Car tax set to increase... AGAIN!

[AtheneNoctua]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7484478.stm

I drive an Astra and I think -- feel free to correect me if I am wrong, that my tax is set to increase by some 48%. How can this be justified?

from article
"According to Conservative calculations, the Budget changes will move 1.2m of the most polluting band F cars registered between 2001 and March 2006 into the new bands L or M, upping their VED from £210 now to £430 or £455 in 2010.

A further 1.1m band F car drivers will move to band K, and face a hike from £210 now to £310 in 2010.

Cars affected include: the Citroen Picasso, Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Astra and Honda Accord, the Tories say."

end from article

Sometimes I think Gordon Brown knows this is Labour's final term and he just wants to wreak as much havoc as he can and go out with a bang.

the justification is that your car is one of the more polluting type and it is supposed to encourage you to think about changing to a less polluting car - or use some less polluting alternative to the car.

It's an Astra. How does that rank as a high polluting vehicle?

I think the Daily Torygraph have been campagining against this.

It is a massively punitive tax to those who have already bought a car. Surely the production of a new car is more environmentally unfriendly than running an exisiting one?

Also it just his the same people - those who need a car (if you live in the country it can be quite hard to do the school run and get to work with a sporadic bus service) and who are being thrifty by not buying a new car are those who are being hit by rising fuel etc

I am really not quite sure what Brown is about now - he seems to have it in for the middle and working classes.

by the way - the Tories are hardly likely to give a balanced unbiased opinion on this - they are in the game of rubbishing the government on everything so that they can get voted in and have to take these sort of decisions themselves - when they will probably suddenly become quite keen on these sort of measures.

We currently have one car in the very cheap tax band and one in the expensive (because it is a people carrier - that I would argue about because it should be calculated averaged over the number of likely passengers).

it is high polluting because the engine is not very efficient - do you know how many miles to the gallon you get ? The lower the number the more CO2 you produce when driving (our good one is about 52, the bad one about 35 mpg).

The older it is the more likely it is to be inefficient because they were not designing such good engines then.

write to your MP and ask them their stance on this. Complain about the retrospective aspect which screws people who have already bought their cars. Ask them what they're going to do about it

It's an easy process... you can do it by email here

Our zafira .. bought to accomodate DH's arthritis .. is also going up from £210 now to £300 then to £310

as we can't afford to buy another car that is suitable we're buggered

So throcken what happens to me with a Passat which is now 6 years old but gets me 52mpg?

And I really can't beleive that a 7 year old Astra is going to be really more polluting than the production of a new car - the materials, transporting those materials, the production process, moving the cars to the right part of the world....

Dh drives an old banger so fortunately this won't affect us. Worth trading in any post-2001 cars for older models.

I'm really having trouble regarding an Astra as a high polluting vehicle. This ia an excuse to collect the revenue they need because they did u turn on the 10p tax thing.

Aren't there a bunch of lorrie drivers haveeing a fuel protest today in London. May I'll bugger off work and go join them.

"If the Government are that bothered about pollution why don't they walk from Downing Street to the Houses of Parliament instead of taking a car each? "

how can you trade in a car that no-one wants to buy?

If your car has little residual value, then an older car will be even cheaper, won't it.

My point being, it was a stupid thing for the govt. to do, but there is a way out of it.

And, with the high price of fuel surely the government is raking it in on the tax on the fuel. Why do they need us to pay even more on the cars.

I could accept that the bulk of the population is well suited to public transportation. And I could understand these car taxs IF they were used to improve the state of public transportation so that we would all use it. But, that doesn't happen. The government collects an awful lot of my money. Now where is my affordable and reliable bus/train/tram service?????

Ok I don't live in city centre, but I am still insode the M25 so not exactly the back of beyond either.

the bottom line is we all have to reassess how much and what we drive because it is a major factor in increasing co2 emissions and hence climate change (we also need to think if we ought to be flying, how much heating we use, how much insulation, and electricity).

We are all really slow of the mark here - we should have been doing this years ago.

Maybe this isn't the best way to go about it for the individual car owner - BUT if it gets us thinking about what we are doing to the planet then it has to be a good thing for all of us in the long run - even if in the short term it isn't pleasant.

Much as I swear about the high cost of fuel now (and it is only going to get higher I think) - it is timely because it means people with cut out the more frivolous use of their cars, and maybe think about long commutes and if they are sustainable.

how can you trade in a car that no-one wants to buy?

you don't - you accept that older cars have higher running costs and lower resale values - and live with it because you don't have a choice. That has always been the case - it is just that the running costs have increased bit more and the resale value has decreased - so it probably means you stick with what you have for a while but use it less if you can.

If you can afford it you will buy a newer car - and the old one will be recycled. (We can't at the moment hence sticking with our increasingly expensive people carrier).

the point, the incredibly unfair point, is that this tax is RETROSPECTIVE. It is fair enough to say all new cars but to slam people who made a decision without all the facts is just unfair and inequitable

we made a decision to buy this car because DH has less difficulty getting in and out of it

our decision was made based on running costs and the concept that we will have this car a long time

we spent all our spare money and traded in a particularly reliable older car for it

now we're being penalised annually

no .. it is a matter of pride and I won't/can't insist he fills out the forms

What size engine is it?

I mean there's a difference between say a 1.3 and a 1.9

i have been really worried about this as i cannot afford a newer car, nor the local transport costs round here to get me to uni/drop children off at childcare etc. i bought a new (to me) car in jan. i bought a smaller car less running costs switched from petrol to diesel, less tax due to engine size etc.
i have a 1998 peugeot 106 1.5 and cant find it on a list anywhere to find out how this new tax is gonna affect me. i'm hoping i wont have to pay anymore as i cant afford it. i'll have to start giving the dc piggy backs and take up running everywhere

I think you should be OK, dyls, all the coverage has said it affects post-2001 models.