£35 Road Tax Cars?

Francophile

Jaime-V wrote: »

Maybe better getting a diesel car? Are they much more expensive to run than petrol?

TIA

No, as far as I know they are a bit more expensive to buy but cheaper to run. Your tank of fuel lasts much longer than a petrol one does.

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Been looking at car stuff recently and found this - certainly something to be aware of:

"New road tax bands – due to come into force in March 2009 – will make the road tax system more confusing and penalise a number of small cars – including family favourites such as the Volkswagen Polo, Ford Ka, Skoda Fabia, SEAT Ibiza, Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra.
Cars that fall between 180 g/km CO2 and 185 g/km are currently at the top of Band E – but under next year’s banding, these cars will jump to Band J. That means a leap from £170.00 to £260.00, with a further rise in 2010 - a shock to current owners and anyone who buying one in the next year."

Parkers also have a handy tax checker here showing the changes for the next couple of years.

steveymp

Looks like I'm after a clio diesel then for my next car;)

Have a Family sized car at present but find myself mainly town driving:eek: and its just eating the petrol:eek: and tax will be £170 this year and going up over the next 2 years:eek:

ozvaldinho

Skoda Fabia estate? Cheap, reliable £35 tax, lots of boot space £10k list price.

steveymp

Oh found a better 1;)

Skoda Fabia Hatchback (07 on)
1.4 TDI PD (80) GreenLine 5d

£35 for car tax this year and £20 from 2009 on wards, and before you start laughing, Skoda's are Volkwagons now;)

Just look at all the new police cars and fast response Paramedic Ambulance's they are all Skoda's now:T :T :T :T



EDIT: Snap ozvaldinho, Great minds think alike

PandaPants_2

My OH has a Peugeot 308 Sport, its £35 tax and looks great. Lots of room in the front and back (not that i'd know... ) and there's a good sized boot too. Think there's an offer on them at the moment, but a standard and get upgraded to the sport for free....

almillar

Here's a good website that shows you the bands that new cars fall into - you can see that a Polo BlueMotion or a Seat Ibiza can be had and £0 tax paid. Expect more manufacturers to follow...
http://www.dft.gov.uk/ActOnCO2/index.php?q=best_on_co2_rankings
(select 'All' for Class and click submit)
Also, from a car buying point of view, the Aygo/C1/107 is all the same car, built in the same factory. The Toyota will hold it's value best because of the badge on it, so it's the best choice, depending on looks and the deal you get, and equipment. The Megane mentioned above is the best/biggest car for it's CO2 output (I'll ignore the pricey Prius), followed by the Fabia estate - it's a small car with a big boot.
Alan

suki1964

Jaime-V wrote: »

Maybe better getting a diesel car? Are they much more expensive to run than petrol?

TIA

Not unless you are going to be driving 20k a year. The diesel engine will put a couple of grand on the price of the car so you need to be doing the big mileage to recoup the extra cost

Jaime-V

Nah H would only be doing around 8k! a year. we used to do more but we had to get a 2nd car as his shifts were so ackward to get him to work and collect.

Neither of us can use public transport to work either which is a pain! as i would rather get a train or bus tbh, sitting in traffic everyday drives me insane.

Thanks for all the replies

trcooke

On the subject of whether Diesel cars are cheaper to run that petrol ones I agree with suki1964 who says that you have to drive a lot of miles to realise any real saving in terms of fuel against the extra cost of purchasing the car.

Another consideration should be the types of journey you will be doing on a daily basis. A diesel car only really becomes economical with its fuel once it's warmed up so for the first handful of miles it's no more economical than a petrol car, perhaps even less so. Only on long journeys will you reap the benefits of the diesel car. I have a Vauxhall Astra 2.0 DTI and on a long journey can achieve nearly 60mpg on average but just poking about town the fuel just seems to run out of it. It also costs £135 a year to tax.

Perhaps the smaller diesel cars are better on short journeys that this but if you're only doing short journeys and not many miles over the year then perhaps the licence tax saving will outweigh the extra cost of fuel in a petrol car in a higher tax bracket.

Lastly, I believe that the best money saving tip would be to not buy a brand new car. You can save literally thousands by buying a car as little as 6 months old. My Astra was £13,500 off the forecourt but it easily dropped about £3,000 in value within the first 6 months but was essentially still a brand new car. I'll never buy a brand new car again unless the money just didn't matter (bring on that day!).


Hope that helps.