Road Tax in UK

[Simo 0]

Road tax to double for one million car owners

By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor

Last Updated: 9:01pm BST 12/07/2008

"More than one million owners of older cars will see their road tax double over the next two years under the Government's controversial "green" car tax reforms. New tax bands for every make and model

Official figures, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, disclose that 1.1 million motorists who bought their cars between 2001 and 2006 will pay more than £400 annually in duty - compared to £210 or less now. Another one million drivers of older vehicles are estimated to be facing a 50 per cent increase in their road tax bills".

The increases will be phased in with the tax on the higher polluting cars rising to £300 next year and then £430 or £455 in 2010.

Drivers have been warned that many older vehicles would become virtually worthless following the changes to vehicle excise duty (VED), which are due to be introduced over the next two years.

The AA estimated that the increased VED for higher polluting vehicles purchased after 2001 would make those valued at between £750 and £2,100 "almost impossible" to sell.

The latest figures on the impact of the plans were disclosed by the Treasury in response to questions from the Conservatives. They followed the release earlier this week of figures showing that a total of nine million motorists would pay higher rates of vehicle excise duty under the proposed changes."

Just watch this government, if it retains office this year, do the same thing that Gorddie "Suckhole" Brown is proposing in the UK, your BMW if its pre 2001 will halve in value if your lucky. Its the biggest full frontal assault on motor vehicle owners, and yea its about tax again and nothing to do with the warmist's bullshit.

[elmarco 56]

Wonder if this would make importing ex UK vehicles make more sense? I guess it will push some prices down, but at the more expensive end of the spectrum it won't have the same impact.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2920]

Wonder if this would make importing ex UK vehicles make more sense? I guess it will push some prices down, but at the more expensive end of the spectrum it won't have the same impact.

Older cars are already worth next to nothing in the UK, due to the pressures to own the latest and greatest and stigma of driving anything remotely old + extravagant insurance. I looked at what I would get for my low mileage (76,000mls) '87 325i convertible before deciding to ship it to NZ, reckoned it was worth about 2,000 - 2,500 pounds, even with an exchange rate in favour of the pound that is still only $6,000 - $7,500. Couldn't find anything near the condition and spec of mine for less than $12k.

I often look on www.autotrader.co.uk to compare prices, currently there are over 30,000 BMW listed on there for sale, with over 1,000 M3s alone.

Doing a quick search I just found a '99 M3 Evo coupe manual, for under 5000 pounds, at current exchange rate that is just over NZ$13,000. Would just need to check it has twin air bags for it to be eligible to come into NZ.

Might be a dog, but there are loads to choose from for less than 6,500, still only NZ$17,000

And this is BEFORE the government starts to tax the older perfomance cars even more. So yup could be some good imports coming this way...

[Cale 36]

Doing a quick search I just found a '99 M3 Evo coupe manual, for under 5000 pounds, at current exchange rate that is just over NZ$13,000. Would just need to check it has twin air bags for it to be eligible to come into NZ.

Might be a dog, but there are loads to choose from for less than 6,500, still only NZ$17,000

I want one!

What would be involved in bringing one over, would it be difficult/really expensive?

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2920]

I want one!

What would be involved in bringing one over, would it be difficult/really expensive?

The hardest part would be finding and checking the car out, easy enough if you have friends or family in the UK who know a bit about cars. From NZ you could still get an AA check and report done (about $250 if I remeber right) which would give you lots of info, you can haggle on the price from here also.

Shipping is relatively straight forward, my quote was $4,500 for the car on its own, you could probably get that a bit cheaper through a specialist car shipper.

The sting in the tail is the GST when it comes into NZ, I was lucky that I didn't have to pay any as it was my old car I was shipping, not a new purchase. It is still 12% but it is calculated on the NZ market value NOT the purchase price! So if you bought the M3 for $13,000 the GST would be nearer $3,600 (12% of NZ value of about $30k) not $1,560.

Compliance is relatively straight forward and there are lots of people that will do all that for you at most major ports. Steam clean, VIN check, compliance and Rego would be about $1,300. A trailer and / or dealer plates are very handy at this point.

Adding that up, total cost for the M3 would be about $22,400.

There is lots of info on the LTNZ web-site which is very useful and details out the process. The thing to watch would be making sure the car doesn't need lots of major work (air-bags, etc) to comply, BMW can advise which models can be imported. Like I said, it would have to be model fitted with both passenger and driver air bags to comply.

In these days of the internet and cheap phone calls I think it can be done quite easily, most of the car dealers selling imports wouldn't have set foot in Japan or Singapore.

If you know what you want, are prepared to search and can devote a little time, I think it is very possible for anyone to do.

[Cale 36]

Thanks very much for the info Jon the Pom!