Chuffy
Veteran
Thank Maggot, not me. I was the bloke who couldn't find the info....marinyork said:What a fascinating thread, thanks Chuffy. I found the stuff on what tax was from 1921 to just after the war particularly interesting.
Thank Maggot, not me. I was the bloke who couldn't find the info....marinyork said:What a fascinating thread, thanks Chuffy. I found the stuff on what tax was from 1921 to just after the war particularly interesting.
Ben Lovejoy said:Same answer as Jasper, and same car, as it happens.
It's actually an extremely efficient car. The supercharger means that it is able to extract a lot of usable power from a relatively modest engine, and it does a decent mileage even when you use that performance.
I don't do a massive annual mileage, but when I am driving on business the days are long and I will often cover a lot of miles in a day. I need a car that allows me to drive 150 miles, do my work then drive 150 miles home again and still be safe and alert while I do it. A small, underpowered car will never meet that spec.
There is a limit to how much the government can increase road tax and remain electable. Within those limits, nothing they do will make me choose a less suitable car.
Ben
But are they economical to run at motorway speeds? I drive, on average, 1000+ miles/week mostly on motorways. Small cars struggled in this area in the past, not sure what modern ones are like.User482 said:The latest ranges of smaller cars are actually extremely comfortable, I think you'd be surprised.
We get over 65mpg out of our diesel Punto on long motorway runs. Depends on your attitude to speed and acceleration really.jasper said:But are they economical to run at motorway speeds? I drive, on average, 1000+ miles/week mostly on motorways. Small cars struggled in this area in the past, not sure what modern ones are like.
Chuffy said:We get over 65mpg out of our diesel Punto on long motorway runs. Depends on your attitude to speed and acceleration really.
jasper said:But are they economical to run at motorway speeds? I drive, on average, 1000+ miles/week mostly on motorways. Small cars struggled in this area in the past, not sure what modern ones are like.
I think you might be surprised just how many cars I've driven. :-) I frequently hire cars when travelling on business, and get to drive a lot of very new cars (most rental companies sell them at 14k miles, which is around six months old[1]). So I've driven new Fords, VWs, Fiats, Audis, BMWs ... all sorts of things.User482 said:The latest ranges of smaller cars are actually extremely comfortable, I think you'd be surprised.
You seem to have completely misread my answer: I was advising that such rises would not change my choice of car. The level of change required to do that would be such that you'd be pricing many families off the road altogether. I don't think any government is quite that stupid.Anyway, thanks for answering the Q. It does seem to tally with research that suggests only sharp and sudden rises have any effect on behaviour
Ben Lovejoy said:I think you might be surprised just how many cars I've driven. :-) I frequently hire cars when travelling on business, and get to drive a lot of very new cars (most rental companies sell them at 14k miles, which is around six months old[1]). So I've driven new Fords, VWs, Fiats, Audis, BMWs ... all sorts of things.
I agree that today's small hatchbacks are quieter and more comfortable than they have been in the past, but if you think there is any comparison at all with a Merc or a Jag, then you clearly haven't driven one for a few hundred miles.
You seem to have completely misread my answer: I was advising that such rises would not change my choice of car. The level of change required to do that would be such that you'd be pricing many families off the road altogether. I don't think any government is quite that stupid.
Ben
[1] A little-known fact is that car rental companies effectively pay nothing for the cars themselves. They buy in volume at huge discounts (40% discount is not unusual) and then sell them at around 14k miles as low-mileage one-owner cars. With that sort of age and mileage, they sell them for the same amount they paid - sometimes for more than they paid.
Which Mercs have you actually driven (not been driven in) over what distances, as a matter of interest? If you haven't noticed any difference in how tired you are after say 300-400 miles in a Fiesta and a Merc, I'm frankly astonished.User482 said:Actually I have driven (and been driven in) Audis, Mercs, BMWs and Jags over considerable distances
I already prefer to travel by rail on journeys that can conveniently be done as point-to-point ones, as I can make use of the time en-route for work or relaxation. (I'm replying to this while sat on a train on the way to a business meeting, for example.) I drive when the journey is too fiddly by rail or I'm visiting 2-3 locations in a day and rail is simply impractical. The price of petrol doesn't come into it.I haven't misread your answer. We were looking at government instruments, whereas the changes in driver behaviour more recently have been due to market forces
Ben Lovejoy said:Which Mercs have you actually driven (not been driven in) over what distances, as a matter of interest? If you haven't noticed any difference in how tired you are after say 300-400 miles in a Fiesta and a Merc, I'm frankly astonished.
I already prefer to travel by rail on journeys that can conveniently be done as point-to-point ones, as I can make use of the time en-route for work or relaxation. (I'm replying to this while sat on a train on the way to a business meeting, for example.) I drive when the journey is too fiddly by rail or I'm visiting 2-3 locations in a day and rail is simply impractical. The price of petrol doesn't come into it.
Ben