Petrol Prices

I agree

I also payed £475! The rules are stupid because they said that the higher rates were because of the higher emissions.

My previous car was the identical model to this one but because it was over 10 years old its tax is only £170. Same model but as it's older it's less efficient and has higher emissions.

 

Sadly the idea is deeply flawed, and at best may only achieve the closure of some forecourts (and there are few enough of those as it is nowadays); no matter where you buy your fuel, all the fuel in your area will come from the same refinery/distribution centre, and a number of these are almost certainly owned by the likes of BP or Shell - in other words, they might not take your cash directly, but they will still get it off the middle man.

I don't really blame the fuel companies for the cost of fuel - I blame the government taxing it at an applied rate of approx 80%; I understand that money has to be raised somewhere to run the country, but to apply it at such a grossly unfair level is just plain wrong. Don't forget, that every time the oil companies increase the cost per litre, the amount of revenue the government gets also increases - therefore, they are not likely to intervene and prevent price rises, are they?

 

It doesn't relate to MOT emissions. Each charge is based on arbitrary levels set by the government and relies on the car manufaturers official emission figure for each model (some are tested at random).

The older, less efficient, cars don't come into the charging bands once they get past a certain age!

 

Cars registered before 1 March 2001 have their VED calculated on engine size; cars registered after 1 March 2001 have theirs calculated on the tailpipe emissions (CO2 only) as specified by the manufacturer during type approval.

Somewhat ironically, this does not take into account any modifications to the vehicle (such as ECU remaps etc) which can alter the tailpipe emissions;

The MOT measures the level of CO2, but more importantly is looking at Hydrocarbons (HC, soot) in parts per million (PPM), and Nitrogen oxide (NOX) - there are pass or fail levels set for each of these, with the most common failure being on HC levels, which are a good indicator of how healthy an engine is; an unhappy engine will not burn cleanly and efficiently.

 

Exactly, a car is just a tool, but the Government see's it as a Cash Cow.

 

Apparently, Nissan agree with them

 

I must admit, that I am chuffed with my new on - £125 a year to tax for such a big car is great. That coupled with some of the insurance quotes I am getting this year means that my tax & insurance is roughly £1 a day.