New VED road tax rules: plan ahead for 2017 UK car tax changes

molerat

Nasqueron wrote: »

For me, a combination of factors:

1) After last 2 cars (a gifted old banger and an ex-internal use company car bought direct from the manufacturer through to a contact) I wanted a car that was really "mine" - no-one else had sat in the car and driven it, no-one else's bodily excretions on the seat, steering wheel etc etc
2) Car was on 0% finance new, it was about £4500 more than the ex-demo one that customers also could use during their car service (meaning no idea what sort of journeys or how they had driven it given it wasn't theirs) - meant the money I had to pay cash for the ex-demo could sit in an account earning me interest rather than with the car company
3) Could spec the car how I wanted, choice of colour, option pack etc

My "used" car had 8 miles on the clock when I picked it up at 7 weeks old. £2K less than the on line dealers wanted for a "new" one.

oscarward

My used car had been 15 miles when I bought it at 3.5 months, £11k less than list price. :-)

Nasqueron

molerat wrote: »

My "used" car had 8 miles on the clock when I picked it up at 7 weeks old. £2K less than the on line dealers wanted for a "new" one.

Always nice to get a bargain, as I said, the ex-demo I looked at had a few thousand on it and had been used and that was a 64 plate (bought in 2014) and it was about 4-5k less than a new one and I got to choose the exact spec, colour and so on that I wanted with a 0% finance package

Ectophile

Iceweasel wrote: »

I suspect (hope) that Ectophile was playing the devil's advocate a bit in that post.

I saw the examples as being food for thought more than committed personal opinion.

Perhaps I didn't word that particularly well. The point was that everybody thinks that they are being over-taxed, when it should be someone else who should be taxed instead.

Strider590

VED always was a "stealth" tax on social class aspirations for the aspiring British middle class. But years ago they made a c**kup by assuming that all expensive/big cars would produce most emissions.

WellKnownSid

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

And - I'm no electrical engineer - but I'd wager that there is more energy wasted in electric vehicles than internal combustion. Internal combustion, you're burning the fuel where it's needed - it's a straight conversion of chemical energy into kinetic and heat energy. OK, the heat energy is essentially wasted. But for electricity, there will be losses at each stage, from the generation, distribution, storage ( charging the batteries ), conversion to kinetic energy .... I wouldn't know how to do the sums, but it would be interesting to see how an average medium-sized petrol or diesel engine compares to an electric engine in real terms, when all factors are taken into account.

Then you'd wager wrong.

Broadly speaking an electric vehicle in the UK has similar overall emissions to a top end hybrid design i.e. quite a bit better than a standard diesel or petrol.

If it were operating in France, then emissions would be significantly improved - much closer to being zero emissions.

If you were driving in India, then it would be broadly similar to a standard IC engined vehicle.

What's clever is that every day you drive your electric vehicle - taking all factors into account - it produces slightly less emissions each time, and potentially a lot less between the time you bought the car and the time you sell it on. If you invest in a small (and it wouldn't have to be huge) wind turbine in your back garden - then that figure can only improve.

You can't say the same about an IC engined vehicle.

So you can see why electric vehicles should only be encouraged.

almillar

Ebe Scrooge

free at the point of use, but it ain't free.

Maybe 'zero emmisions from this car right here right now but there may be emmisions from a power plant sonewhere if there isn't enough renewable energy at the time' is too long a badge to put on the back of a car? If a car is charged at an Ecotricity charger, it IS zero emmision. If a user has solar panels, and charges at the right time, it IS zero emmission.

And - I'm no electrical engineer - but I'd wager that there is more energy wasted in electric vehicles than internal combustion. Internal combustion, you're burning the fuel where it's needed

Too right you're not (me neither). Electrical motors are about 80% efficient I think, diesel and petrols struggle to 40%. Think about all the electric motors in your life. Would little internal combustion engines be more efficient?!
Doing the burning in a power plant, if there's no renewable energy, is more efficient than the typical engine.

it's a straight conversion of chemical energy into kinetic and heat energy

So is electric. Chemical reaction in the battery produces a charge, apply power to magnets, rotor moves. That's 'straighter' than causing lots of explosions under the bonnet!

generation, distribution, storage ( charging the batteries ), conversion to kinetic energy ....

Please tell me where diesel and petrol comes from. Hint - 'the pump' is the wrong answer.