thought you would.
It only takes a minute to SORN or Tax a car on line, it really is quick and simple. I save over £150 a year. If you change your mind you can re-tax it at any time.
Maybe, but here’s my point: I just bought a car and had to tax it on 28/02. The tax expires next year on 01/02 so I didn’t get a year’s tax for £180, I got just over 11 months. Or to look at it another way, I had to pay £15 to tax the car for two days in February. I think this will work against you if you choose to SORN a car over winter and some people save a bit less than they might assume.
Unfortunately - that is the normal process.
Does not matter when in the month you tax a car- if there was no tax on the car - you have paid for all of that month.
This is why the majority of people will tax an untaxed car on 1st of the month.
It is the same with SORN - you need to declare sorn BEFORE month end.
If you sorn a car on 1st of a month - you have already lost that month of refund.
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If you go on the DVLA website on the last day of the month it actually asks you if you want to tax it from today or tomorrow (Ist of month)
That’s what happened last week.
If they have a choice, and are fully aware of what we’re discussing. I would be surprised if that’s the majority of people, but I haven’t got the data to call it one way or another.
A similar scenario when we go on holiday for 3 weeks.
Depending on when we go, I might sorn it, and consider taxing it again when we get back, even if that means I’ve just paid for 3 weeks gone.
I work on the basis, had I not sorned it, well I’d have paid for the 3 weeks that im paying for now, so I’m no worse off.
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