Classic car insurance specialist Footman James is urging owners of modern classics to respond to a Government consultation before it closes on Sept. 6, warning that new in-use emissions proposals could leave well-maintained vehicles with no lawful way to keep running.
The Department for Transport's (DfT) consultation, In-use Emissions of Road Vehicles: Regulating Environmental Impacts, was published on July 6 and proposed updating the law so that vehicles could continue to meet the emissions standards that applied when they were built and first registered.
The DfT has said it does not intend to distinguish between excess emissions caused by poor maintenance and those caused by deliberate modification, arguing that such distinctions are difficult to evidence and would make enforcement unreasonably difficult.
Under the plans, a vehicle could be deemed non-compliant, and its owner fined, if emissions control systems no longer operate as originally approved. The consultation goes further by proposing that removing or manipulating systems such as diesel particulate filters, petrol particulate filters, catalytic converters, AdBlue and SCR systems, or diesel EGR systems would be treated as illegal regardless of whether the change affects the car's real-world emissions.
Footman James argued this creates a specific problem for cars from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s now entering classic or modern classic status, many of which were built with increasingly complex emissions equipment, including early engine management systems, catalytic converters, lambda sensors and EGR valves.
As these cars age, original parts can become unavailable, prohibitively expensive or unsupported by manufacturers, while existing law requires only type-approved components to be fitted, components manufacturers are under no obligation to keep producing indefinitely.
The Motor Ombudsman's New Car Code stated that spare parts should typically remain available for around 10 years after production ends, a window Footman James notes many modern classics have already passed. Where an original part is discontinued and no compliant aftermarket alternative exists, the insurer said owners could be left with a legal duty to comply and no lawful way to do so, facing a choice between scrapping a usable, treasured vehicle or keeping it running in a way the new rules could treat as illegal.
Footman James is not asking for classics to be exempted from emissions enforcement altogether. It is calling for a specific exemption where an owner can show a vehicle is responsibly maintained but a compliant repair route for a failed emissions component is not reasonably available, and is asking supporters to make three points in their consultation responses -- that enforcement should target deliberate emissions defeat rather than responsible preservation, that owners should not be penalised where compliant repair is impossible, unavailable or disproportionate, and that classic and modern classic vehicles should receive a clear exemption where required components are no longer reasonably obtainable.
The insurer also said that the issue is particularly pressing for "youngtimers," vehicles from the 1990s and early 2000s that may not yet qualify for historic status but are already valued, preserved and insured as classics. These vehicles sit in a specific bind. They are old enough that parts supply and manufacturer support are becoming genuinely difficult, but young enough to carry factory emissions systems that would fall squarely within the proposed rules' scope.
Sam Smith, head of Footman James, said classic owners are not the problem this policy is trying to solve, adding that while the Government is right to target deliberate emissions cheating, it must not accidentally punish people preserving Britain's motoring heritage.
He said a cherished modern classic could be maintained with care and pass its MOT, including the emissions test, yet still be treated as non-compliant if an obsolete component fails and can no longer be sourced, meaning fitting a non-original replacement part to keep the car running safely could be deemed illegal under the proposals.
Smith said the proposal risks penalising preservation rather than pollution, and that if the Government wants emissions systems to remain a continuing legal requirement, it must also account for what happens when the parts genuinely no longer exist.
The DfT's own reasoning for treating maintenance failures and deliberate tampering identically, that the environmental impact is the same regardless of intent and that distinguishing between them would be difficult to enforce, is defensible from an air quality standpoint but does not obviously account for cases where compliance is not a matter of owner intent or expense but genuine part unavailability.
For insurers and brokers in the classic vehicle space, the practical risk isn't necessarily mass criminalisation of existing owners, since enforcement and any resulting legislation are still some way off, expected next summer according to trade reporting, with a six-month lead-in period before action begins.
The more immediate concern is what happens to insurability and valuations for cars caught in this gap between a legal duty to comply and no lawful way of doing so, a question worth watching closely as the consultation period runs its course.
