Road Tax Robbery

[badgood]

Having run BMW’s for many years I thought I would have a change and bought my XC40 Plus B3
My old Beemer was a diesel and cost £20 PY to tax.
Imagine my shock when I went to collect my new car (which incidentally has a lower emission level than my older diesel) to be told that the road tax was £560 PY for the first 5 years !!!
Just what planet are these government loonies living on ?
How do they come up with a scheme that punishes someone for buying a car with cleaner emissions.
Is it any wonder the motor industry is in chaos and losing money hand over fist.
So much for owning such a lovely car and it’s a hybrid.
Shouldn’t we all stand up and lobby these highway robbers, what next, maybe a ULEZ charge for driving in our cities…..oops, to late
Rant over, what do you think ?

[Chris John]

What do I think?
I think you should have checked before buying the car

[Felindre]

Oh but sir, you can afford it, you spent over £40k on a 'luxury' model. When I bought my B4, I needed the tow assembly and was trying to work out what I had to sacrifice to come in under the 40k, but then discovered I could get the tow package as a 'dealer fitment' which put the £1,200 beyond the tax mans greedy mits!

Were you not aware of this tax grab when you placed your order?

[JFDIT]

Fiscal drag means more and more vehicles get caught by the 40k threshold.

[stu22]

Hard to get anything half-decent for sub-£40k these days.....

[badgood]

Chris
I did check and was told the road tax was £560 for the first year only and then would revert to the £180 flat rate.
Only after approx 2 months did I find out.
The salesman denied giving me the wrong information.
However, I stand by my feelings that the motorist is being absolutely crucified and priced off the road.
We don’t even get good roads to drive on and then they take lanes away for cyclists !!!!!
It’s only my opinion.

[poleposition]

I think it is not always clear whether a new car will be caught in the "luxury car tax" trap.

When I bought my car it was very near the limit, but the quotes I got from the Volvo dealer did not mention what would happen to road tax after year one.

After much checking off what was inluded in the £40k limit, I decided to not take metallic paint, as this would have exceeded the limit and would have been a very expensive option.

Agree with badgood that this extra tax is unjustified.

[m@rk]

However, I stand by my feelings that the motorist is being absolutely crucified and priced off the road.

I can't help thinking I have heard people saying this exact same thing for the last 20 years yet still more and more cars find their way onto our roads

Don't you work for an organisation where you can go on strike and demand a 25% pay rise to cover these extra costs? Seems to be the way to do it these days

[ChrisLF]

When I was looking at a B4 Plus with extras I was aware that I was going to have to pay the £560 per year for 5 years and was miffed at this on principle because as JFDIT says it is due to the government, as with other things, purposely dragging it's feet to increase limits to fill it's coffers. It was originally set to catch those buying very expensive cars but as stu22 says it is catching buyers of more modest cars now. I'd priced up a Skoda Karoq previously to my required spec. without going mad and that came to over £40k.!!!

I guess the government is dragging its feet because at the moment it wants to keep road tax on EVs low and needs to compensate for this and the lost revenue on diesel and petrol.

[AndyN]

It sucks but I knew about it when I got my 2nd hand car. The thing I didn't realise was and I think this is right, year 1 VED is based on emissions and cost I think then the next 5 years has the luxury tax bolted on. So my almost 3 hear old car still has 3 years of the higher rate VED