For people looking to pick up a new car this year, the biggest surprise they may encounter is the cost of the road tax. Even if you go for a new version of the same car, you could see your tax go from zero to as much as £450 a year. German manufactured cars could see a significant increase due to the scrapping of the emissions related system.
Tax bands
This year sees the introduction of the new tax bands system. Currently, the system uses emissions to grade the car based on CO2, with a total of 13 bands across all vehicles. Under the new system, there’s supposedly a simplified three band system.
Under it, cars worth less than £40,000 with zero emissions will pay no tax, which is unchanged from the previous system. Those worth more than £40k will see a surcharge of £310 for the first five years, meaning owners of these vehicles will pay an additional £1,550, dropping to zero tax in the sixth year.
Then it gets complicated. Hybrids and alternative fuel models will be charged £130 while petrol and diesel models will be charged £140 a year. The first year is based on the CO2 emissions. Any vehicle exceeding £40k in value will again see that £310 a year surcharge being added for the first five years.
Cars that have emissions under 50 g/km will pay just £10 tax, while at the other end of the scale, vehicles putting out 255 g/km will be charged £2,000 a year. Alternative fuel models such as hybrids and bioethanol will have £10 cut from the annual cost.
German cars facing increase
The emphasis on real-world emissions, in the wake of the emissions scandal, also means that diesel cars in their first year that fail the new test could see an increase in their road tax band. Any cars failing to meet the new RDE2 emissions tests, from April 2018, will automatically be moved up one band and could mean owners face an extra £500 tax bill.
The new tests are aimed at penalising those high emitting models over rival cars that are less polluting. Any cars built before April 2018 will not face the new charge and tax rates will return to normal after the first year.
More emissions problems
More bad news for the German car manufacturers, especially Volkswagen, came from the new testing system that the industry was employing – on both monkeys and humans. As the testing system came to light, the chief lobbyist for VW has been suspended over his knowledge of the unethical testing.
Tests were conducted in a research institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2014, on behalf of the now-defunct European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT), which was funded by VW, Daimler and BMW.
The tests involved locking 10 monkeys in an airtight chamber and showing them cartoons while making them breathe the exhaust fumes from a VW Beetle. Another report said that 25 people were given doses of diesel fumes for several hours at a time in a study at Aachen University in Germany in 2012, also sponsored by EUGT.
Unethical and wrong
While these tests were clearly unethical and worrying, they were also creating inaccurate information, according to the reports. VW said that the ‘scientific method chosen was wrong’ while BMW was quick to say they did not ‘influence or design’ the methodology used by EUGT and is against any animal experiments. Daimler said the tests were ‘superfluous and repulsive’.
VW admitted they have already laid aside some 30 billion Euros to pay fines, recalls and other costs associated with their ‘cheat devices’ that came to light during the 2015 Dieselgate scandal. But it seems that costs for people buying their cars could also continue to increase due to the inaccuracy of their emissions results, nearly three years on from the original scandal.
Have you been put off buying a Volkswagen in the future? Does it come as a surprise to you that manufacturers are cheating? Let us know in the comments.
Why do commentators just mention VW? The VW Group has a vast range of brands that share components and technology. Those must be tainted as well – or at best suspect. Audi,Skoda, SEAT, VW, from the more mundane car brands must fall into this category. The employees in these German companies who were not involved in these shenanigans must be appalled…See also Sunday Times (4th Feb) article on German Industry’s concerning more dubious ethical issues that seem to be coming apparent.
Once again our beloved goverment attackes the motorist who is just trying to get on with llife the answer vote them out dont give them the chance i will never vote for them again and i hope you dont as well
Ok Robert. We have the Tories in (just) at the moment, but do you really imagine Corbyn’s lot will view Diesels less harshly – or the Lib Dem’s?
No but it may make them think people have had enough and think before passing laws at the drop of a hat
Cheers james
You really ought to do some research before making such stupid comments, one of the biggest costs for car owners is fuel, and though I am not a fan of this government, to be fair to them they have not raised fuel duty once since they came to power in 2010, whereas Labour banged the price up at every single opportunity. Fuel is expensive throughout Europe, not just the UK, there are many countries in Europe that are more expensive than UK and not that many that are cheaper by a significant amount
This is to do with road tax not fuel prices if you read the facts
It hasn’t put me off buying a VW or any other VAG vehicle – indeed just bought another very nice Audi – and its a diesel too! – many seem to be deserting diesels for petrol for no real or good reason or at least not one that stands up to scrutiny.
And no it doesn’t surprise me that OEMs are cheating – they’re playing the game just like probably every other manufacturer of probably any durable good – the surprise is that they got caught. That others haven’t been caught does not fill me with confidence that they are compliant or doing the right thing – they just haven’t been caught.
The UK roads have never been so bad, shock absorbers being damaged !? My friends garage has seen a regular supply of work with other associated problems like: track rod ends, outer steering rack arms, anti roll bar bushes, top/bottom ball joints, suspension arm bushes, fractured exhaust pipe weld, broken exhaust pipe hanging brackets and wheel bearings. Don’t forget cracked deformed alloy wheels and tyres !!
First it was petrol to diesel to get better mileage then it was get rid of suvs for school runs then it was get all old bangers off the road now it’s hitting diesel. There are only 4 wheels on the road so it’s road tax regardless. Just another money making racket. Start looking at real issues like potholes and sorting roads. Help motorist instead of hindering then. We don’t have a proper public service in this country so we need cars to be economical. If everyone was to go electric what about the power grid. Cummonnnnn think logic for a change.
Sadly, there us nothing logical in political knee jerk policy making. 🙁
I have to decide what car to buy later this year.
I was trying to make my mind up whether to go Petrol, Diesel, Electric or Hybrid, but now I even have to consider the country of manufacture.
Think I’ll try a motorbike & sidecar, with a gas balloon, for Domestic Gas, floating overhead. I can fill up at home & they haven’t sugested Gas as a taxable fuel – have they?
What about a Fred Flintstone special, with new trainers????
Anybody in the process of buying a car is in limbo, what with sadick Khant screwing up London and the government sitting on the fence, what options are out there for the car buyer. CONFUSION for all. Somebody out there make up your mind, for goodness sake.
The Government made their minds up a few years back and now diesel owners are being penalised for following the Government’s decision. Give it a few years and the owners of all electric cars will be penalised when the Government realises how dangerous the batteries are and what costs will be associated with emission free battery disposal.
IT,S sadiqi khan and TFL ,s idea to make all the area inside the north & south circular a ULEZ zone by 2020 all cars unless ultra low emission vehicle’s or electric will pay £12.50 per day 7 days a week 365 day a year =£4,200 extra to pay on top of road tax , it seems to me TFL runs the country but don’t repair the roads
sadiqi khan is a worthless mayor and shouldn’t be allowed to be in the position he holds.
Hybrids charge themselves every time you brake or slow down. Also when the engine is running at level speed, excess energy is also used for the charge. We do not plug our car into anything. British made Toyota Auris Hybrid.
Most modern petrol and diesel cars charge the battery when you brake as well!
Whoever told you that?
Somebody who clearly knows more about it than you do: I don’t know about all manufacturers, but I do know that most if not all BMWs have had Brake Energy Regeneration ( a form of KERS as seen in F1) since about 2010, and mine only drives the alternator when you’re decelerating. I’m sure most manufacturers have similar technology, they’re all trying to meet the same targets
the same IDIOT THAT TELLS THE MAYOR OF LONDON all the wrong facts
The mayor of London is an idiot anyway?
Well we’ve had 3 idiot mayors so far… especially Len Skivingstone.
Baloney
As long as the alternator is spinning the battery will be charging
I’m thinking of buying one of these Toyota Auris cars, estate version. I’m wondering if the manufacturer’s figure of over 70mpg is realistic?
After the emissions scandal it was a foregone conclusion that German cars were going to see an increase in running costs by way of taxes. I wouldn’t touch a German car with a barge pole now.
Published mpg figures have been nonsense for some years now. This is because manufacturers use tricks to improve apparent results in the Lab tests, which are carried out on rolling road rigs. There is a move to introduce real road tests. So results may be better in a bout 10 years time.
Meanwhile to estimate a new car’s mpg you take the published figure and divide by two thirds. So a published 70mpg means you can expect about 46.6mpg on the road.
In reality fuel consumption has not improved much since 1990.
Yes, all these attempts at forecasting mpg seem to fail, the manufacturer figures are laughable but those real mpg figures rely on ordinary motorists entering their own figures. Their own figures come straight off the on board computer, which tend to be ambitious, so again, the figures are rubbish. Not only that, we had two similar cars, one petrol and one diesel with similar performance. The computer agreed that the petrol was quite economical but it came down to the fact that we had to fill up the petrol twice as often as the diesel. So the petrol was only getting about 35mpg and not the 50 we were lead to believe! Plus, the petrol wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding. A lot of people think their cars are economical but are only going off the computer, where if you work it out, you are getting 10-15mpg less.
Hi Pugman, I own a Peugeot RCZ 1.6 litre twin turbo petrol engine. I read somewhere else that trip computers are not very good at accurate MPG figures. I decided to test mine with three brim to brim fill ups. My computer said 37.6 MPG but my real test indicated that it was 37.2 MPG. It seems then that my computer is pretty much accurate. 10-15 MPG less is way out I think. If my car only did 23 MPG it would be sold the day after I first filled it. Check real life MPGs that are available on t’internet.
Steve, I think you mean MULTIPLY the published mpg by two thirds to estimate real-life mpg. (It is however true that because fuel consumption is proportional to the reciprocal of mpg that to get a realistic estimate of real-life consumption in units of litres/km one should divide published litres/km by 2/3 which is equivalent to multiplying by 3/2.
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/toyota
Don’t do it. My Auris Sport Hybrid rarely gets 55mpg. Of course if I lived in a city and/or drove like a 90 year old it would be better. I’m looking at going fully electric for my next car.
I have owned Toyota hybrids (Prius and Auris) over the last 5 years. Both are fine cars. The issue of mpg is as ever contentious. My experience as a driver who has economy in mind was that in the real world both hybrids achieved about 60 mpg. This was less than expected but acceptable. My current car is a Honda civic (1.6 diesel) which I have had new from new and is just over a year old. To my surprise the Honda returns mpg of at least 10 mpg more than the Toyotas. I have no vested interest or customer loyalty to either of these brands I only seek the best deal. Ill leave the issue of petrol v diesel as worse polluting cars to orhers
Hi Phil, there is a website called “Honest John” which gathers real world MPGs from owners of cars. According to them, the Auris Estate Hybrid achieves 53.5 miles per gallon. Nothing like the 70-80 MPG that they quote but it still seems good to me.
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/toyota/auris-touring-sports-2013
We have occasionally achieved more than 70mpg, but the average is nearer to 60, still very good! We are lucky enough to have two vehicles and the other is a 2004 ROVER 75 diesel and I love driving it. By keeping it going I am making best use of the energy used in its manufacture. How i would like to speak to the four greedy b******s who destroyed Rover!!!
The energy still comes from a petrol engine, albeit hopefully operating at its most efficient. However, you are also carting around half a ton of batteries, which are going to negatively impact fuel efficiency. Cost of electricity via plug in is a lot less than by delivering with local petrol engine – think of all the friction in a petrol engine, so best combination is probably plug in hybrid, unless you only do long journeys, where the best modern diesels are much cleaner than most people think.
i drive a ford c max diesel my emissions are 140g/km my neighbour has a newish Honda crv her emissions are over 200g/km and its petrol ,if you were shut in a garage with the petrol engine running you would die quickly but if it were diesel you would cough a lot but live giving you enough time to get out
Hey john+kinch – you for petrol engines then? You sound like you must be suicidal if you’re planning to sit in your garage with the engine running!!!
Modern diesel are far dirtier than people know, the manufacturers made the particles/ soot invisible but putting a type of furnace as part of the exhaust. Our children will suffer badly in the future for having to breath in all this filth at an early age, all to line the pockets of a bunch of liars
Ryou are simply wrong Mrzippy. The latest Euro 6 compliant diesels are cleaner in emissions than petrol cars. The govt. is I’ll advised and is only really after taxes to fill their coffers. Look at the state of our roads and lack of cheap public transport! Shame on this govt. as they are not really interested in saving the planet but on fleecing the poor motorist!!
Jrags, you say that Mrzippy is wrong and that Euro 6 diesels are cleaner than pterol cars.
WRONG! The diesel version of Britain’s 4th best selling car, the Nissan Qashqai, is a real filth factory. It produces up to 18 times more nitrogen oxides than the official lab-based test allows under EU directives, while Nissan’s Juke pumps out 16 times more NOx pollution than the limit. Link to The Guardian: https://goo.gl/83bDcq
It’s quite appalling just how much disinformation that some posters quote in this comment section.
Euro 6 complaint my arse, who do you think does the testing and published the results, the manufacturers themselves, there is NO government testing. If you don’t believe me get the official booklet and look in the back.
documented evidence please
“Cost of electricity via plug in is a lot less than by delivering with local petrol engine”
True, but actually more harmful to the environment when power station emissions and then generating and transmission inefficiencies are taken into account. Once the countryside and sea are covered with wind farms and our arable farms are dug up to install solar panels, then it will just be down to replacing the national grid to cope with the increased demand. You can’t win.
David H, that’s an interesting figure of half a ton of batteries that you plucked out of nowhere. I can’t find the weight of an Auris battery but the Prius battery weighs just 80Kg. As for “negatively impact fuel efficiency”, perhaps you should get a job at Toyota as you clearly know better than they do. I do not personally own a Toyota or a hybrid, just a good old fashioned petrol engine Peugeot.
if you ask Toyota how long the large battery under the car last’s they will tell you 8 years ,to replace the battery will cost £2000 plus VAT ,the emissions produced to make these batteries far exceed the current levels permitted
Wow john+kinch that’s very interesting. Source?
Bit expensive and its carbon footprint in production is horrendous
Then there is the use of rare metals . .
What is the carbon footprint of producing petrol or diesel fuel?
Please include cost of extraction, transport, processing, transport to pumps.
What is the increase in the carbon cost of an electric vehicle when compared to an ICE vehicle?
How much is the carbon cost of ICE spare parts required at servicing compared to carbon costs of servicing an electric/hybrid vehicle?
And if it helps, my Prius has just passed its 12 yr MoT at 116000 miles without even an advisory. So hang on to your Auris. It will never wear out. That saves even more pollution.
Nice idea, but logic? Politicians?
Lets get this straight – it is not “road tax”. The vehicle excise duty helps to cover a whole range of costs caused by driving your car around – including the significant cost to the NHS of illness and early deaths of city dwellers caused by air pollution. It’s not just for potholes. The National Grid will cope fine with the demand of additional electric vehicles – especially as generation has become increasingly decentralised with solar and wind generation. It is very logical.
Let’s get this straight it’s not a tax………let’s get this straight it is a tax call the Road Fund Tax……..it is no longer called VED, Vehicle Excise Duty,. I was going to deal with the rest of “Wild Bill’s” I’ll informed and just plain wrong post but I see that’s been done in other posts. I’d love to know where Wild Bill got his name from. I have this vision of him turning up at the local biker bar and saying, “Come on brothers let’s get tanked up and ride. Don’t worry if we get smashed up the VED will pay for it”. It’s the RFT read it Wild Bill.
Mike,
Has nothing to do with funding roads. It used to part fund them many years ago, but they are now funded out of general taxation – the same big pot that the Vehicle Tax (which is what the government is calling it) goes into, so Wild Bill was the rightest.
I thought the county councils are responsible for local road maintenance, hence council tax (for the most part) pays for this…? Source: https://www.loc.gov/law/help/infrastructure-funding/englandandwales.php
Quite correct there has not been a road tax since 1937
http://ipayroadtax.com/
VED is a pollution tax
Its a tax for using the road, so in plain English its Road Tax. Just as alcohol tax is not spent on pubs, it need not be spent on roads.The point is that driving normal cars is cash-positive to the government, even after they have paid for the thing that they are taxing.
I had a discussion with greenpeace recently on this, they said, if the whole country went electric by the time the government wanted, the national grid would NOT cope and there would not be adequate charging points.
In a very short time we will get a huge choice.
Buy a EU built car in the knowledge that you have to pay a high import tax. If the EU give the UK a punishment deal or no deal over our future trade relationship.
OR Buy a UK built car, so what if components come in from abroad, there are Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, JLR amongst others to choose from, even the BMW Mini if you must.
Taxation on emmissions is now. The truly BIG tax bunfight is just around the corner.
Can’t wait! I have a European built Ford and a Spanish built SEAT on my drive. They are up for replacement. I am waiting until the deal is done with EU. Then I will vote with my feet. UK PLC might need us!
German manufacturer testing emmissions on both monkeys and humans, sounds like a headline from 79 years ago, some mistake surely?
This test procedure, reminds me of a certain chappy who did similar in the 1940’s!!! History repeating itself???
And in those monkey tests its showed modern diesel fumes doing twice the organ damage of a 10 year old model. Making the soot smaller is pleasing to the buyer but not to anyones lungs as it passes into the blood stream now. Well done diesel daves.
Should include a road tax on French cars as well to slow these imports down. We give our money away too easily – help UK manufacturing and Buy British made cars (admittedly not UK owned) but most of the wages go to Brits.
British Cars ?Very few if any are British Cars Those built here are made mainly from imported parts British ?? Let’s go back to the days of Dagenham dustbins as they were called Who remembers them ?
Found On Road Dead ( FORD ) , Dagenham!
FIX IT AGAIN TOMORROW FIAT) BOB MARLEY & THE W#=;/ERS (BMW) at least with a ford ,spares were plenty and reasonably priced unlike BMW or fiat /Renault rubbish Citroen cant give them away nobody wants them
I thought it was Fix Or Repair Daily
I work for a supplier to the UK automotive industry and can assure you that a huge amount of parts used in British manufactured cars are manufactured in the UK.
Our motor industry is still a huge part of our economy, even though most people don’t seem to know that we still manufacture British cars!
I bought an Audi A5TDI.
It was one of the cars affected by the emissions scandal.
I have to say, I was disgusted by the attitude of the Audi dealership where I bought the car. So much so in fact, that I will never buy another VW group car again.
Even if I did have to pay more road tax on my 7-year old VW Eos TDi Bluemotion it would still be far cheaper than replacing it, especially if Dieselgate reduces its value, which gives me every incentive to drive it till it falls apart.
This is my 5th VW. I love the Bauhaus-inspired unfussy functionality and superb engineering and ergonomics of VW-group cars. If forced to replace my Eos I probably wouldn’t buy another diesel though I love their grunty torque and superb fuel economy. When someone invents a lightweight battery made from environmentally friendly materials, that can be charged in the time it takes to fill a tank, and has the same 550 mile range as my Eos does, and has comparable performance, and doesnt cost Tesla prices, then I would go electric.
How bad are the leaks on your VW Eos?
As for electric, like many millions of people in the UK, I don’t have a driveway and park on the street… how can I recharge it if it’s about thirty yards or more away from the house? I would buy an electric car it that problem could be overcome but only if it has sports car performance and a decent range of say 400 miles. I couldn’t afford a Tesla Model S ;O(
Thank you, James, you have summed up brilliantly the real flaw in this politically inspired promotion of plug in electric vehicles. As you say, until they can match or even come close to matching modern fossil fuel power for range and speed of ‘refuelling’, they will remain an expensive frippery for those with surplus cash. I would add here a German statistic I read recently in an article on electric cars which suggested that if 1million extra electric cars were on the road in Germany tomorrow, they would require 35 new power stations to charge them overnight! Finally, how exactly are householders in flats and houses with no off road parking supposed to charge these ‘green wonders’? Dangling cables and pavements festooned with trip hazards?
Providing you have a range that comfortably covers most journeys I don’t see that charging times are a major issue. You just charge it up when it is convenient. Sure there are those who do 100’s of miles a day but most do much less.
I will continue to by VW’s. My family and I still want quality in our cars. One thing that our government has kept from us is that they received the money that was set aside to compensate VW owners in the UK. They kept that one quiet.
German marques are good at brainwashing the Brits into thinking they are getting high quality. I have driven many German cars and had lots of problems with them. Most cars are very similar in quality nowadays but some are marketed better and strangely, German marques always have the press on their side no matter what they churn out. If VW produce such good quality why did they need to cheat.
The press (motoring mags) are owned by one of VAGs major shareholders. Although that probably doesn’t affect their impartiality..
When will people learn that a lot of VW group cars are made in South Africa not in Europe. As are Ford and Merc’s also made in S.A.
Not for the European market
If you want quality why are you still wanting to buy a VW. I have a VW beetle, and to call this marque quality I can’t get my head around. Needless to say VW is off my wish list forever!
Does this mean that Lexus and family Toyota’s are bad quality? People are easily brainwashed.
Wow….. I didn’t know the government got the compensation money and not the vehicle owners. So do the owners now get compensation from the government? If so I’m guessing they have to complete a 40 page form to do do.
the ££ is going to subsidize all the cost of bl**dy Brexit admin – jobs for the boys I guess
I think you should consider wearing a tinfoil hat. Something somewhere somehow is clouding your rationality.
If you want quality, why are you buying VW?
Exactly. The reliability stats put the Japanese and increasingly the Korean cars at the top of the list (with the notable exception of Skoda). And most of the German marques towards the bottom – although Mercedes is improving from its cost-cutting days. And nowadays the “inferior” brands often have an interior quality not far off those from the premium brands. You pays your money, you take your choice, but many people mistake these premium brands to mean better quality. On the flip side, it means those of us who are not brand snobs get better value!
If you say so Jason.
VW Group cars for me any day.
Skoda uses VW parts so how can it be more reliable than other VW cars?
“One thing that our government has kept from us is that they received the money that was set aside to compensate VW owners in the UK. They kept that one quiet.”
Can you give a source to any of this or was it your mate’s mate’s second cousin thrice removed who lives in Djibouti?
Just maybe that Auto Express is more reliable than your source. This article of theirs is dated 18th January 2018 which is about a class action lawsuit against VW group. https://goo.gl/RycrgN
Interesting that the author singles out German marques, based on an issue in the US testing. Both the BBC and Which? have conducted REAL WORLD TESTING on a range of diesels. This involves testing them on british roads doing a normal range of driving whilst analysing their real emissions. The German marques came out best, especially the VW group engines, actually meeting the standard. Whilst the French engines were much worse, and the worst of all were Jeep, which didn’t even meet euro 4 standards, which makes you wonder how it met the Californian standard!
This article is sensationalist click bait!
Agreed. A poor article. The sensationalist headline, repeated in the text isn’t born out by the evidence presented. The road tax changes are more about getting more money into the governments coffers and don’t penalise any maker over any other. Sloppy journalism!
Agreed. This article needs some RATIONAL editing.
agreed – it’s a rubbish headline, probably written by a Brexiteer
– as a proud Audi owner I may unsubscribe from PetrolPrices.com……
Since the diesel-gate scandal York Audi have been very professional and even knocked a load of £’s off the cost for my cam-belt change when I mentioned ‘customer confidence…’
Since the software update my 2012 A4 has actually had better fuel consumption and no issues on performance
Will stick with German Engineering I think next time
John your obvious total bigotry is showing BADLY. Why must the originator of the article be a Brexiteer? Oh I know you disagree with it so like everything else that you don’t like BLAME IT ON BREXIT. Very sad. get a life john before it’s too late.
Don’t think anyone would miss you with comments like that anyway
Good luck with your fuel injectors.
John, I am litarally on my knees, hands clasped praying for your soul to see the light at this very moment !
I agree. I drove Audi and VW and in the last 30 years and now owns a VW Passat. I don’t know if I’ll switch to a non German car because of this scandal. I will wait for more news but I think this is also to punish the motorists to contribute more taxes. Higher taxes on petrol, road tax, MOT, and car insurance. And also too many potholes on the roads that damage our cars and shock absorbers. Probably the government will say “Blame Carillion” for not repairing the roads, but they went bankrupt so we motorists has to wait for many months and in the meantime we have to shoulder additional cost for tyre and shock absorber replacement.
the goverment need more and more money to give to the EU so penalise the motorist make us pay for their cock ups and that mayor is part of it ,i think he wants us all to sell our cars so he can ship them to india
Dear John+kinch,
May I respectfully suggest you keep your racist and ignorant rabidly anti-EU comments to yourself rather than polluting this discussion with them.
Your “racist” label is unfounded … I am a socialist but sick of the “racist ” label etc for genuine criticism of non white people !
The emissions from a car are little to to with how efficient a car is under test conditions, its more to do with how hard you drive it. A small car tested at less than 99 ppm co2 will still give out more co2 driven very hard, than a big car driven economically. Petrol or diesel, your emissions will be sky high driven fast and hard. A car at 90 mph on the motorway and many cars are, will give out similar pollution levels to any other car driven at that speed irrespective of engine size. Road tax ought to be lèvied on real mpg a driver gets from his car. Complicated, not really. A car should be serviced or mot d once a year. The annual mileage recorded, each fuel station should be linked to DVLA so the average mpg for the year worked out. If you enjoy driving fast you will pay more road tax, if you try driving very economically, and that doesn’t mean slowly, you will pay less road tax. If a car does not show up on the data base because the owner has found a way of fiddling the system as any do now, the car should be seized, crushed the owner or driver should pay 5 years average road tax for the car type and pay £1000 fine on top.any garage complicit in a fiddle should pay £10,000 fine for the first offence, plus 50% supplement for each subsequent offence. The greatest polluters will pay most, it’s our planet we are poisoning.
“Road tax ought to be lèvied on real mpg a driver gets from his car. ”
That already happens! It is called duty and it makes up most of the cost of a litre of fuel (and then they charge VAT on the duty IIRC). The harder you drive, the more fuel you use and the more tax you pay. If they increased duty (not that I really want that), they could remove VED altogether and remain revenue neutral.
Glad I sold my VW engined Skoda Yeti, they hadn’t got round to fixing the cheat device, and replaced it with a Toyota CHR hybrid! Even more glad that it was registered before the end of March last year, so zero road tax forever! (Though I still have to go to the DVLA website once a year to “tax” it).
It now becomes obvious why the treasury got rid of of the tax incentive to switch to hybrid technologies, which was a perverse decision.
I read the Sunday Times article about VW this week, scandalous that they have compensated American victims of the dieselgate fraud, yet resolutely refused to do so for European customers!
Zero road tax forever !! really untill the lying cheating government change the goalposts again , and that goes for any party in charge , they are clueless and take on board advice from so called experts who also change there mind more often than i change my socks
If you buy a BMW motorcycle in the USA it comes with a 3 year warranty and costs less than the same bike purchased in the UK and we only get a 2 year warranty!
So American’s getting compensation when we do not is no real surprise just more of the same. The American’s have a louder voice and get better deals.
I have a 2005 Audi A3 purchased new and it has always returned a higher MPG than that Audi stated/claimed when I got it. On motorways I do not drive above 60 MPH that often and most of my drives are over 25 miles, but still I have to say I am very happy with the fuel efficiency which must to some extent indicate lower pollution levels?
Testing emissions on monkeys, given their history of seventy years ago and what they did with the gas vans they would be a kinder more gentle society. I guess a Leopard never changes its spots, now I know about this I will never buy another German Car.
What is this unrealistic fascination with German cars. They are no better than any other car on the road and worse than many. If you are in any doubt, visit Honest John’s website and read his motoring agony column. It strikes me if you put a BMW badge on a wheelie bin some people would buy it to run around in.
BMWs are passé.
If you really want to be an individual and get noticed, lease a black Audi like 15 million other people.
ROAD TAX ???? that went out in 1938 didn’t it ???? it’s surely called Vehicle Excise Duty these days !!!!! and everyone that pays council tax pays for road maintenance though you’d hardly think so by the state of some of the roads
I would not buy any VAG group car, that includes Skoda and Seat.
If so the german manufactures like in the US must offer to buy our cars back from us.
Here’s an easy one for you, so we can cut to the chase (& if you really want to be helpful to your readership): provide a facility in your next email, where we can enter our reg. plate No., & then be supplied with projected- under the new Apr. 2,018 onwards regulations- tax rates for our vehicles in the coming several years. God bless. Thank you. Lesley.
Just ordered a new VW.
More fool you!!
You are being silly, if you think it was only the Germans and particularly Volkswagen Group who were cheating.
The VW people have forgotten more about car engineering than lots of others will ever learn and they have, what must be the largest Parts Bin to dip into in the industry.
Everyone must have been cheating, just accept it!
Please do not refer to “road tax”! It’s vehicle tax, or Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) to be precise. Calling it road tax leads to a lot of people thinking it goes to maintain the roads, which it doesn’t, tho it ought to.
Now that a lot of car pay no ( road tax ) they must be loosing a lot of money, so I guess they need to pick on somebody, they told people to buy diesel car, now they can tax them more for doing so.
Its all cobblers
Will this affect all the goverments and royal families official cars like the jaguar, range rover etc…….. doubt it just another scam from the goverment…… india, china and the usa wont be doing anything about it no just lets make an example and show the rest of the world how the uk can keep on ripping off the uk motorist public transport is a joke
I did a search on the Queens cars. one of them Y694CDU, a Daimler Super V8, has an MOT history. So if they have to have MOTs then I would guess that they have VED as well.
Y694CDU from 19/9/2007 until 10/6/2009 it did 17 miles. The MOT expired on 3/9/2015. It is taxed until 1/8/2018
EBY776J is an Aston Martin with a current MOT. Forty six years old and just 20,500 miles on the clock. But is it old enough not to need tax?
How can it be taxed without a current mot?
I totally agree with Chris on his comments that why is it good Old Britain goes to these lengths to clear the air when most other far larger countries do not give a toss about pollution, in the grand scheme of things GB will not make one iota of a difference to the worlds air quality by banning or taxing diesel cars, its just an excuse to make money, nothing else, if you want to buy a diesel car go ahead as it will come out pretty soon that they are no worse than a petrol engine for emissions. Scaremongering at its best to empty your pockets.
I have had VW group cars for the last 12 years and have no intention of changing, they are a reliable quality brand and as far as my local dealership is concerned they are second to none being very helpful and, better still, they are very reasonably priced regarding maintenence and servicing. As far as road tax, that is down to the government and will apply to all vehicles. If they try and penalize certain brands, legally, thet’ll be opening a whole can of worms! Still, with government who knows
We have to pay road toll,s abroad & take it from me it costs more than a years road tax to go on holiday with my caravan on the back in toll charges so why does,nt every visitor pay a levy when they come here in their cars, & all immigrants they come here with their cars & don,t pay tax for 6 months they go home for 2 weeks then don,t pay tax again. the motorist in this country should do what the French do & blockade the cities BUT no we are all to kind to this rip off government
I have also travelled many thousands of miles abroad, towing a caravan. You don’t have to use the toll roads, it’s just that they are more convenient and easier to use. Their A roads are generally better than our motorways apart from going through more built up areas. Many of the A roads run parallel to the toll roads
I too have had VWs for many years 2 Sharans a polo and a passat all of them diesels. They have all been very reliable and the present one a Passat only costs £30 a year in road tax. I too have no intention of changing.
I am not sure that optimising a car’s emissions for a test is “cheating” as such.
The basis of the tests was well know and all the manufacturers were free to set their vehicles up in the best way to meet those test conditions. E.g. charging the batteries just before the test, only putting in enough fuel for the test (rather than a full tank), removing the spare wheel (& other accessories) and so on.
We all knew that the MPG figures achieved under test were way away from any that could be achieved during a real drive. We were told these figures were only for comparative purposes (against other vehicles which had undertake an identical test). So getting upset that this manufacture or that one optimised their cars seems a bit disingenuous to me.
Just my 2d worth – YMMV !!
I recommend Lisa Edwards go stick her head in a bucket for writing such a ridiculous article. Penalise the manufacturers of the best and most reliable cars in the world
Oh yeah
a
hI bought a cheaper second hand German car, does this mean im going to be hit with dearer tax I cant afford ? If so I
shall have to sell it like a lot of other second hand owners thus flooding the market
I never bought the “clean economical diesel” lie in the first place; I learned at college, fifty years ago about the carcinogens emitted by diesels, and the new cleanest ever (according to the SMMT) are even worse. Yet I am punished by paying £535 per annum VED for each of my petrol powered cars which produce nothing more harmful the plant food.
I sold an Audi because of the cheating. I now run an Infiniti, it is also a diesel but the engine is a Mercedes. My wife also has a diesel Jeep it uses a Fiat engine. Neither Mercedes or Fiat have cheated like VW.
I have a ROVER 75 diesel and have had it for nearly 10 years and keep it fully maintained and tested. I hope to keep it running for many years more. However, we recently changed our other ROVER 75 (15 years old) diesel, that was still giving 50 MPG. We bought a Toyota Auris Hybrid, made in the UK at a factory employing 4500 people, who produce a very economic and environmentally friendly vehicle. By buying a BRITISH made vehicle the VAT and income tax stays in the UK and the employees at the factory have a well p[aid and productive job, keeping their family and contributing to the prosperity of our nation. I worked in UK manufacturing industry for 50 years and it still creates wealth. Please support our workers and their families. The car is excellent – 60mpg, quiet and comfortable.
Can you imagine the furore if the VW scandal had been associated with a British manufacturer (1,750,000 vehicles made in the uk last year). The press would have had a field day. The urge to have a German car with vanity number plates knows no bounds.
The Germans cheating “never” next you will be saying the nation was backing Hitler and not just 25 members of the nazi party. And to say that they are using gas chambers again that is libel.
Go on then how much does it cost to build a hybrid and how many batteries will it go through do you have to buy a new car every 3 years there will be a battery charge as soon as more go this way you know what this lot are like look at the past I can’t see it being more planet friendly in the long run
All very interesting, especially the references to diesel, petrol and electric power. I had a 1.4 honda petrol 70mph = 3,500rpm I now have a 2.0 Diesel 70mph = 1800rpm yet supposedly it pollutes more. Also when will the electric car warriors wake up to the facts, as been mentioned elsewhere where is the generating capacity coming from to charge them and do you think for one minute the government will miss out at imposing a fuel levy on it in the same way that it does with Petrol & Diesel – can’t do it? in that case they will increase the price of all electricity including household use. They’ll get their pound of flesh!
How disturbing the monkey and human test .How could it even be legal
How can any manufacturer be 100% trusted not to ‘adjust’ their CO2 figures?
Why don’t they just use “Diesel Exhaust Fluid” all the time instead of when the vehicle ECU knows it is being tested? It is not very expensive.
I’ll never buy a German car or any other model associated with Audi, BMW or Mercedes, primarily because VW cheated the general public, not to mention chimp testing of exhaust fumes. These cars are overpriced, have worse reliability than Vauxhalls and parts and servicing are astronomical.
A recent survey indicated that these cars are driven by the worst drivers in the UK. I regularly travel the M25 and it’s nearly always German cars that are speeding and driving dangerously, weaving in and out of traffic.
I would recommend that all car imports are taxed heavily once we leave the EU, since the EU are going to punish us financially anyway. Percentage of German cars on the UK roads is nearing 25% (not including Skodas, Seats etc). That will have a big impact on sales in Germany!
So, no Bentley or Rolls Royce for you then?
it seems fair in a way BUT I HAVE A COMPLAINT (yes I’m shouting it)
New vehicles meeting the highest spec will pay lower VED…. good idea
Euro5 vehicles bought a few years ago will pay lower VED (they were specifically legislated for)
People LIKE ME bought latest spec euro6 vehicles (the SAME ones that will get lower VED in future) with ALL the extras to reduce pollution.. Pay HIGHEST VED much much more than future new ones… WHY are we paying more???? surely ALL vehicles in the same category (make, model, spec, emissions) should pay the SAME VED
I would not touch a Volkswagen or Audi car with a barge pole. Apart from their faking emissions results their finance company is also the worst I have ever had to deal with. They are rude uncompromising and unhelpful
Maggie : You have every right to choose not to touch a VW or Audi car with a barge pole especially if that helps you to feel better; in any case there are plenty of other car manufacturers to choose from. As all manufacturers use very similar technology the pollution levels for similar cars, regardless of what company made them, will all be about the same.
Your admission that you use a finance company to purchase a car implies that you can barely afford to be a motorist otherwise you would simply buy from your savings.
Good – yes load the German discharging cars that they all hid – then buyers will complain and perhaps force a reslt
We refuse to have our Seat modified as there are reports of ecu units failing soon after modification and poorer mpg.
Examples of another money making exercise. The biggest cause of pollution is slow moving traffic. A perfect example is the London area which has been screwed up by bonkers Boris and sicko Khant. They are just playing up to the idiots that believe that London can function without deliveries and traffic carrying goods and services. No one in their right mind would drive in London unless they had to. The majority of traffic in and around central London is essential, and not joy riders. Another bonus for the plonkers at city hall is the revenue. It was just mentioned that revenue for the congestion zone is down and TFL will be out of pocket. Surely if the revenue is down, it proves the charge is working, or is it that the mayor wants us all to go into London for his profit margin booster??
So Hammond and Osborne have effectively killed off the car industry with nobody knowing what to buy and May doing nothing to quell the chances of councils putting in all forms of local taxes. Most people looking to change will be running reasonably economical diesels. Changing to a new diesel means increased VED and uncertainty on local taxes. Changing to a new petrol means increased VED and lower MPG. Most will stick with their old car. Still, never mind, Hammond can blame Brexit.
Just taxed a 2017 VW Passat. Thought from all I had read it would be £140 but it turned out to be £30.
If electric cars have free Ved and basically very very cheap to run. Why is the British tax payer subsidising each car to the tune of £4000. I bet most manufacturers can’t believe how stupid the government is, again another knee jerk reaction by politicians. If you want a car to save the world then pay for it don’t expect us all too.
Also smart meters are not free they cost the companies £450 each to fit and they claim the money back by increasing the cost of gas and electric. They are not required to be fitted if you don’t want one and with reports they can be hacked ( cut off your electric, set on fire, not suitable for all providers) who wants one Rip off Britain is alive and kicking.
Smart meters are a disaster which we will all pay for. Other countries have dismissed them as useless (my summary). Figures vary from £200 – £420 per meter and will save the average household just £10 per year. Also if you’re one of the 4 million who have one already, it will stop working if you change supplier. In the whole of the UK, only 80 meters (yes, just eighty) out of 4 million will work if you change supplier. A very expensive farce.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/bills-and-utilities/gas-electric/80-second-generation-smart-meters-have-installed-rollout-stalls/
ELECTRIC LOL LOL it takes approx half an hour to charge a car WHERE are all these charging points going to be for all these cars needing half an hour charge. ACRES of fields will need to be converted into charging parks. THINK how many cars pass through one petrol station to get a fill up in an hour of fuel at one pump say 4 minutes a car at the most.. CONVERT that into electric Cars needing a Half an hour charge LOL LOL LOL LOL. Also take into account a petrol car and a diesel car travel between fills about 300 miles,, an electric car say 100 miles bring that into the sums LOL LOL LOL.
as adding to Isobels post
First it was petrol to diesel to get better mileage then it was get rid of suvs for school runs then it was get all old bangers off the road now it’s hitting diesel. There are only 4 wheels on the road so it’s road tax regardless. Just another money making racket. Start looking at real issues like potholes and sorting roads. Help motorist instead of hindering then. We don’t have a proper public service in this country so we need cars to be economical. If everyone was to go electric what about the power grid. Cummonnnnn think logic for a change.
I have just received my Road Tax renewal form for my (nearly) one year old diesel Audi Q3. £150.00
My previous car, a diesel Audi A4 Avant, was £35.00!