Road tax on a Vauxhall Adam runs between £35 and £200 a year, depending on when the car was first registered and, for older models, how much CO2 the engine emits. The Adam was built from 2013 to 2019, which straddles a major change in how the UK taxes cars, so two Adams sitting side by side on a forecourt can carry very different annual bills.
Which Tax System Applies to Your Adam
The dividing line is 1 April 2017. Adams first registered before that date sit on a sliding scale tied to CO2 emissions: cleaner engines pay less. Adams first registered on or after that date pay a flat standard rate every year after their first registration, regardless of engine size or emissions.
Check your car’s first registration date and CO2 figure on the V5C logbook, or enter the registration number on the GOV.UK vehicle enquiry service. That date fixes which framework applies for the life of the car.
Rates for Adams Registered Before April 2017
Pre-April 2017 Adams fall into lettered bands (A to M) based on grams of CO2 per kilometre. In practice, the common Adam engines cluster in just three bands.
- 1.0i 115PS Turbo ecoFLEX: 115 g/km, Band C
- 1.4i 87PS ecoFLEX (Easytronic): 118 g/km, Band C
- 1.2i 70PS: 125 g/km, Band D
- 1.4i 87PS and 1.4i 100PS: 125 g/km, Band D
- 1.4i 150PS Turbo: 139 g/km, Band E
The 2026 annual rates for those bands are £35 for Band C (111–120 g/km), £170 for Band D (121–130 g/km), and £200 for Band E (131–140 g/km).1GOV.UK. Vehicle Tax Rates: Cars Registered Between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017
The step from Band C to Band D is steep. An ecoFLEX Adam at 115 g/km costs £35 a year; a standard 1.2i at 125 g/km costs £170. That gap makes the ecoFLEX variants meaningfully cheaper to run over time. Emissions figures can vary slightly between model years, so confirm your car’s exact CO2 output on the V5C rather than assuming it matches another Adam with the same engine.
Rates for Adams Registered From April 2017
Adams first registered on or after 1 April 2017 pay a flat standard rate from year two onward. For 2026, that rate is £200 for petrol cars.2GOV.UK. Vehicle Tax Rates: Cars Registered on or After 1 April 2017 It applies to every post-April 2017 Adam whether it has the 1.0-litre turbo or the 1.4-litre engine.3Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Rates of Vehicle Tax for Cars, Motorcycles, Light Goods Vehicles and Private Light Goods Vehicles If you’re buying a used Adam from this era, the first-year emissions-based rate was already paid by the original buyer; your ongoing cost is the flat £200.
The £10 annual discount that used to apply to alternative fuel vehicles has been removed, so an Adam running on an alternative fuel now pays the same standard rate as petrol.4GOV.UK. Vehicle Tax for Electric, Zero and Low Emission Vehicles
How to Pay
You can tax an Adam online, by phone, or at a Post Office branch that handles vehicle licensing.5GOV.UK. Tax Your Vehicle Online is fastest. You’ll need one of three reference numbers: the 11-digit number from your V5C logbook, the 16-digit number from a V11 reminder letter, or the 12-digit number from a new keeper slip if you’ve just bought the car and don’t yet have a V5C in your name.
The car must have a valid MOT (if it’s old enough to need one) and active insurance before the system will process payment.6GOV.UK. Tax Your Vehicle Without a Vehicle Tax Reminder If either is missing, the transaction won’t go through.
You can pay in a single 12-month lump, in two 6-month instalments, or by monthly Direct Debit. Spreading the cost carries a 5% surcharge.7DVLA digital services. Set Up a Direct Debit to Tax Your Vehicle Today On a £200 standard rate, twelve monthly payments come to £210 rather than £200. On a Band C car at £35, the surcharge is trivial, but on the higher bands it’s worth doing the maths first.
Declaring the Car Off the Road
If your Adam isn’t being driven or kept on a public road, a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) lets you stop paying tax entirely. A SORN tells the DVLA the car is stored on private property. You can still drive it to a pre-booked MOT appointment, but otherwise it must stay off public roads.8GOV.UK. Register Your Vehicle as Off the Road (SORN)
You can declare a SORN online with the same V5C or V11 reference numbers used for taxing, by phone on 0300 123 4321, or by posting form V890 to DVLA in Swansea. If your tax has already expired, the SORN takes effect immediately. If you apply while tax is still running, it starts on the first day of the following month, and you get a refund for any full months of remaining tax. A SORN stays in force until you tax the car again or sell it, with no annual renewal needed.
What Happens If You Don’t Tax It
Letting tax lapse without a SORN triggers escalating penalties. The first stage is a Late Licensing Penalty letter for £80, reduced to £40 if paid within 33 days.9GOV.UK. DVLA Enforcement of Vehicle Tax, Registration and Insurance Offences Being caught using an untaxed car on a public road can bring an out-of-court settlement of £30 plus one and a half times the outstanding tax. If it reaches a magistrates’ court, the penalty is £1,000 or five times the tax owed, whichever is greater.10Legislation.gov.uk. Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 – Section 29 A SORN’d car caught on a public road pushes the court ceiling to £2,500 or five times the tax.
The DVLA can also clamp or impound an untaxed vehicle. Release from a clamp costs £100, plus a £160 surety deposit if you can’t show the car has been taxed at that point. Fail to pay within 24 hours and the car is towed to a pound, the release fee rises to £200, and storage runs at £21 per day.11GOV.UK. Get a Clamped or Impounded Vehicle Released Given what a used Adam is worth, a couple of weeks in storage can quickly exceed the car’s value, which is why a free SORN is worth doing the moment the car goes off the road.