ChatterBank1 min ago
Road Tax on 4x4s
�40odd extra quid. Pah! Make it �1,000 a year for anybody who is not a farmer or who does not need it for work.
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No best answer has yet been selected by flip-flop. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Lots of people have lots of things they do not need. They have them because they are available, legal and they want them. For exactly the same reasons I happen to drive one of the smallest, fuel and emission-efficient cars available. I do this because I choose to - not because anybody has told me I "should".
I also happen to own a vintage bus which I do not �need�. Nobody really �needs� a car which can travel at more than 70mph. Nobody �needs� to use a car to travel for pleasure. If we start to impose taxes on things purely on the basis that they are not necessary we really have regressed further than I thought.
I don't see what the fuss is about just because the engine can transmit the drive to four wheels rather than two. There are advantages to this that some people use but most don't but still it makes no difference to the efficient running of a car, which is what should be the issue.
The myth is that all 4 x 4's are inefficient, same can be said for trucks. For example I have a large caravan but it seems perfectly aceptable for me to use a gas guzzling car at 20 mpg to tow it when in fact my Landrover is far more suited to the task, no bigger and more economical at 30 mpg, were is your logic?
Exactly, pugwash52. The band G diesel 4x4 parked outside the owner's house and only driven to church and back on Sunday pays �215. The band B car (I�ll ignore Band A as the category is merely specious) driven 30,000 miles a year and thus depositing over 5 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in the process, pays �40.
Encouraging people to own cars producing less pollution is useless unless it is accompanied by a strategy to encourage them to drive less as well. This recent announcement is simply spin aimed at promoting the �green� credentials of this government.
If it was truly devoted to reducing pollution it would place all the extra burden on fuel prices. Those consuming (and hence polluting) the most, pay the most. This might, however, not be too popular. As I said in my first post, people do these things because they want to.
flip-flop�s original point implied that people should be penalised through the tax system for owning or using things they do not need. Almost everybody does this to a greater or lesser degree. In a (supposedly) democratic society it is not a sound basis for taxation.
You obviously can't afford a 4 x 4 flip-flop. I can, but I also pay a lot more towards combating environmental issues than most. I own a waste transfer station and recycle thousands of tonnes of waste evry year.
mdoo98 - most farmers need 4 x 4s as they are one of the few groups of people who use them for the purpose for which they were designed - crossing muddy fields and other rough terrain. I have an aquaintance who lives in rural Scotland, and with the recent snow, if she had not had her 4 x 4, she would have been unable to get food to her animals.
I have to admit to 4 x 4 jealousy - I would love one, and hope to aquire one in the next few years, and to be honest by the time I can afford one an extra �40 tax isn't going to hurt. I do have valid reasons for wanting one - firstly my job can involve driving round in quarries and fields, and secondly my hobby is working with heavy horses, which also involves driving "off-road" to get on to show sites. I really do get annoyed at people who just have a 4 x 4 for the status and never used them for what they are designed for, but if they can afford it, that's their business and I'm just jealous!
firstly ,i hate the big road hogging things,i wouldn't have one given to me.also theyre a nightmare in car parks. and it does seem theyre only used by mums to pick up kids from school. however,the 40 quid rise is just nowt to do with environmental issues.its just another stealth tax for gordon brown.these gas guzzling owners could argue that they already pay higher because they have to put more fuel in the car,resulting in more tax for brown.finally 40 quid is not goin to put a dent in the pockets of people who drive them because they obviously can afford to run them. don.t want them on the road?,then don.t sell them. simple.
I work for a dealer that sells one of the most respected makes of 4x4's and think people need to get their facts straight.
At the moment everyone just assumes that if its a 4x4, it must pollute the atmosphere more.
Have a look at the C02 emissions of cars like the Mini Cooper S, Mazda RX8 and Audi A4 Convertables and then compare them to some 4x4's figures - You will be surprised!!!!
Will there then be calls to ban Mini's Mazda's and Audi convertables from Town centres???? I'm not going to hold my breath!
WHY should someone living in the city be driving a 4x4 (chelsea tractor) what good is a 4x4 for them unless they want to pull a large caravan
As SARAH KENNEDY said on her radio 2 morning progamme the other day she drove along a road where 4x4's were parked either sde of the road she just managed to get her vw beetle through the space left n the middle of the road. If she just made it through what would happen with a fire engine they would have no chance of getting through without doing damage