VAN ORDINAIRE

Vehicle of Historic Interest. It’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it? But it’s a useful status to attain; once your car or car-based van reaches 40 years old, it can be registered as exempt from MoT and tax. While we would advise people to think very carefully about utilising the former exemption for road use, the exemption from tax certainly makes them an appealing prospect. And if they’re only going to sit idle at the side of the road, MoT exemption does at least permit on street parking for vehicles which perhaps might not be up to regular use.

And this makes classic vans ideal for advertising your business. Butcher, baker or candlestick maker, even if you don’t want to use your twee little mobile advert as transport it’s not going to cost you money to have it sitting outside the shop any more. But which van should you choose? We’ve rounded up some of the best ways to boost your business.

Austin A30/A35

We couldn’t do this list without the Austin A35. Even before it became the four-wheeled transport of choice for Wigan inventor Wallace and his trusty beagle Gromit, it summed up all that was twee and picture postcard about Britain in the 1950s. Children point at it and say awww, mothers want to take it home and cuddle it.