Does car TAX affect your choices

[obi_waynne]

Do you look at or are you bothered by the car tax on a car you are considering buying?

Personally I don't think it makes much of a difference and as such I see it as an excuse to rip off the motorist rather than encourage ECO purchasing.

I might be tempted to buy a second car with a zero or near zero tax band but encouraging me to buy a second car is hardly eco friendly is it?

 

[Yugguy]

I think it might. There's a huge jump from band K at 245 a year to band L at 425, and when good cars like the Focus ST are in band K it's a strong reason not to bother with a band L car.

 

[Big Fat Fatty]

I think the govt should just do away with the whole road tax scam, put the fuel duty up a bit and i wouldn't mind paying so much for it if the money went back into the roads
but very little actually is,

Yugguy are you saying i could have a 2.5ltr 5cyl turbo'd Focus ST for the same tax price my 1.8ltr Accord is? that's amazing, i'm off to the nearest used Ford dealer

Bye!!

 

[Yugguy]

Well, according to Autotrader, the ST is 224gms of Co2, which is 1 under the 225 limit for band K. The Astra VXR is in there, but anything much above 2.5 litres, like the 2.8 Insignia VXR isn't. Impreza STIs are band L for instance, so you have to decide yourself wether the 4wd is worth the extra 200 quid a year tax. for some it will be, for others not.

Amazingly the BMW 335 petrol is in band K too, but the 335 diesel just misses band H, and is in band I, 200 quid a month. Bit of a blow to the diesel low tax argument there.

 

[bigbadjoe]

Nope, not in the slightest. A couple reasons come to mind.

1 - Cant stant people who go out and buy a crappy car on loan for 9 Grand then turn around and say ''I got it cos the road tax is only £35 a year'' - IDIOTS!! You could have bought a car worth having for a fraction of the price and then spend what you have left over on some road tax.

2 - I like to see eco people scowl at me. Gives me a nice warm feeling inside, kind of like that felt after a nice dram of whiskey. I always inform the nice eco people that I have changed from roll on to spray as well, because I get the same result!

 

[stamford]

On the MG scene there is the issue of a certain year ZS being within the new band and being +£400 per year, or go for one a year older and it is in the +£200 bracket. That is the only time I would re-consider a purchase, same car, different year of issue. Running costs is something an owner should do his homework on before a purchase, that includes any future government plans. However if you can afford to purchase an expensive car then running costs are immaterial, they go hand in hand. Saying that I did know of someone who bought a well specc'd Impreza only to find he could not get insurance on it. Stupid!

 

[bigbadjoe]

On the MG scene there is the issue of a certain year ZS being within the new band and being +£400 per year, or go for one a year older and it is in the +£200 bracket. That is the only time I would re-consider a purchase, same car, different year of issue. Running costs is something an owner should do his homework on before a purchase, that includes any future government plans. However if you can afford to purchase an expensive car then running costs are immaterial, they go hand in hand. Saying that I did know of someone who bought a well specc'd Impreza only to find he could not get insurance on it. Stupid!

HAHA thats the sort of people that buy impreza's!!! HAHAHA Us Evo folk are much better!

 

[Yugguy]

Nope, not in the slightest. A couple reasons come to mind.

1 - Cant stant people who go out and buy a crappy car on loan for 9 Grand then turn around and say ''I got it cos the road tax is only £35 a year'' - IDIOTS!! You could have bought a car worth having for a fraction of the price and then spend what you have left over on some road tax.

I almost agree with you on this, I'd never buy a crappy new car over a good old one, but it also sticks in my throat to pay so much road tax.

For instance and I dont mean this to turn into an impreza vs st argument, but the Focus ST is supposed to be a REALLY good drive. if I buy that instead of an Impreza, or any band L car, I have an extra 200 quid a year to spend on maintaining or upgrading it.

There is one good thing about the current system as well, you buy a turboed car, petrol or diesel, that's in a lower band, then you remap it to be as powerful as a car in a higher band, yet still pay the original tax. A few hundred quid remap on an ST gets you 280bhp for instance.

 

[bigbadjoe]

For some mythical reason that only the Pope knows, road tax is baised on CO2 emmitions. It would be nice to know, how many people run cars with a D-Cat. I dont want anyone to answer here, incase there is any plods working in your local area.

In all fair ness, I think every one should take there cat off and drive around with no exhaust just to try and get value for money for your tax! :toung:

 

[Big Fat Fatty]

should all of us be taxed for breathing out CO2? it seems like it's going that way or maybe just the smokers cuz we breath out more CO2 than anyone else
i wish it was that funny but alas it will happen one day

 

[herb]

what i dont get is road tax is for the maintenance of the road (not like they see much of it) so how on earth does a low c02 car do less damage to the roads than a higher 1:blink: how do they justify this

 

[HDi fun]

It's all a bit out of hand.

No-one has managed to explain to me how a car which emits 1kg/km becomes a clean car simply because the owner can afford £900+ per year to tax it.

Putting it on the fuel is a good plan, that way drivers who do small annual mileages will not be thumped for running a high CO2 car. The DVLA doesn't like this - it would signal the closure of a whole department. It might well destroy a few small sub Post Offices as well. But it would encourage people to drive systematically and reduce their fuel usage, which is a good thing.

However, when someone discovers in 20 years time that road generated CO2 has no bearing on the environment whatsoever, I shall be looking for A REFUND!!!!!!

 

[Prince]

It's all a con. It doesn't affect my choice when I buy a car. Each time I have found out afterwards how much it is. But why should our robbing (I'll let you insert your own word here) government deprive me of my right to own what ever car I want (or can afford)?

All these eco-friendly people who talk nothing but rubbish need a good punch in the face.

 

[T9 man]

Car tax has never ever influenced my choice of a car! I buy a car and accept that a tax has to be paid, be it high or be it low :amuse:

 

[dpsubaru]

HAHA thats the sort of people that buy impreza's!!! HAHAHA Us Evo folk are much better!

yeah yeah - damn evo driver! i dont even look at the tax bracket on the car and really dont care about it. as per BBJ i love finding these Eco warriors, especially those that drive around in decrepit old ill maintained vehicles pumping out pollutants whilst 'saving the planet'!

hipocrits.

 

[bigbadjoe]

yeah yeah - damn evo driver! i dont even look at the tax bracket on the car and really dont care about it. as per BBJ i love finding these Eco warriors, especially those that drive around in decrepit old ill maintained vehicles pumping out pollutants whilst 'saving the planet'!

hipocrits.

Agreed.

But because they have a 1.1 sunny, they will think they are doing the world good. Even if it leaks 1L of oil a month.

 

[Yugguy]

HDI, good point. Everything seems to be geared around the fact that if you rich, it's ok to pollute. Even countries do it. Rich countries buy CO2 credits from poor ones, so they can carry on polluting.

 

[bigbadjoe]

CO2 is a joke anyway. Do you know what the fouth biggest CO2 poluting country is???.......Venuswalia. You know why?

Its because of the palm oil plants. The plants themselfes dont emit anything, its the peat they are planted in that do. Im sure if they started taxing the farmers who grow them there would be an uproar all over the world, because everyone knows, palm oil is in everything from soap to chrisps, to chocolate to oringe squash.

 

[HDi fun]

Venezuela?

 

[MasterAuron]

No mate, Venuswalia. It's a small country next to Azerbeijing where tarmac is a naturally occuring substance that grows on trees and the legal age to drive 4 years, 2 months and 300 days.

Surprised you haven't heard of it tbh.

 

[HDi fun]

No mate, Venuswalia. It's a small country next to Azerbeijing where tarmac is a naturally occuring substance that grows on trees and the legal age to drive 4 years, 2 months and 300 days.

Surprised you haven't heard of it tbh.

Oops a daisy - my mistake. :blink: :blink: :blink:

I must revisit my World atlas

 

[obi_waynne]

This thread went back to 2010, we've seen some pretty large hikes in car tax since then with a couple of new higher bands!

Do you look at the Tax costs when buying a car more or less now?

 

[Yugguy]

It definitely affects the kind of car my wife will LET me buy.

 

[stamford]

When I bought the Discovery it was only then I realised it was in the +£500 bracket, had it been a little older I would have nearly halved it somewhat. However now we are able to spread the payments it doesn't hurt as much, only when my daughters show me the paltry sum they pay for their euroboxes!

 

[geraint13]

nope, car tax is a rip off but I don't choose a ca by the tax band. wouldn't of bought the bus otherwise. £289 a year.