Hi Colin
I was expecting all sorts of problems when I went with mine last year (2012), as it had been re registered in 1986 and off the road since 1992 (IIRC) but just went armed with V5c, insurance and MOT(ink still wet), the woman just entered it's details, confirmed there was no fee and gave me the disc.
This year I tried to do it on line but it wouldn't, said I had to go to a post office - why I don't know
On a different issue why have I got so much white space on my previous mail - will see if I can mod it, think I have keyboard problems though - keeps inserting line feeds