Just had an email from Tfl

There are changes to the Banding for Vehicles qualifying for the £10 per year exemption to the London congestion charge

Up to now it has been any vehicle below 100G/km so the Twinair at 95G/km fell within the group (As did a lot of vehicles squeezing in at 100 or just under

Tfl seem to have realised the hit they are taking so from 28th June 2013 the limit is being lowered to Vehicles producing 75G/km or less.

(No vehicles apart from totally electric seem to be able to meet that at the moment!)

Anyway for anyone who is already registered in a current 500TA or who registers before 28th June 2013, there will be a 2 year grace period upto 28th June 2015 (Provided you continue to pay the £10 a year registration fee)

So anyone who has already registered is fine till end of June 2015, and if you have purchased or are going to purchase a TA before June 2013 and plan to make more than a couple of trips a year into the zone then its well worth registering to get the allowance to June 2015! as once June 2013 has passed you will not be able to register.

A couple of other points, they are raising the fine for non payment of CC to £130, and removing the facility to pay in a shop, saying that most people pay online or by phone, making it much more difficult to the the casual visitor

Would imagine Fiat to phase out pushing the NO CC charge advertising soon.

Personally it saves me about £1500 a year so very thankful to have over 3 years out of it (Up to 2015), and will have to see where it goes from then transport wise.

Apparently due to the fact 39000 vehicles now qualify for the discount. Wonder how many of those are 500 TAs, MiTo's and Puntos

Yep,

Several people at work have christened the 500 the London Cockroach due to the amount of them you see skulking onto and off the roads at Dawn & Dusk as they are used to avoid the CC spending days hidden in the office underground car park and nights in the suburbs

Had to happen. Frankly I am surprised that they are giving a two year "grace" period.

That's the last we will see of the non-congestion charge based advertising for sure.

Lets see how long it is before some idiot wheels out the "I bought this car because it was free for congestion charging" toss.

The amusing thing is, I remember signing a disclaimer form at the dealership when I ordered mine, along the lines of: "I accept that the Mayor could change the policy at any time, and absolve FIAT of all liability in respect of congestion charging". I laughed when I signed it and said it's not necessary, I'm not that stupid, but I can see why they did it.

A nice to have, but I didn't buy my car for that reason - driving in London is crap anyway! The congestion charge doesn't work!

what do you mean it doesn't work? It raises money doesn't it?

bgunn said:

nice to have, but I didn't buy my car for that reason - driving in London is crap anyway! The congestion charge doesn't work!

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AGREE - nice to have, but I didn't buy my car for that reason (But It made me lean more towards the TA)

AGREE - driving in London is crap anyway! (But some of us have to do it for work anyway)

AGREE - The congestion charge doesn't work! £10 is not enough to make it work (Jeez most car parks in the Zone cost that for an hour or so!), £50 a day would make people really think about it..

£50 would make people not come into London in cars full stop, ergo no revenue.

flashyphotos: Just posted a link to this thread in the Panda 2012 section: so thanks for the heads-up. PITA, though....

Question is, does LPGing a twin air me it'll be exempt again? As I know certain small LPG cars are - unless that's changed also

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Question is, does LPGing a twin air me it'll be exempt again? As I know certain small LPG cars are - unless that's changed also

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Reading the consultation Document, there is no longer any mention of LPG in the discount details, so it looks like that has gone as well

306maxi said:

£50 would make people not come into London in cars full stop, ergo no revenue.

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Do it US embassy style! They haven't paid any cc since the beginning as they call it a tax which is banned under the diplomatic laws. UK said they should pay, but obviously the UK is under no position to force the USA to pay anything = )


Anyway the cc zone is much better than before, when I was driving to London it was from Earls Court onwards while now it is from Parklane onwards! And how many people go to the City of London with their car during the week midday? Residents get their discount anyway. Of course I don't agree with it but you can just park the car in knightsbridge and tube it to the city if you really want to avoid the charge = )

And yes btw I saw SOOO Many Ta's in London when I was there in October, it was crazy! After the 'supercars' in South Kensington, the TA 500 seemed to be the most common car! They were all the TA as you can tell from their distinctive engine note when they are driving about.

had to happen sooner or later, just like hybrids used to be exempt

i still drive into London occasionally, if you are careful you can avoid the charging zone anyway

i bought an Oyster card the other day though, makes life a lot easier and cheaper when you do use the tube

My sister-in-law who llves in London was looking at trading in her husbands '00 Boxster for a TA in 2013 (She sold her KA last year since they only needed one car and he wouldn't sell his ). They were impressed with 'how big' the 500 was & she liked the FW. She will be disappointed with the proposed change. I'll doubt that she'll go ahead with the purchase.

We might see an Electric 500 yet. :idea:

Personally I always thought that these discounts kind of strange and not very logical.
As long as its charge truly in place to fight congestion - because it does not matter to congestion much, if car is green or not.

Ingvarr said:

Personally I always thought that these discounts kind of strange and not very logical.
As long as its charge truly in place to fight congestion - because it does not matter to congestion much, if car is green or not.

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The charge is there to generate money and to take the edge off congestion a little bit.

306maxi said:

The charge is there to generate money and to take the edge off congestion a little bit.

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Probably sums it up, with most of the effort on the money making.

thanks for the heads up on this as had my registration paper work for mine this week from tfl

500s are defiantly a popular in londinium

this decision helps as i've started looking for a pootle replacement

The TA was designed to be adapted as a hybrid so perhaps this will get Fiat going again. London is a big, rich, market, as large as many small countries, so there are are eighteen months for Fiat to get going with the development.

Ulpian said:

The TA was designed to be adapted as a hybrid so perhaps this will get Fiat going again. London is a big, rich, market, as large as many small countries, so there are are eighteen months for Fiat to get going with the development.

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I'd pay ridiculous money for a Panda hybrid, seriously

But, realistically, I am not getting my hopes up in this respect. Hybrid tech is not the something you jump in over just three or two years of R&D.
Also it looks that the low power density of hybrid engines is a problem still, it just does not scale well to small cars yet. Toyota Yaris was such a disappointment for me, utter rubbish.