There are lots of factors to consider when choosing which car to buy – brand, model, which colour you prefer and which colours are available in the spec you want, to name but a few. However, few people consider the likelihood of being clamped when choosing their vehicle. Now, new data from the DVLA shows which cars are the most likely to be clamped – and silver Porsches seem to be top of some clampers’ hit lists!
Choose your colour carefully
The new figures show that silver cars are more likely to be clamped around the UK than any other colour. According to the DVLA’s report on clamping figures for 2016, some 118,000 vehicles were clamped or impounded during the year due to not having valid tax. Of those, silver vehicles accounted for 30,035 of the total. Next came blue vehicles, at 23,411, followed by black vehicles at 21,270.
At the other end of the scale were gold, beige and yellow vehicles, with the lowest number of incidences of being clamped. However, could this be more to do with the popularity of the colours themselves, rather than the driver’s habit of getting into trouble?
UK drivers are rather a boring lot when it comes to car colour choices. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the most popular choice of vehicle colour in the UK in 2016 was white, which accounted for 20.51% of newly registered cars. This was followed by black in second place and grey in third.
The top primary colour is blue, which came in at fourth place with 15.38% of new registrations, an increase of 7.2% on the previous year – showing that colour fans are beginning to show their face in the car-buying world. Red came fifth, followed by silver, green and orange. The biggest decrease in popularity is the brown car, which has seen a 40% decrease in the number of requests in the last year.
It is interesting that silver cars are only the sixth most popular choice of colour, yet the most clamped for non-payment of tax. Could it be that those who are inclined to dodge their vehicle tax obligations have a penchant for silver? Or are silver car drivers just more forgetful than most?
Car makes and clamping
While silver may be the sixth most popular colour, and the most likely to be clamped, what about the type of car?
According to the DVLA, the make and models of cars most often clamped largely reflect the most popular makes and models of cars on the road. The Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra were top of the list in 2016, with more than 5,000 of each being either impounded or clamped.
But it isn’t just everyday vehicles that feature on the list of clamped vehicles. The 2016 figures showed that the most commonly clamped prestige car is the Porsche. 137 Porches were clamped for not having valid tax in 2016 – more than ten times the number of the second most clamped luxury vehicle (the Bentley, just 12 of which were clamped during the year).
There are also some unusual vehicles on the list. In 2016 the UK authorities clamped or impounded 68 London taxis, two Gulf Stream motorhomes, three Reliant Robins and even a tractor.
When can you be clamped?
Clamping has been a controversial subject in recent years. New guidelines have been brought in to reduce the number of ‘dodgy’ clampers out there. In most cases, for example, you can’t be clamped on private land. However, the police can remove a vehicle that is blocking a road, even if it has broken down.
The Vehicle Operator Services Agency (VOSA) can also clamp a vehicle if it is a danger to road users or if there are outstanding fines on the vehicle. And, of course, your vehicle can be clamped if you don’t have road tax on it, so if you’re in any doubt at all, double check now that you’ve paid your tax. Particularly if you drive a silver Porsche.
Why do you think that silver car drivers are clamped so much more often than those of other colours? Is clamping the right way to tackle non-payment of tax? Share your views by leaving a comment.
Silver may not be the most popular colour now, but it was for several years, so given that buyers of old Porsches tend to be Wannabees who cannot really afford them, it is not surprising that many old banger ones are untaxed.
No matter what colour or make of car, if it’s not taxed, the car should be taken away and the owner fined to the value of the car taxation cost, and given 7 days to pay for a years tax up front, if they refuse or don’t pay then the car is crushed or sold and the proceeds given to charity. There is no excuse for not paying it, I get reminders from the DVLA when I need to renew the tax, just like everyone else
VED is a statutory tax. In short, prosecution needs consent.
If people only realised there can never be a requirement to pay what people consider to be road tax, I wonder how many would free themselves.
There is a huge difference between lawful and legal but most people prefer the blue pill. Even so, I think comments like “vehicle should be crushed within 7 days” are rather harsh. I think the measures already in place are sufficient for those who choose to live in the legal world.
CAR LOVER
so if these cars are clamped for no road tax then why is the government allowing new cars to use the roads without any road tax. as we have seen with diesel cars that have been allowed to go free of road tax because of the emissions scandal . It is only the older cars that people on lower wages that are being hit by the road tax laws. isn’t it about time everyone was treated fairly and everyone pay road tax as it was originally. instead of only the highest payed being given this privilege of free use of the QUEENS HIGHWAY.
Scrap road tax, put it on fuel. Pay as you burn.
It’s already on fuel !!!.. 65% of the cost of petrol is TAX.
Frank, you are absolutely correct.
The fairest way for all is to have the equivalent Vehicle Excise Tax put on the pump price.
Those that use the most fuel, use the roads the most (and wear out the roads the most),
Why should the retired sunday driver doing a couple of thousand miles a year have to pay the same ‘road tax’ as the earning salesman (for example), up and down the motorway all day long….it’s grossly unfair. The French & Italians, for example, have it right and charge motorway tolls…you use it – you pay for it. (In Germany, the Autobahns are free.
Successive UK governments have ripped-off the long-suffering motorist in any and every way possible.
Winston Churchill abolished road tax.
What we have is Vehicle Excise Duty.
You are right about unfairness but that is the system.
Currently I mostly pay VED (life is easier). I pay almost £300 per year. I have an older car which is petrol as I refuse to get a dangerously carcinogenic diesel which would cost me WAY less on VED and 25k fuel costs.
Following on from Michel’s comments, was it not possible to compare (as was done with makes and models of cars) the number of vehicles clamped of a certain colour that are on the road rather than those that were newly registered in 2016? That would, surely, give a much better comparison.
Silver is a popular colour with lazy bu663rs like me, who can’t be bothered to wash my car as often as I should, it never looks dirty. ;o)
May be it is the attitude of some drivers with high priced German vehicles who feel they are above the law.
The makes I have in mind are Mercedes, BMW, Bentley and Porsche (as you mention).
The big 4x4s of any make also have drivers who feel they can park on the pavement as near as possible to their newsagent in order to pick up a newspaper.
This same group also feel they have right of way at roundabouts and don’t have to comply with speed limits!
We have all encountered these
I drive a BMW 118D but I drive with consideration for other road users. I am also retired which allows me time to reflect on my driving.
Love it! A delightful romp around misused statistics worthy of the daily newspapers! But missed the obvious conclusion: to reduce clamping offences, silver cars should be banned.
Why are the local council or the police not interested in a car with an MOT that is six months out of date, that does not have motor insurance but does have valid tax. It appears to be abandoned as it has not moved for over four months from where it’s parked on the public highway.
Silver may not be the most popular colour now, but it was for several years, so given that buyers of old Porsches tend to be Wannabees who cannot really afford them, it is not surprising that many old banger ones are untaxed.
No matter what colour or make of car, if it’s not taxed, the car should be taken away and the owner fined to the value of the car taxation cost, and given 7 days to pay for a years tax up front, if they refuse or don’t pay then the car is crushed or sold and the proceeds given to charity. There is no excuse for not paying it, I get reminders from the DVLA when I need to renew the tax, just like everyone else
VED is a statutory tax. In short, prosecution needs consent.
If people only realised there can never be a requirement to pay what people consider to be road tax, I wonder how many would free themselves.
There is a huge difference between lawful and legal but most people prefer the blue pill. Even so, I think comments like “vehicle should be crushed within 7 days” are rather harsh. I think the measures already in place are sufficient for those who choose to live in the legal world.
CAR LOVER
so if these cars are clamped for no road tax then why is the government allowing new cars to use the roads without any road tax. as we have seen with diesel cars that have been allowed to go free of road tax because of the emissions scandal . It is only the older cars that people on lower wages that are being hit by the road tax laws. isn’t it about time everyone was treated fairly and everyone pay road tax as it was originally. instead of only the highest payed being given this privilege of free use of the QUEENS HIGHWAY.
Scrap road tax, put it on fuel. Pay as you burn.
It’s already on fuel !!!.. 65% of the cost of petrol is TAX.
Frank, you are absolutely correct.
The fairest way for all is to have the equivalent Vehicle Excise Tax put on the pump price.
Those that use the most fuel, use the roads the most (and wear out the roads the most),
Why should the retired sunday driver doing a couple of thousand miles a year have to pay the same ‘road tax’ as the earning salesman (for example), up and down the motorway all day long….it’s grossly unfair. The French & Italians, for example, have it right and charge motorway tolls…you use it – you pay for it. (In Germany, the Autobahns are free.
Successive UK governments have ripped-off the long-suffering motorist in any and every way possible.
Winston Churchill abolished road tax.
What we have is Vehicle Excise Duty.
You are right about unfairness but that is the system.
Currently I mostly pay VED (life is easier). I pay almost £300 per year. I have an older car which is petrol as I refuse to get a dangerously carcinogenic diesel which would cost me WAY less on VED and 25k fuel costs.
Following on from Michel’s comments, was it not possible to compare (as was done with makes and models of cars) the number of vehicles clamped of a certain colour that are on the road rather than those that were newly registered in 2016? That would, surely, give a much better comparison.
Silver is a popular colour with lazy bu663rs like me, who can’t be bothered to wash my car as often as I should, it never looks dirty. ;o)
May be it is the attitude of some drivers with high priced German vehicles who feel they are above the law.
The makes I have in mind are Mercedes, BMW, Bentley and Porsche (as you mention).
The big 4x4s of any make also have drivers who feel they can park on the pavement as near as possible to their newsagent in order to pick up a newspaper.
This same group also feel they have right of way at roundabouts and don’t have to comply with speed limits!
We have all encountered these
I drive a BMW 118D but I drive with consideration for other road users. I am also retired which allows me time to reflect on my driving.
Love it! A delightful romp around misused statistics worthy of the daily newspapers! But missed the obvious conclusion: to reduce clamping offences, silver cars should be banned.
Why are the local council or the police not interested in a car with an MOT that is six months out of date, that does not have motor insurance but does have valid tax. It appears to be abandoned as it has not moved for over four months from where it’s parked on the public highway.