The challenges facing classic car owners in London

It can be tricky running a historic vehicle in any city, but our capital poses its own unique challenges.

As the expanding Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) will affect owners of modern classics after 29 August, Lancaster Insurance caught up with Darren Vince, founder of Waterloo Classics, to better understand the situation from within Greater London and the Congestion Charge zone.

The ULEZ and Congestion Charge have changed how London’s car enthusiasts use their vehicles; storage costs and repair shops between these boundaries ramp up running costs. Darren says the capital’s diversity in events, a sheer will to keep old cars on the road, and the financial benefits of owning a classic, have prevailed.

Waterloo Classics is an all-marque historic vehicle club which caters for cars within Central London, where the Congestion Charge zone is in force between 07:00-18:00 Monday to Friday, 12:00-18:00 Saturday to Sunday, and bank holidays. There’s no charge between Christmas Day and New Year's Day bank holiday, but owners of historic vehicles, even if said cars are ULEZ exempt, still have to pay the Congestion Charge.

The club meets regularly within the Congestion Charge zone, on Lower Marsh Lane in South East London, but, according to Darren, his regulars don’t seem to mind – they regard it simply as an entrance fee to a show. “I've had so many people request to still be on Lower Marsh that I started up again just after COVID,” Darren said.

Many of Waterloo Classics’ shows are held on weekend mornings; when guests arrive, the Congestion Charge isn’t in force, but if people stay until the end (after noon), the £15 Congestion Charge applies. If people then have to exit through the 24-hours-a-day seven-days-a-week ULEZ, that’s another £12.50.

Darren recalled, “In May, we had quite a big meet [at Lower Marsh], over 30 cars, and a number of those cars were not exempt. So it's like, ‘Are you okay? So, you know, that [will] cost you. Don't forget to pay it.’ People are still willing to do that. But if there's a show that costs £10, like my Patina Classic Car Show at Lullingstone Castle [in Kent], some people complain that £10 is a lot of money.

“But you can fit four people in a car, it's nothing. It costs more to have a pint in the centre of London in some places. You are paying to use the location.”

Storage and maintenance – especially when it comes to accessing specialists – will become even harder after the ULEZ expansion, Darren said. On-street parking, particularly when it comes to flats and apartments, simply isn’t possible. As a result, many Londoners have to factor in storage with their classic’s running costs.

Then there’s the matter of maintenance and repair. “Maintaining a modern classic or classic in London is more expensive because many of the workshops are outside of town, so you have to drive quite a way,” Darren said.

“I have people constantly asking me, ‘Do you know a mobile mechanic? My car is not driving.’ So, you have to have a tow to a shop outside of town or something like that down in Croydon, which is outside of town.”

Darren went on to say that the ULEZ – even before its expansion – significantly changed how the club’s members used their cars. From his perspective, far fewer people are using historic vehicles and modern classics every day, preferring to rely on walking, bicycles, or public transport for day-to-day duties.

“[The ULEZ is] definitely changing the pattern of people using their cars,” Darren said. “They don't use them daily if it’s going to cost them; they won't do it because it's just so expensive to use a car,” he said. The model of use is shifting towards high days and holidays, and (as we’ll find out) ‘side hustles’, otherwise known as getting the car to pay for itself.

“I meet a lot of people who say they keep their cars outside of town now, and also because implementing the 20mph zone throughout most of London these days, it makes driving in the centre of London just tiresome and just not nice. Members do deem Waterloo Classics events worthy of paying the ULEZ/Congestion Zone charge ‘entry fee’, however.

One Waterloo Classics member, with a Honda Ballade, garages the car outside the ULEZ for reasons of storage and speed limits. The car itself is exempt; driving his other car to and from storage to swap incurs the ULEZ fee.

“Every time he wants to swap out his cars, he has to pay ULEZ. He keeps one at his house and one in a garage. And when he swaps them out so he can use the other one, it costs him,” Darren said.

To keep costs in check, owners are getting creative, revealed Darren. “More and more people these days are finding ways their car can contribute to their costs of keeping them in London, like renting them out for things.”

“[The Honda owner I mentioned] recently had his Honda Ballade rented out to be used in a music video. So, rappers driving around in the car, which I think is a really fun choice...”

“I rent my cars out for weddings. I did two this past weekend, and it's social. It’s very nice meeting the brides and the grooms, very fun. And it helps me pay for my cars and the garaging, which is expensive.”

Limited-use ULEZ exempt classics still make financial sense in London, Darren argues, quite aside from their appeal to newly-weds and production companies. Yes, modern cars are that expensive!

He concluded: “I see people justifying it by saying that if you were to get a new car, the monthly payments on that new car would far exceed the cost of ULEZ and Congestion Charge for the amount of time that they actually used the old car for.

“Buying a modern car has so much impact on the environment, all of the metals and all the labour and all the pollution generated from manufacturing, that it's actually better for the environment to keep an older car, especially [if it’s] used sparingly.”