When did buying a car get so confusing?

wordsfan

Been a while since I last bought a car, looking to poss but a small hatchback cheap just to do me a year or so. Thought I'd do a quick calculation on poss running costs. First thing I went to check was road tax, so many variables, looked on a used car site to see if sellers gave any indication of tax, insurance bands but apparently not now.

Can anyone help with this

jimjames

Not sure it's really changed recently. The most recent tax changes were in 2001 and 2006 but those affect gas guzzlers not small cars.

Autotrader give the CO2 rating which is what VED has been based on since 2001 so there is a lot of info out there but you can check here

https://www.gov.uk/calculate-vehicle-tax-rates

If you are looking for a cheapie car then you may well be older than 2001 in which case it is purely based on engine size, under 1549cc or over 1549cc

Iceweasel

I reckon a lot of what you want /need to know is on this site:

http://www.carpages.co.uk/

wordsfan

Last car I bought was a 96 escort 3 years ago. Tax was based on a 2 level engine size banding.

I think the car ins was fairly straightforward to look up.

I tried the gov.uk page and found it too much ibfio

The car pages website seems based on make? Well I don't care what make as long as it gies

Ultrasonic

I find https://www.parkers.co.uk the most useful website for info on cars to buy, including VED.

VED is based on CO2 emissions, which correlates with mpg. Buy a more economical car and you will pay less VED.

ioscorpio

https://www.motors.co.uk state the co2, car tax and insurance group of cars advertised.

MX5huggy

Relax about car tax, it is a minor cost in the overall picture.

If you go for a high MPG car it will be in a low band. As long as you avoid the high bands the car tax will be less than 4 fills of fuel.