Rumours suggest tomorrow’s budget will see fuel prices increase by 2p per litre - although the price raise is expected to be delayed until later in the year.
Chancellor Alistair Darling is also believed to be considering a £1,000 tax charge on the most polluting cars that drivers will have to pay in the first year of ownership.
What do you expect from the 2008 budget?
Auto Trader Blog RSS Feed
29 Comments
March 11, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Booze! He will add a bit more tax all in the name of cleaning up the streets.
March 11, 2008 at 1:36 pm
A captive audience, the motorist is there to get fleeced at all aspects for making a choice in transportation. If the state really had any commitment to improving transport, rail, buses and taxis or car rental for sharing would be redesigned, affordable, available decent transport. Individual ownership is an uneconomic use of a car.
As for the dread 4×4 in an urban environment on the school run or blocking the supermarket/ hairdressers etc, car park. Therapy for the drivers: if you are not a 6ft+ 15 stone+ bloke or a farmer you don’t need one. Middle class urban couples moaning about being unable to open the doors on the SUV because the parking space is too small need help with reality. Yes that is right the car IS too big, (like the ego of the purchaser.) But aren’t they game on for Mr Darling, he needs their money, because clearly they do not.
March 11, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Sounds like ‘Climate Change’ is giving the Government the perfect excuse to fleece motorists.
As for the road tax, it needs to be modified to account for how many miles the vehicles is driven instead of charging a fixed amount, otherwise the charge makes no sense - which I’m sure our greedy Government realise.
March 11, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Our Country contributes less than 2% of the world’s total pollution (that’s not just cars that is everything including industry) …..To think that we can make a huge impact on the pollution output by banning large cars such as 4×4’s is farcical…and why is it that at every turn it is the poor brow beaten British public that pick up the price tag. I thought we were supposed to be a free democratic country, however I find myself been told that I must pay tax out of my wages, tax on the fuel I need that powers my car that takes me to work, then I must pay more tax to keep my car on the road as well as all of the other taxes i pay, TAX TAX TAX TAX…I’m sick of it…where does all this money go? We must be the richest country in the world! Climate change has gone on since the earth was formed, we can’t change that fact. The earth is eons old and we have lived on the face of it for a minute fraction of its existence, we have only had industry / technology in the past 100 or so years, to think that we have changed the earths climate via our actions in this blink of an eye timescale of the earths life cycle is pure laughable!! I am all for keeping the world clean, I dont litter, i try to recycle what i can, but please…climate change, global warming i put it up there with fairies and the easter bunny ….pure fiction.
March 11, 2008 at 4:23 pm
JOKE!!!!!!!! THE COUNTRY IS A MESS……
THEY ALWAYS CHOOSE MOTORISTS……
NONE OF THEM DRIVE AROUND IN THE GREENER CAR….. SO WHY SHOULD WE……
THEY SHOULD HAVE A LOOK AT WHATS REALLY HITTING THERE BUDGET…..
ALSO THERE HAS BEEN NO REAL ROAD WORKS AROUND WHERE I LIVE SO WHATS MY TAX PAYING FOR!!!!! HIS AND HIS FRIENDS POINTLESS WAGE AND THE BULLET PROOF RANGE ROVER HE TOBBIES ABOUT IN…..
March 11, 2008 at 4:32 pm
This country has been a joke for a very long time. For me, high taxes means very little and DOES not deter me. Yes I have a 4×4, yes I have numerous sports cars and yes I care less about the latest jargon…’Climate change’; ‘Global warming’ etc.
This country can raise taxes all it likes, I just bill my clients for more to cover my cost and more just for the hell of it. Works a treat…!
I love the chancellor - he has given me the best excuse to raise my prices without my clients objecting…fab!
Guess who picks up the extra tab? YEP, YOU MR CUSTOMER. Well done chancellor…good economic policy…I love it!
March 11, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Yet again it the easy target motorist who has to pay up the most. If i could do my commute on public transport then i would. It costs me 6 time more than it does to drive (360 mile round trip) But look at the bigger picture, fuel & tax goes up, then will have to be food ect to cover the delivery costs, its just a vicious circle. We should look at what the Gvmt pay out to other countries & hand out to the scrounger of this counrty before fleecing Joe public again!
All the time the Gvmt vote for their own pay raise & also claim unbelevable amount in expences, whist being driven around in the biggest poluting cars in the country. Its one rule for them, everyone else can suffer!!!
March 11, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I don’t agree with these CO2 based taxes but why are they only for the first year on the high polluters?
If you’re forking out 50k plus for a car then you’re not going to give a monkeys that it’ll cost a grand to tax for the first year before falling to a couple of hundred.
March 11, 2008 at 9:18 pm
On one side the government is fighting hard to restrict the pay of public sector workers, argueing that it’s required to halt inflation …….
Whilst on the other hand announcing that fuel is going up AGAIN! How many times has it been this year? I’ve lost count. Fuel costs filter down into every aspect of life and every price out there so how can they get away with this ridiculous contridiction? Oh but of course it’s all in the name of a ‘green and happy future’
March 11, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Boring! ~ He taxes, we kick up fuss……and then we pay out. And until we can’t pay / won’t pay (not really an option) he will continue to tax, we will kick up more fuss and keep on paying. Ho Hum. Such is life and there’s not a lot we can do about it. I just hope the oil actually runs out real soon, then things might actually change for the better for this small ovecrowded, attitude-behind-the-wheel, little country of ours. Keep smilin’
March 12, 2008 at 11:12 am
Only 15% of our road taxes etc gets reinvested back into our roads even though 90%+ of the population use the road. 30% is funnelled into the rail network which less than 10% of the population use.
As for higher taxes on large polluters I’m all for it but there should be some levey on large vehicles. The roads are bad enough already without the mums on the school run in what seems like armored 4×4’s which are roads lets face it aren’t really designed to accomodate.
There needs to be a balance in fair reinvestment and imporvements in our road network and an incentive or state run scheme to get kids to school taking these school run convoys off the roads.
During the holidays when the kids are off and the school run isn’t my commute down the m6 seems 50% less busy. The solution seems simple to me.
March 12, 2008 at 2:48 pm
If they are going to start charging extra tax on gaz guzzlers and (in the near future I am positive) slap the other 2p duty on fuel to drive up the price of owning and running a car, then are they also going to offer those who car share a tax rebate, or possibly subsidise the massive cost of commuting by rail or bus. A 3 mile/5-10 min journey by bus from my house to the centre of town costs £2.70 return (which will also be driven up by the increasing costs) or I can do it by car and park for free which works out, if I do the entire journey in first gear, at £1.00, with others in the car as I tend to do it even less…
So which should option should I select?
March 12, 2008 at 2:49 pm
The budget has been announced - read the news for car owners and have your say.
March 12, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I am disgusted with the fuel rise, its not fair when i do short journeys round town. Bring them back down to 99p per litre.
March 12, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I,m a disabled person who has to have a car as i can’t use public transport and i,m sick to death of the goverment taxing petrol as a LUXURY ITEM !! who dosen’t use some form of petrol !! or petrolium based product cars must be made greener it,s the car producers WHO CAN DO THIS the goverment should pressure them NOT US !!!
March 12, 2008 at 5:09 pm
We should revolt big time. We have highest fuel prices in the world, the worst congestion charging scheme possible, now exorbitant road tax and the promise of road pricing so ordinary people will not be able to drive anywhere.
Leave now- in france there is NO Road Tax, NO congestion charging and diesel is 90p a litre.
March 12, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Thats how you press the self distruct button. All labour mp’s are aware of this and Brown and the labour party know they won’t be in power for much longer. This is the final nail in labours coffin.
March 12, 2008 at 9:49 pm
This budget will have little effect on fighting climate change and is yet another LAbour revenue raising exercise. I just wish they would stop lying about it. I use my car as little as possible, recycle everything possible and don ‘t fly. Result After a life time of hardwork, what is left of mys savings is gradually being taken from me. At the current rate of price/Tax increases and the current rate of increase of my pension income, I expect to be insolvent in, at most, three years. LAbour have lived fully up to my expectations of them They have never been any different since the 1940’s yet people still vote for them, the fools.
March 12, 2008 at 10:17 pm
dave if spot on it sould be done on how many miles you drive as i pay band g which is now £400 a year but in the two years i have owned the car i have driven 4000 miles the goverment could do this but it would make less money and they know it as we are all mugs and have to pay it and thats what they are doing its not about co’2 thats just a nice little cover up for them to use to take us to make money.
March 14, 2008 at 12:26 am
good old labour ,
tax the motorist as usual
put a meter on our head for breathing
you might as well.
ask the americans to buy a small
car to help with the emissions,
they will laugh at you as usual
its a story to rape the good people of Britain
as usual.
March 14, 2008 at 3:12 am
Yes I have a band g car, and will have to pay the £400 tax. I resent this in itself as it is a poor excuse to make money once again out of us brits. But what really gets me is if I have to pay it then leave me alone, with my choice of car. It is not an ego trip it’s what I like. We have no children so me and my husband use less electricity, water and create only half a bag of rubbish a week as we recycle everything else, I re use my carrier bags every week. I also only do 4000 miles a year so probably polute a lot less than lower emission cars doing all their small run around journeys. I try to get the bus but am charged £5.50 return to the next village 4 miles away, I get wet and cold when it’s delayed and have to walk with heavy shopping back. I also cycle but end up very hot or wet and bedraggled at my destination, and cannot manage much shopping. This country makes up for only around 2% of world pollution, I have just been to thailand and the pollution spilling out of there was discusting. It is the same in China, India, USA etc. how small are we compared to these. Nature will cause natural changes and disasters in the world as it has been for millions of years, taking a extra £100 from me will not stop this, so it is just an excuse. If it’s as bad as the government makes out then use a different fuel as we know they are out there. At least my car is looked after and serviced every year to keep it as clean as possible and muck doesnt poor out like on some of the cheap small cars where one knock of the exhaust has put a hole in it. If the government is compelled to take this money from me be honest as to why and maybe send it to a good cause. Role on the next election.
March 14, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I think there is a simple solution to this problem. I would scrap road tax all together and just make fuel a bit more expensive. This means that the more people drive then the more they pay. I might drive a huge gas guzzling car for 3,000 miles a year which would be far less polluting than someone who drives a small car for 30,000 miles a year. also the more you use the road, the more you would be paying for repairing the roads! It makes so much sense. You would also be removing the overhead costs of the current tax disc system. Nobody would be able to dodge paying the tax, and it would also mean foreign drivers would be paying tax for using our roads.
March 15, 2008 at 12:15 pm
This is just a stealth tax. Makes labour look green (to the blind) and hits just about every driver who doesn’t own a Prius. If they were really trying to be green the money made from this scam would be poured back into public transportation, but we all know it wont it’ll be for the new 2nd house allowance so they can get plasma’s in. As always the working men and women with family’s get hit. Also Alcohol increase’s?!?! yes this will stop bing drinking won’t it.
Im off to look for flights to Australia where my skills will be appreciated.
March 15, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I own a 4×4 solely because I tow a large caravan, and it is always recommended that the caravan should weigh less than 85% of the towcar’s unladen weight. There arent many cars that weigh 2000kg so my choice is limited. Does this therefore spell the death knell for the british caravan makers larger models, and more likely cause an increase in caravan accidents caused by the wrong towcars being used. The termology of gas guzzlers too causes offence and my 4×4 does 32 mpg when many more powerful cars do far less.
March 17, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I wonder if Mr Darling has ever wondered how the end of the last ice age came about in the absence of Range Rovers? Probaly not actually… because the stupid labour government have made such a cock-up of running this country that they need to steal more money than ever of us.
March 18, 2008 at 8:56 pm
In 2029 we are due an asteroid impact (or near miss) making a mokery of climate change so why worry!!
In the meanwhile lets try and convince the major polluters to change their ways–some hope.
What charging a few 4×4 owners a few quid is going to do for global warming is anyones guess.
Oh I forgot its all about MONEY !!
March 23, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Why do we bother with road tax anyway? Would’nt it make sense to scrap the antiquated road tax system in favour of raising the money through additional fuel duty? That way we would, firstly - save having to pay the salaries (not to mention the gold-plated pensions) for thousands of DVLA staff in Swansea, and, secondly achieve the oft-stated goal of making the worst ‘polluters pay’; either because they drive the worst gas-guzzlers and/or they do the most mileage. That would surely be fairer, cheaper and simpler.
But there again I suppose it would be far too simple an idea for mere MP’s to grasp!
June 2, 2008 at 11:06 am
i think its all down to greed greed greed its all wrong they use the planet as an excuse what happened in the ice age did the animals f*rt to much,why dont they come down a cog,they should put it on fuel not on car tax as im not aloan with a car sitting in a lockup or on a road somewhere not being used because of work like mine running a pub opening in the afternoon and again at night,and theres old age pensioners that dont drive much its totally unfair i could go on but its a wast of time
July 10, 2008 at 11:55 pm
How can they possibly say “It’s for the environmental reasons”!!! How stupid do they think we are?!? We all know that its just a great little cover up story for them which makes them feel that its ok to TOTALLY RIP US MOTORISTS OFF, and be left over with no money to spend on what we actually want to! It seems to me you are fine if; either you earn the same salery as Bill Gates. Or if you scrounge and live off the government! As they seem to give you everthing they possibly can for free! The rest of us may as well forget it!!! Either screw us on Road tax, fuel tax or showroom tax, but puh-lease not on EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! This country is a joke, and a laughing stock to the motorists of all other countries in the EU, possibly the World! Sort it out Brown! Or just do us all a favour and GET OUT!
Leave a Reply