Does road tax influence your purchasing decisions?

[lesapandre]

9 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

In short, YES. 
 

I really want an L322 with the TDv8 engine but they are post 2006 which puts them into the £OMFGHOWMUCH tax band. 
 

now. My current 02 plate disco is £450ish ….. it was about £375 when I bought it. Considering I don’t do huge mileage, why should I pay 800 a year for doing sod all mileage? I actively avoid those expensive tax cars because I don’t want to line the pockets of the incompetent government etc etc. I’d happily pay per mile, swings n roundabouts etc 

I have a car in the OMG tax bracket.  Advantage: makes some nice cars very cheap and available - as has been said few takers.

Budget by tax for just a few good weather months only. Using one all year - yes a bit too pricey.

[catsinthewelder]

Compared to what some people spend on cars its not that much and probably reduces the purchase price by a similar amount but as a massive tightwad I avoid anything in brackets higher than "over 1500cc" and thats getting a bit spendy now.  

I was a bit shocked to tax my temporary 67 plate Focus and find its £195 rather than £35.

[RetroShite]

I'm paying approximately £250 a month on VED. I've never really had anything in the cheap tax bracket apart from the odd historic vehicle.

[straightSix]

If something is intended to be a long-term keeper then I'll avoid the £700 stuff. If it's only going to be with me short term or not used for the full year then, whilst it stings, I will put up with it. Thay said having a daily that cost £20 to tax is very refreshing. Sort of them averages out at £400 each for the two cars

[Pauly.22]

Depends on the car. But the £700 has killed values of loads of stuff. 
 

good if you want a bargain car. But £700 odd a year adds up. 
 

tax would be good if you can pay per day on an App. I don’t use my car everyday so would work out cheaper. 

[colino]

Like most on here, I buy my cars, I don't rent them.  The crazy, recurring extra cost of hypertax will put more cars in the scrappy.

[R Lutz]

The non-car enthusiast won't pay that much road tax for a used car; it's dead money to them. I learned this buying and selling them. You've got to pray you snare a punter with, or at least access to, PIP -either full or partial.. Thats the only way these cars sell in the real world aside from the exotic stuff. 

For me, I begrudge the money. I've currently got 3 cars taxed, all 4x4s.  Now if one of them is £760 or whatever to tax, then that means I've got to earn approximately £1,611.20 to pay the government £760. Does that car give me enough utility and pleasure to off-set what I need to do to earn that kind of money? Thats the rub. 

[Lanciaman]

I've been driving the high tax Outback 3.0s for nigh on 10 years.  I suck it up as I like the cars and they don't go wrong so not fixing every 2 months. 

But as someone else said, it's a sobering thought that those 10 years have cost nearly £8000 adjusted for inflation and using direct debit.   A megane diesel would've cost £20 for those same 10 years given it was zero for around 9 of them? 

Worth it?   Logic says not a chance. 

[N Dentressangle]

6 hours ago, R Lutz said:

The non-car enthusiast won't pay that much road tax for a used car; it's dead money to them. I learned this buying and selling them. You've got to pray you snare a punter with, or at least access to, PIP -either full or partial.. Thats the only way these cars sell in the real world aside from the exotic stuff. 

This is also a problem. Moving on anything that costs much to tax is getting tricky, likewise anything non-CAZ friendly if you live near one of those.

The car tax system is crazy. I'm guessing it's just too much of a political hot potato lose/lose scenario for any government to try and put straight, such is the aversion of British people to paying tax, especially if they don't need to. Given (relatively speaking) how little so many cars cost to tax these days it's not really surprising there's not much in the pot for infrastructure spending.

I wouldn't buy a £700+ tax car. I do few miles and it's just not worth it for me. I don't mind the £400 bracket so much, as that feels more like about what car tax 'should' cost these days anyway. But free historic is the best 😉

[willswitchengage]

PC Mag says VED is going up a lot this year but I can't really seem to find anything on the web that corroborates this other than rates for brand new cars going up slightly and... shock horror... the £0 band being changed to £20. That'll fill the budget black hole

Oh well, looks like I'll still be paying £360 a year for a car that I never use purely because it's old and has a large engine.