Went to a local Volvo garage at the weekend and ended up putting our name down for an a new XC40 Plus Black Edition on a PCP deal. This is the first new car i've ever bought in my 20+ years of car ownership and the first car i've bought full stop in about 12 years, so not exactly completely up to speed on all recent laws, legislation, tax etc regarding cars. However everything was fine with the financials, gave all details, set all accounts up wth Volvo and passed the finance check.
One thing I asked the sales person about whilst going over the car was about the tax and he assured me it was one of the lower car taxes (under £200) which was fine and I didn't query it any further. Now today I come to check the paperwork before signing any docs and noticed on the order form the Road Fund Licence is down as £670. This took me by surprise as I was expecting this to be like the £190 or something similar that he mentioned. After querying it with the Volvo garage they then explained that the car is subject to a luxury car tax because it is over £40,000, I explained I wasn't happy as they completely glossed over that part but whilst on the phone to them I noticed that the order form total for the car was actually less than £40,000, but the addition of the £670 Road Fund License and £55 Registration Fee is what takes it over the £40,000.
I explain this to the sales person and he has said he needs to check with Volvo directly and have the VIN number checked of the vehicle to find out whats going on.
I did a bit more Googling and even Volvo's 2025 XC40 pricelist lists that model as £39,995 P11D value and £39,195 list price (with OTR price of £40,720) and these are the figures represented on my order form wth Volvo.
I know my first year car tax on a new car is a bit more but the sales person, despite having this info, still couldn't confirm what the car tax would be after year 1 and he has had to escalate this internally to find out. In my view its pretty cut and dry?
It seems a minor thing but it did cross my mind to cancel the order, more out of principal as they've been very sneaky about what should be in the higher tax and the salesman glossed over it completely.
Anyone any ideas of what might be going on? Or if i'm working it out incorrectly. Find it strange how the chap in Volvo couldn't really answer it indefinitely with me too and he needed to speak to higher ups at Volvo.
Another weird thing I noticed, the Black Edition does 152g/km on Emissions but the normal Plus does 149g/km, anyone know why it would be different on a car that is essentially the same aside from some slight styling tweaks (different alloys and tints)?
The 152g/km pushes the initial year road tax up from £260 to £670 which is also hefty for what is exactly the same car.
One thing I asked the sales person about whilst going over the car was about the tax and he assured me it was one of the lower car taxes (under £200) which was fine and I didn't query it any further. Now today I come to check the paperwork before signing any docs and noticed on the order form the Road Fund Licence is down as £670. This took me by surprise as I was expecting this to be like the £190 or something similar that he mentioned. After querying it with the Volvo garage they then explained that the car is subject to a luxury car tax because it is over £40,000, I explained I wasn't happy as they completely glossed over that part but whilst on the phone to them I noticed that the order form total for the car was actually less than £40,000, but the addition of the £670 Road Fund License and £55 Registration Fee is what takes it over the £40,000.
I explain this to the sales person and he has said he needs to check with Volvo directly and have the VIN number checked of the vehicle to find out whats going on.
I did a bit more Googling and even Volvo's 2025 XC40 pricelist lists that model as £39,995 P11D value and £39,195 list price (with OTR price of £40,720) and these are the figures represented on my order form wth Volvo.
I know my first year car tax on a new car is a bit more but the sales person, despite having this info, still couldn't confirm what the car tax would be after year 1 and he has had to escalate this internally to find out. In my view its pretty cut and dry?
It seems a minor thing but it did cross my mind to cancel the order, more out of principal as they've been very sneaky about what should be in the higher tax and the salesman glossed over it completely.
Anyone any ideas of what might be going on? Or if i'm working it out incorrectly. Find it strange how the chap in Volvo couldn't really answer it indefinitely with me too and he needed to speak to higher ups at Volvo.
Another weird thing I noticed, the Black Edition does 152g/km on Emissions but the normal Plus does 149g/km, anyone know why it would be different on a car that is essentially the same aside from some slight styling tweaks (different alloys and tints)?
The 152g/km pushes the initial year road tax up from £260 to £670 which is also hefty for what is exactly the same car.
Last edited:
