How much is your car tax?

BANANABUS

The tax on my wifes car is £0 <<<< thats no pounds! nothing!!!
Its a 1971 Vw FASTBACK Tax exempt!

There is a a feeling of smugness when i go to the post office and pay NOTHING!!!.

margaretclare

oap wrote:

Thank you all for your input, no we cannot change the car, cannot afford to, and like you say it's not costing anything, but will have another look at our mot certificate, will quote the read out when I find it again, maybe we have read it wrong?

You say you cannot change the car - my question would be: why not? You say you can't afford to change and it's not costing anything. In fact it IS costing you something. Any car costs you money no matter how low the mileage, it costs you money all the time it sits in the drive and doesn't turn a wheel (A possible exception to this is if you register it as SORN).

You've admitted you pay annual insurance on it - what does that cover?. We pay £240 a year fully-comprehensive for 2 named drivers for our 'M' reg Fiesta, and it does a lot more mileage (because we don't use buses) while costing us less. On a long run i.e. up to the North or Midlands we can get 50 mpg out of it.

I would question why you need a car at all for 3,000 miles a year. With the money you'd free up, you could easily hire a car for the few times you need one. Or even taxis would be a darned lot cheaper.

We've actually looked seriously at this, and if we're ever unable or not allowed (both of us) to drive any longer then you can buy a lotta taxi-rides for what a car costs per year, and your Merc is costing you more than our Fiesta costs us.

Having said that, we're saving hard to replace the Fiesta with something younger because we're planning a really long trip in 2008, Rotterdam to Bodensee up the Rhine Valley. We're looking to get one about 3 years old when the Fiesta needs re-taxing in October and it's an achievable goal.

Margaret

oap

We live 12 miles from our hospital, and 11 miles from the station, it costs £20 one way to the station!!! in a taxi!!

We have had 6 cars in 56 years! We do not change our car unless absolutely necessary. So will put up and shut up. oap

lisyloo

So no point changing it now.

I can't agree with you.
I fully understand why you would want to keep a car that you like a trust.
However it is certainly not the case that there is no point changing it.
You could certainly get something much cheaper.

30 miles to the gallon is NOT good mileage these days.
You should be able to get double that.

Of course I fully understand why you don't want to change it and if this is the case as you say you need to "put up and shut up".

If you don't agree with the governments policy then why not challenge it through our democratic and political system e.g. write to your MP with environmental facts.

We live 12 miles from our hospital, and 11 miles from the station, it costs £20 one way to the station!!! in a taxi!!

How often so you go to the station.
With cars the costs are

depreciation
petrol
insurance
tax
mot
servicing
repairs
parking
breakdown cover
speeding fines
parking fines

I think you will find you can get quite a lot of £20 taxis for the same price.

Of course you have to weigh up the journeys you do and also the inconvenience.
In you case it would appear that you don't live near public transport.

I don't mean to be harsh, but if you are happy with your car then I think it's a case of "put up and shut up".
By all means challenge the governments policy if you feel that way inclined.
We do live in a democracy and you have access to your MP.
If you can do some preparation and back it up with environmental reports to support your case then obviously that will help.

Personally I agree with you that tax should be put on petrol so that people that do more mileage carry the burden and not pensioners who tend to only do low mileage and not cause a lot of environmental damage and often do not have options withe regards to their travel (due to lack of mobility and fitness) - obviously I am generalising but I think it's true in general.

Savvy_Sue

oap wrote:

It does 30 to the gallon, it does not get driven hard.

If you think that's good, it only shows how long it is since you considered a different car!

Coming up for two years ago we swapped our Saab for a Yaris. Saab did around 30 mpg, far less on commuting (which is mostly what we do). Yaris does 44+ mpg. When we do a string of longer runs, it goes up to 45+ mpg.

The Yaris is about half the size of the Saab as well. Which is a problem when you want to fit two adults, three teenagers and a weekend's luggage into it, but we cope. Because those occasions are so rare these days, it's really not worth running a large car all year round just for the odd occasions when a larger one would be useful.

We were talking about changing the Saab for over a year, and I wish we'd done it sooner ...

Biggles

We have had 6 cars in 56 years! We do not change our car unless absolutely necessary. So will put up and shut up

I have to agree with you. It would take years to recover the cost of changing your car purely in savings on fuel and car tax.

oap

Quite right Biggles, we have done the sums, regards oap

margaretclare

You say you've 'done the sums', but from the way you write about this car, it sounds as if you have an emotional attachment to it as well.

You might find you're stuck with it in any case. Fewer and fewer people are actually choosing these 10-year old monstrosities so if you tried to sell it you might not get what you think it's worth.

A man near us has been trying to sell his 10-year old Merc for the last couple of years. We often pass it and DH always says 'yes, lovely car, engineered to last, but what would we want with something like that? It would cost us more, and wouldn't do what our little Fiesta does, so what's the point?'

Margaret

lisyloo

It would take years to recover the cost of changing your car purely in savings on fuel and car tax.

Not if you are "downsizing" to a smaller car.

Of course if you are talking about changing it for an equivalent then there is no point, but there are plenty of smaller models out there.
Our parents corsa cost £2500 so I can't imagine the depreciation can be that huge.

For what's it's worth I would do the same as you and keep the trusty old steed, but you have to accept that it's a big of a gas guzzler in todays terms so you will be targetted with punitive taxation measures.
If you don't want to "go green" then you will have to accept paying the price.

hilstep2000

I don't pay any car tax, because I'm on high rate mobility with my DLA. I also get a blue badge, and a free bus pass. I use the pass sometimes, but without my car I'd be virtually housebound.
It's a 1992 Renault Clio, and it goes like a rocket! I won't be changing it for a while that's for sure!