Effect of Band G tax rates

[johnmc]

Folks,
I went car shopping with my brother in law this week to provide another pair of eyes on some options for used cars. He's chopping in a Jaguar X-type 2.5 and fancies a Merc or BMW. The dealers we talked too all focused very strongly on the emissions. Commented that "no-one wants big petrol powered cars anymore" and that they are becoming tougher and tougher to sell, especially since the path to £400 a year road tax is established for band G. This alone has wiped £1,500 off the value off many petrol cars. Diesels are now outselling petrol cars.

Has anyone else found problems trying to trade in large capacity cars? My own car is from before the banding, not sure what they'd make of a trade in. Not much I think for a petrol automatic.

Bye!
John

 

[television]

I do not think that anyone John is that bothered when spending £30-50k

 

[Eric Tilley]

I think even fatwads are thinking twice if they live in London. Kenneth the Red is bringing in a £25 a day charge for Band G cars entering the charging zone . Thats £600 a month if you do it Mon-Sat (for everyone except the American Embassy who ignore it ). And it has to be concluded that "G" bashing is just getting on a roll. Richmond Surrey the Council are upping the residents parking charges on these cars by 300%. The trouble as I see it is that the old Biggies will be so unsaleable that they will soon drop in price to the point that they will become the vehicles of the road rabble, those who don`t pay tax have no insurance and bailiffs trying to enforce fines cannot find . This possible upgrading from terminal Ford Fiesta to BMW X5 has worrying implications for all other road users who encounter them being driven with total irresponsible abandonment.

 

[moneyman]

Is he buying new?? Remember Band G only applies to vehicles registered after 26/3/06 IIRC
I have a 03/05 CLK 500 Band F applies

Regards

Steve

 

[Seeker_UK]

Oh it's biting alright and MB are getting very nervous about this, given that as a general rule of thumb, all thei cars bigger than a 200 (ie 1.8l) are band G, costing £400 a year soon to tax with threats of disproportionately high rises (ie compared to other bands) in future and of course, the threat may extend to pre Mar 06 cars in future as the green lobby gets more sway.

Case in point, I went and had a look at a very very lovely clk 500 Avantgarde yesterday.

It was 04, 24k on the clock, silver/black leather and had, parktronic, COMAND, sunroof, ali trim. All in all a pretty good car.

Price? £22k. Seemed a bargain so I got into the 'so how much to buy' discussion, looking at a PCP. Over 3 years, MB work on a guaranteed future value of between 50%-60% (depending on spec etc) of screen price. Based on this the clk was well within my price bracket. What came back caused a bit of a shock and when I did the sums, you were looking at a residual value of about 33% (ie 2/3 depreciataion).

Therefore MBUK not only sell used V8s cheap but don't expect them to hold their values well when historically, it was the V8s that people wanted.

 

[Seeker_UK]

Is he buying new?? Remember Band G only applies to vehicles registered after 26/3/06 IIRC
I have a 03/05 CLK 500 Band F applies

Regards

Steve

I wouldn't bank on that for ever.

If we can have a 1500cc split for VED, look out for more opportunities to **** over the motorist for more cash.

 

[jibcl500]

This is why I stopped breaking Range Rovers, the UK market palce died, the overseas market was still good but not good enough to carry on, typically a good 3.9 or 4.2 would always sell for £500, towards the end I was struggling to get £100 for an engine.
Ive had a 1995 SL500 for sale for the last 4 months, its advertised everywhere and not a sniff for anyone.
I dont think people understand that the higher tax will only affect new cars from a certain date onwards as previoulsy stated, but sadly the average Range Rover owner doesnt know this.

3 x 5.0 engined mercedes and all worthless..........................

jib

 

[Seeker_UK]

I dont think people understand that the higher tax will only affect new cars from a certain date onwards as previoulsy stated, but sadly the average Range Rover owner doesnt know this.

Bring on 'pay as you drive'.

 

[Eric Tilley]

It reminds me that when I was sitting in the MB dealers showroom some months ago. While he ploughed through the nitty gritties of how little he could come up with on trade in for my BeeM for a C class I was looking and contemplating their latest offering across the room : the R Class. The thought went through my mind,
Toyota; Prius.
Honda; Civic Hybrid.
Mercedes Benz; R.Class (Petrol 3.5, 5.0, 6.2 lit).
I could not help wondering if the MB market prediction dpt was suffering an occluded crystal ball. Can any manufacturer totally buck the trend and sell against the pressure from Government, green lobbies and opportunist levies. We don`t all want to drive a Prius or Civic Hybrid but a Leviathan ?
What a time to market it , are they more focused on other European markets and not keeping their eye on the ball in the UK

 

[jibcl500]

The US market place is where MB will sell the big engined cars, cheap fuel and the eviornment isnt the issue for the US, in the movies the Us always save the planet, old monkey face must think he can do the same.


jib

 

[Seeker_UK]

I could not help wondering if the MB market prediction dpt was suffering an occluded crystal ball. Can any manufacturer totally buck the trend and sell against the pressure from Government, green lobbies and opportunative levies. We don`t all want to drive a Prius or Civic Hybrid but a Leviathan ?

MBUK must be getting twitchy with most of its range of petrols in the Band G.

My issue with MB was always that litre for litre, MB has never been as powerful of fuel efficient (and thus as good on emissions) as that bunch from Munich (compare the 2.6 clk240 and the 2.5 325i to see what I mean) and this is going to cost them big unless they can pull a trick out of the bag and get more from the V6 lump they have and get them into VED Band F.

Perhaps they shouldn't have canned the use of kompressors.

 

[benzo]

We don`t all want to drive a Prius or Civic Hybrid but a Leviathan ?
What a time to market it , are they more focused on other European markets and not keeping their eye on the ball in the UK

The R class is actually aimed at the US market, and it's sales are ok there. MB are currently developing their own hybrids: petrol-electric diesel-electric and pertol-diesel-electric. The first ones are due out in 2009.

They have been beaten off the starting point by the likes of Toyota Honda et al, but I'm sure, as usual, the MB engines would be worth the wait...

 

[jibcl500]

Porsche will be introducing the Cayenne hybrid, and diesel engines shortly.



jib

 

[Blobcat]

The US market place is where MB will sell the big engined cars, cheap fuel and the eviornment isnt the issue for the US, in the movies the Us always save the planet, old monkey face must think he can do the same.


jib

I cannot comment on the US of A however I have noticed on my trips to Canada that the large gas guzzlers are nothing like as popular as they used to be. Hummers being a case in point a couple of years ago they were selling like mad, last year the market almost died. Whilst fuel costs are cheaper than here they have risen significantly and diesels are starting to sell in the car and truck market.

 

[Hastatii]

I found that when shopping for my LR Discovery (got a 2004 model in the end), the price had been depressed because people assumed that they all fell into Band G, forgetting about the date in 06 from which this applied. Mine is in Band F (like my 230 SLK). However, someone forking out c. £62k for a Range Rover Sport isn't going to worry about £400pa for VED.

Interestingly, I found from reading a colleagues 'Bike' magazine that my LR did more mpg than half of the 600-1000cc bikes in their long-term test!

 

[rf065]

The R class is actually aimed at the US market, and it's sales are ok there.

Actually, it's sales have been so poor, they dropped $5000 dollars off the list price of all models. Now they have announced that the top of the range models will no longer be available, but smaller engines and 2WD models are being introduced. All starting at lower prices than current models.

SUV's and 4WD "gas guzzlers" as they would be called over here are having a hard time and losing sales as petrol costs rise in the US. The big difference is Americans still pay a fraction of our costs, but it is still a big increase to them as they have been used to cheap petrol for so long.

Russ

 

[Blobcat]

Interestingly, I found from reading a colleagues 'Bike' magazine that my LR did more mpg than half of the 600-1000cc bikes in their long-term test!

I would suggest that if you buy a sports bike and concern yourself with it's fuel economy you bought the wrong bike....

As for fuel costs in North America, in Canada they are almost exactly 1/2 the UK rate 96cents per litre as I can see the price from where I'm sat at the moment

 

[hawk20]

However, someone forking out c. £62k for a Range Rover Sport isn't going to worry about £400pa for VED.

Its not quite that simple. Firstly, very few buyers of Range Rovers pay for it themselves. Most are paid for by the shareholders of the companies that buy them, and by us as taxpayers who allow costs to be tax deducted.

The VED is trivial as you say. But the lousy fuel economy and high running costs means that the depreciation is awesome. Secondhand buyers more and more are shunning big petrol engines. Big depreciation is what is killing the big 'gas guzzlers' not the VED.

Try an E55 costing around £65k to £70k with normal extras; a year old it gets a part ex price of £34k. Laugh and tear up.

Big petrols are dying.

 

[Seeker_UK]

Try an E55 costing around £65k to £70k with normal extras; a year old it gets a part ex price of £34k. Laugh and tear up.

Big petrols are dying.

For those of us that don't buy new it's a godsend.

Buy an E55 for (relatively) buttons, LPG it and keep for 4 years. A performance steal.

 

[hawk20]

For those of us that don't buy new it's a godsend.

Buy an E55 for (relatively) buttons, LPG it and keep for 4 years. A performance steal.

I agree it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

But in the end it is going to dry up the supply of big petrols. The depreciation is just becoming too awful to contemplate.

And £5300 a year in London with the new Congestion Tax will seriously dent the UK's largest market. And the ripples will affect all UK.