Taxing the Way to Fuel Efficiency in the UK

Considering how much a large gas guzzling 4x4 vehicle costs another £45 car tax is not exactly going to make an impact.

The car pictured is actully tax exempt as a classic vehicle. It's a 101" Land Rover forward control build for the military in the 60's. It also has a 2 and a quarter litre diesel engine and modern engines of that size will probably be clean enough to also aviod the tax rise.

The rise mostly effects Range Rover V8's, Hummers (which are the most impractical vehicle ever on old European roads) and other american imports along with Bentleys and Rolls Royces.

However what £25-£40 pound means to the owner of a car costing at least £60000 is anybodies guess.

LA Yes, but it would turn heads in Chelsea.

Hey you guys in the US, do not get excited over this one. Europe sucks with its high taxation of everything. They always claim it is supposed to be enviro-friendly but its is just aimed at draining citizens pockets. I hate cars in Europe, they are small, plastic, very expensive and slow. It is all the results of many years of such stupidity as the one described in this article.
Do not dream of having to pay for any car you imagine at least 200% of what it costs in the US. If you support this stupid taxijng of everything you will see for yourselves what it is like to buy a new car for twice or three times of what you pay now. So shut up!

Jarek, I think it's called "true cost". Just because we can things ridiculously cheap here in the US and Canada (I'm Canuck), doesn't mean it's right! Granted, more money in the politicians pockets isn't so good either, but if it keeps consumption down to sane levels, all the better (and technically, some of that extra cash in the coffers will get sent to hospitals, scientific budgets, etc...better than being burned in one of those huge tanks engines :) ).

I can see your point OverMatt but you do not know the reality of EU then. That phenomenon that is driving me nuts, and is reflected by this kind of policy presented here, is extending to all spheres of life.
I am talking about the ferocity of EU governments in regulating every tiny aspect of our lives. I live in Poland, a new EU member, a country which made a mistake joining EU (we should have joined NAFTA).
This is not about progress, new technologies available to everyone, supporting research and not disturbing people with initiative who want to coin in on new, "cleaner" technologies. It is about draining more money which can later be alloted, in part, to those noble tasks but on the way operational costs eat large part of it.
We, the citizens, are perceived as some stupid mass who is unable to ensure safe retirement to ourselves, unable to lay off money for the future and unable to make smart choices that will be both good for ourselves and the society as a whole.
This "regulating everything" frenzy is taking place in Europe and it is making us lag behind the US and soon China.
On the other hand governments are very happy with highly taxed "toxic" products because they generate a lot of income. They do not want to remove them or make people use an alternative. They just want to, supposedly fighting for the right cause, drain more money. I am talking about tax on cigarettes, alcohol, gas. E.g. 75 % of price tag in Poland in gasoline is taxes, the same applies to alcohol. The oil industry and distributors here are great players and the governments will not harm their position.
When you research argument popped up I felt I need to tell you this: EU aims at spendiing 3& of GDP on research. None of EU coutries does that (except Finland and Sweden), Poland spends 0.3% of their GDP on research and yet we have one of the highest taxations on everything in the world. Where is that money on research and healthcare? I am a doctor here and my base salary is 300 USD a month. Prices of cars are even higher than in other EU countries e.g. Nissan Murano, Ford Mustang, Toyota Prius are 2-3 times of what they cost in the US.
What is wrong with consumption and free market? We do not have it here and maybe that is the reason why most of my friends (and me too soon) are packing up and leaving this "regulated" promised land.

Hi again Jarek :)

Wow, long (and very well written, I might add) reply! While I have dual citizenship (Welsh, in the UK...but I've lived pretty much all my life in Canada...was only in the UK a short while, so I can claim I've seen both sides). On the subject of consumption and what's wrong with it, I think our melting icecaps pretty sum up any answer better than I could ;) ! Can we really have five billion people with the quality of life that Americans have? Of course not....at least, not following the way the Americans have gotten there. I'm sure you've tried the same "How many Earths would it take to sustain your lifestyle?" tests that I have (Canada is sadly not much better than the Americans, though at least we don't stick our head in the sand quite as much as they do...). Certainly I agree the politicans are going too far, and that their hearts aren't in the right place (as you allude, it isn't for saving the environment or even into research...it's mostly just burned as bureaucratic friction). But I hold to my original thought; anything that keeps consumption in check is a good thing. And if all those extra taxes stops Poland from being sunk so far into debt you have to look straight up to see the horizon, like the Americans, even better.

Having plenty, suprisingly, can be a curse. Funny enough, there's trouble in paradise...all the cheap stuff we can buy here is made elsewhere (our workers are too expensive to support those low prices!), so for the short term, it looks nice. Long term, all our factories leave, and with them, the jobs...and then nobody can afford these toys, however cheap they are (save for the rich folk doing the outsourcing :) !). A lot of the engineering style jobs are, funny enough, headed straight over to Eastern Europe (you're all well educated, and the going rate is much less). Who knows what the answer is, I suppose. But certainly I agree that politicians are bad :) :) ! (Canada is also a very highly taxed country; similar to your discussion, our gas is mostly government tax, which is meant to be spent on roads, but probably gets lost in our somewhat corrupt government here :