Thought about car tax

[Tommy B]

Why are the government punishing people who drive high performance cars? Most Ferrari/Porsche owners only actually drive their car about at the weekend. For example, gf's dad has an SL55 yet he commutes by train daily and drives to the station in 1.4 TDI polo!

Instead, why aren't they targeting housewives who drive around in Golf GTIs and Mini Cooper S. It is purely for show and they only have them as a status symbol. They drive them around like they are 1.2s only they are emitting much more fuel than they would if they actually drove 1.2s!

This isn't sexist, but it is irrefutable that in most cases Women do a lot of driving about. Shopping, school run. By doing this in high performance cars, they are hardly doing the environment any favors.

I think when you buy a high performance car, you should be taxed purely on usage. If you're only going to use it now and again you should pay MUCH less than if you're using it on a daily basis. I still oppose the ridiculous quantity of tax Darling has put on high performance cars anyway.

Do I have a point or is this idea stupid?

 

[therealnerd2]

Tax on driving is on both miles driven (petrol tax) and owning a car (VED).

 

[NathanE]

Because if housewives were forced to drive 1.2's then they would simply do so. Women don't care about what car they drive half as much as men do.

Whereas men that like their cars will just think "hmm I know they are shafting me but I will stump up with the cash anyway because I sure as hell ain't replacing my car with some crappy town car."

Of course this is all theoretical because the government would never even hint at considering to introduce sexist car tax laws

 

[greengiant]

Ford Mondeo 1.8 = "Performance Car" so taxed at £260?

TBH all cars should be taxed on useage, I'm lucky if I do 6K miles a year, so my planet killing 182g/km over 6K miles is a lot less than some wee car which does 10K+ per year.

 

[dsb]

Cars are double taxed, its easy money for the government, if car tax was abolished they would only tax fuel more, much more.

 

[NickXX]

Ford Mondeo 1.8 = "Performance Car" so taxed at £260?

TBH all cars should be taxed on useage, I'm lucky if I do 6K miles a year, so my planet killing 182g/km over 6K miles is a lot less than some wee car which does 10K+ per year.

They are taxed on useage though - I.e on fuel duty/vat.

 

[GinG]

as above, i think we should be tax'd on a usage scheme.

as stated, someone who owns a high performance car but only does say 2k a year is paying more than someone who does 20k+ in an eco car, which over the year probabaly emits more than the high performance car anyway.

thank god my st24 with decat was made prior to 2001, i can still drive around killing the environment and only pay less than half that of the new st220

 

[Tommy B]

The trouble is there are some men who have a passion for driving.

The rest of them and pretty much the entire female population will only buy performance cars to show the world who they are and how much they have in the bank. Do they wash them, no! Do they drive carefully, no! Do they quite often scratch the paintwork by driving recklessly through holly/leaves, yes. Do they exit the vehicle thinking of it as a tool for getting them from A to B, yes.

 

[Tommy B]

Ford Mondeo 1.8 = "Performance Car" so taxed at £260?

TBH all cars should be taxed on useage, I'm lucky if I do 6K miles a year, so my planet killing 182g/km over 6K miles is a lot less than some wee car which does 10K+ per year.

To be honest a 1.6 would suit the performance needs of most people.

Unless you draw a thrill from driving, why would you want anything more powerful unless you need it to overtake another vehicle?

You don't need performance if you don't use it. Swap my 1.4 Golf with a Golf GTI driven by the average housewife and she probably wouldn't even notice from the wheel.

 

[Burned_Alive]

It is daft, i do about 3500miles (5600km) a year currently and I am now looking for a BMW M3 (323 g/km), which when the tax goes up will be £440 a year. Yet someone doing 20-25,000 miles (32-40,000km) a year in a band B car (101-110g/km) will pay £20 a year for their tax.

BMW M3 - 3500miles - 1808.8Kg CO2 Emission (£440)
Band B Car - 20,000miles - 3232Kg CO2 Emission (£20)

Now providing my maths and understanding is correct..... thats ridiculous. Hell, I could do 10,000 miles and i would only just about match the band b car for total emissions.

 

[greengiant]

To be honest a 1.6 would suit the performance needs of most people.

Unless you draw a thrill from driving, why would you want anything more powerful unless you need it to overtake another vehicle?

You don't need performance if you don't use it. Swap my 1.4 Golf with a Golf GTI driven by the average housewife and she probably wouldn't even notice from the wheel.

Well, larger sized cars tend not to come in small sized engines. At 6'2" I've sat in a lot of smaller cars and I couldn't get comfy - some would even be dangerous to attempt to drive!. Drove a 206 SW for a few months and ended up with bad back pain.

Burned_Alive, yes it's ridiculous. However I don't many Class B cars will ever do 20K miles a year as they probably will be town cars only. Larger cars they tend to be motorway cars.

Ah well, I can put off the £260 a year tax until Oct 09 as my current tax is due to be renewed in Oct 08.

 

[Burned_Alive]

Even any car up to and including band G cars will only pay £150 in tax and that will encompass any "motorway cars".

 

[Third Opinion]

as above, i think we should be tax'd on a usage scheme.

as stated, someone who owns a high performance car but only does say 2k a year is paying more than someone who does 20k+ in an eco car, which over the year probabaly emits more than the high performance car anyway.

thank god my st24 with decat was made prior to 2001, i can still drive around killing the environment and only pay less than half that of the new st220

I thought a majority of us opposed pay as you drive. Trouble is if you shift the tax to usage the majority will pay more. There is no way the government would implement a scheme that would see the motorist pay less.

 

[greengiant]

TBH if you can afford to own both a commuting car, and a weekend "performance" car, then paying more tax won't be an issue!

 

[wassap]

Do I have a point or is this idea stupid?

I know a lot of people who drive high co2 cars as daily drivers tbh, i do 30k a year in a car thats 1 below the top band.

In the whole scheme of things the extra tax is not really that much, compared to the general running costs.

 

[[TR]SweetSpotOz]

.

 

[Gaygle]

Does anyone think that this hike in tax is in anticipation for the stupid black box idea the government wanted to introduce (where they abolish car tax and lower fuel duty).

It seems like a good setup to it - to raise car tax massively and get people talking about how unfair it is since they only do 3000miles in their M3, yet Miss Daisy can do 20,000 in her Group B car - then in a few years, say to these people "ok, we'll tax you as you drive. See now it's fair!" and the M3 owners (and everyone with a car over 1.6!) will put up much less of a resistance.

Just a thought - maybe its complete rubbish. I guess we'll see in the next 5-7 years.

 

[Burned_Alive]

Does anyone think that this hike in tax is in anticipation for the stupid black box idea the government wanted to introduce (where they abolish car tax and lower fuel duty).

It seems like a good setup to it - to raise car tax massively and get people talking about how unfair it is since they only do 3000miles in their M3, yet Miss Daisy can do 20,000 in her Group B car - then in a few years, say to these people "ok, we'll tax you as you drive. See now it's fair!" and the M3 owners (and everyone with a car over 1.6!) will put up much less of a resistance.

Just a thought - maybe its complete rubbish. I guess we'll see in the next 5-7 years.

Entirely possible and that's pretty much the only way they could accurately police it without dumping it all into fuel tax.

 

[cheets64]

Road tax is a scam, only 30% of the road tax is spent on the up keep on roads, gernally you find its only around March when the roads get fixed when the councils need to spend some cash.

The roads in my village are really really ******* from being dug up by gas/water/cable people and heavy vehicles