Phew that was close - budget guzzlers!

does anyone know the actual answer to this?

I imagine its the amount of power it makes at full pelt, and then how much CO2 it produces, which should also drop MPG if blasting it, the 1.2 Skoda I imagine will never have that option, unless of course tuned

but if you have a load to carry, like pog suggested with the rangeys or if you have loads kids and need a minibus (cheaper to run two cars? ) , or even you don't use the powerful car at full pelt very often, and likely, its not all totally fair.


(Apparently Brown's income tax favour isnt exactly beneficial to low-meduim incomes either)

According to two of the papers lower income families will be £500 better off a year?

I know JS is in the accountancy trade but the rest of us are all just taking this on thord party trust really.

I heard an interesting porgramme about how the problem with politics is a lack of trust. People have become so very cynical with politicans that we don't believe them even when they tell the truth...

What is for sure is that since 1990 the proportion of the wealth of the nation which is owned by the 1% of richest people has increased...

However the number of people living in poverty has been significantly reduced.

Both statements are true and come from independant sources.

which matters most?

Forget headlines and soundbites. You need to know whats behind the ews and to have a political position based on it.

However most people's political positin seems to be to moan about whatver trhe government is doing, regardless which government it is and what it is they do. The government on the other hand makes policy based on what people moan about just to shut them up in the short term.

My concern is the lack of long term strategic goals in British politics - either in terms of the parties or the people...

Also published yesterday buyt largely ignored - was the report on local government funding - ie the revisions proposed to the council tax. Anyone even spare this a thought? Guess what the really key elements such as teh full revaluation of housing stock in England and Scotland has been punted into the long grass because its too close to an election to think about that now... FFS.

Interesting all round really.

We are gonna be £10 a year worse off from the increase in road tax (2 cars in the 'upper band' for pre 2001 cars), but that is more than offset by the changes in income tax - both in the short and medium terms. For now the reduced rate is in my favour (I earn more than the 'threshold' for diminishing returns as indicated by JohnnySierra there), plus the boundary for the 40% tax bracket moving up is a good thing for me too - planned career trajectory sees me in that region in the next few years.

If they hadn't totally f*cked up this whole 'road pricing' issue by devising such a draconian, big-brother method of monitoring and collecting revenue there is real merit for folks like us in that scheme. Better than paying £180 a year road tax on a car i use once a week anyway!

Seems like we will have to play that one by ear. But I have my suspicions our next 'everyday' car will be a 1.4tdci fiesta £35 road tax? Please!!!

As for the issue of re-introducing 'rolling 25 year exemption', it won't happen. One reason for this is the comparison between what is currently 'historic' and what could be classed as 'historic' if it were re-instated.
Imagine doing 20,000 miles a year in some sixties crock. Feasable, but not wholly relaxing or economical. But I'll wager a 1982 Honda Accord would gobble up 20k per annum with minimum fuss. No government is going to actively promote a scheme whereby THAT happens.

They make it complicated on purpose to trick us and genarate loads of office hours, i'm sure!

keeping an eye on the wage slip, when it comes in i'll check the bottom right corner...

this isnt even that OT either, we're gonna get clobered one way or another, kinda relative.

Totally agree - I think they're relying on peoples' attitudes towards the drivers of 4x4s to make the tax seem more acceptable.... regardless of how environmentally damaging the vehicle actually is.

Yes i agree, making cars general evil too isnt best either. how annoyed i get when some massive MP3 or Big rimmed off roader clogs up traffic with a dangerous other half at the wheel. or an ego maniac goes where they want when they want in their big lumbering things. However freedom of choice I say, everytime, what we need is a few more police keeping an eye out for dangerous drivers on the roads.

This is exactly what they are doing. Their rhetoric is purely that of envy & class warfare. By telling everyone that these measures are purely anti luxury car / expensive sports car / 4x4, they get popular support from ordinary people who don't realise / forget that their PT Cruiser, Mondeo or Espace etc etc is also in tax band G, and that they too will have their wallets raped.

That's what I thought too. In fact, I was strongly under the impression that the age of the vehicle made no difference, & that there was a direct correlation between CO2 emissions & mpg

Interesting reading, this CO2 thing. Now I'm no organic chemist, but surely the mpg must be at least a factor in the CO2 figure. If not, then that Fabia must be chucking all sorts of sh1t out the exhaust. Now I know it's got a cat, but so's my PT, and with the bigger engine, it must heat the cat more and make it more effective?