RFL (Or Road Tax as it will become) Changes

[Most Easterly Pandas]

From 01/04/2017. Luckily won't affect any vehicles registered prior to this date.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33447106

Could help with the used resale value of £0 RFL banded cars for a while.

 

[gadge]

I also read that there moving the first MOT for new cars from three years to four..... Not sure if that's a good idea? I know cars are built pretty good these days but four years is a long time to drive a car unchecked?

 

[AndyRKett]

Many many years ago before he died my grandfather used to always buy a new Lada riva every 3 years, the reason for this wasn't a finance deal or to have a new car. It was because no three year old Lada would ever pass its first MOT the last one he had before they stopped selling them in the UK wouldn't even pass its first emissions test because it was never designed to! These days if new cars fail their first MOT it tends to be on silly things like not having the tyres pumped up properly and the warning light on the dash being on, there is no reason they should fail at 4 years old.

As for car tax it seems they've almost gone back to the old system of two prices depending on the engine size bigger engine (more emissions) more car tax.

On the plus side I just used the BBC calculator and found I will be a whole £80 a year better off ! Just think what I can do with that !

 

[gadge]

I havnt read the article yet but does that mean the end of NIL tax on low emissions cars?

 

[AndyRKett]

I havnt read the article yet but does that mean the end of NIL tax on low emissions cars?

Zero emission cars will be free anything from 1 - 225g/km of co2 will be taxed at £140. Any car that costs over £40,000 will have to pay an additional £310 (£450 total) for the first 5 years

This basically means a cheap Vauxhall V8 will cost the same to tax as a 0.9litre twin air panda..... I wouldn't really call that progress. However he has promised that car tax will only be spent on the road network and will not go in a central pot.

Makes the cost of taxing a landrover considerably cheaper where as a fiat 500 will cost a hell of a lot more to tax

 

[werdna]

Mr Osborne said: "There will be no change to VED for existing cars - no one will pay more in tax than they do today for the car they already own."

 

[AndyRKett]

Mr Osborne said: "There will be no change to VED for existing cars - no one will pay more in tax than they do today for the car they already own."

See post one in this thread!

From 01/04/2017. Luckily won't affect any vehicles registered prior to this date.

 

[werdna]

Early morning glasses on...must need another coffee

 

[StevenRB45]

Mr Osborne said: "There will be no change to VED for existing cars - no one will pay more in tax than they do today for the car they already own."

The question is will that stop the inexorable rise in v.e.d. overall for cars before the cut off. The Swift cost 150 quid or so to tax when I bought it 180 when I sold it. I don't mind if the Mazda stays where it is at 5 quid more than standard rate.

I'm all for it, should mean the end of manufacturers out doing each other with pie in the sky emissions figures (which effectively render the current system a joke anyway), also they'll save a load of admin...bit of a pisser if you want to buy a 30K hybrid to save 140 tax a year obviously. Also gives absolutely no incentive to downsize, but it's debatable how much having to pay about 1% of the cars sticker price once a year should effect your buying decision of a new car.

 

[hennabm]

He did announce there is to be a consultation on whether the first MOT should go to 4 years. Thereafter the frequency is proposed to stay at every year so 4 1 1 instead of 3 1 1 as we have now.

 

[Ziggy122]

Keep it at 3 - 1 - 1

Cars regulary do 100K in there first 3 years
Some people still jump in and go

However - in those 3 years and 100K of wear
ALOT will change, ball joints go sloppy - headlights may be rattled out of alignment

It kinda then falls back to mechanics servicing them every 10 - 20K to pick up on faults

Some garages service but dont really check - get missed because of Job per time scales

The New Road fund thing is a little weird, a 4x4 on the road is gonna do the same pretty much as a panda
So regardless of emissions - the roads should be a hella lot better by say 2020?

Ziggy

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Keep it at 3 - 1 - 1

Cars regulary do 100K in there first 3 years
Some people still jump in and go

However - in those 3 years and 100K of wear
ALOT will change, ball joints go sloppy - headlights may be rattled out of alignment

It kinda then falls back to mechanics servicing them every 10 - 20K to pick up on faults

Some garages service but dont really check - get missed because of Job per time scales

The New Road fund thing is a little weird, a 4x4 on the road is gonna do the same pretty much as a panda
So regardless of emissions - the roads should be a hella lot better by say 2020?

Ziggy

Fair point about 100k in first 3 years tbh and so would be temped to agree.

Enough cars fail their first MOT currently, imagine it being an extra year.

 

[maggers]

The number of cars I test that fail their first MOT would make your toes curl, usually it's shot tyres and brakes but there's often lighting defects and useless wipers.

 

[chr1s]

According to a 2011 independent analysis of 24.5 million MOT records obtained by consumer motoring website honestjohn.co.uk:

The data shows that between 1 October 2010 and 30 September 2011, one in five cars - 352,000 in total - failed their first MOT, with testers most likely to fail cars from French firms Renault, Citroen and Peugeot.

The most common reasons were lighting and signalling (164,837 failures), followed closely by tyres (96,760 failures), headlight aim (82,555 failures) and issues with the driver’s view of the road (80,605 failures).

So delaying the first MOT by a year is likely to result in about 100,000 more cars driving with defective tyres. That's really going to improve road safety !

 

[AndyRKett]

It's interesting though, the first mot pass rate for new cars at 3 years old is around 80% at second MOT The rate is still around 80% where as a 10 year old car which gets an MOT every year the pass rate it's only once you get to about 7 years old does that pass rate drop to 70% (55% by 10 years) so this will be their justification for increasing the time till first MOT, it might actually improve things as people who keep their cars passed 3 years old won't be reliant on the MOT being a health check and may actually get there cars looked at and serviced.

Our mini just turned 3 and came with an all inclusive service package, every time it went in for a service they did a full health check and identified anything that needed attention like worn tyres, and they called it in for a check just before the MOT was due to identify anything that needed doing before its MOT that would prevent it passing. These service packages are becoming more common so I would expect this practice to become fairly standard with new cars in the future

 

[maggers]

It's interesting though, the first mot pass rate for new cars at 3 years old is around 80% at second MOT The rate is still around 80% where as a 10 year old car which gets an MOT every year the pass rate it's only once you get to about 7 years old does that pass rate drop to 70% (55% by 10 years) so this will be their justification for increasing the time till first MOT, it might actually improve things as people who keep their cars passed 3 years old won't be reliant on the MOT being a health check and may actually get there cars looked at and serviced.

Our mini just turned 3 and came with an all inclusive service package, every time it went in for a service they did a full health check and identified anything that needed attention like worn tyres, and they called it in for a check just before the MOT was due to identify anything that needed doing before its MOT that would prevent it passing. These service packages are becoming more common so I would expect this practice to become fairly standard with new cars in the future

Generally, the older cars get the less likely they are to be maintained and we only see them once a year for the MOT unless something drops off. The free healthchecks at dealers are usually just fishing for work, most of the ones we are asked to double check by regular customers actually require little or none of the work reported actually being done.

 

[The Beard]

It can depend on the garage you take it to, in as much as one of our local garages just takes it for MOT and sees what it fails on, then fixes it. The place where we usually take the 156 services it, fixes what is needed then does the MOT himself.

There would be a big difference in the comparative pass/fail rate for their clients.