I was chatting to a customer today when she came to collect her 2002 VW Golf 1.6 having had a service and MOT. She was pleased that she could now go and buy her road tax, which was going to cost £210 for the year. Now, that sounded pretty expensive to me for what’s a fairly modest kind of car. We run a little Toyota Aygo 1.0 petrol as a courtesy car, and road tax for that is just £35 per year. Why is the Golf so expensive to tax for the year? Well, it’s just because of its Co2 emissions – the Golf just has a fairly high rating for the size of engine.  You see, for all cars registered after March 2001, the road tax price is based solely on the carbon dioxide emissions. So, lets suppose you’re looking to buy a Golf Estate with the smallest 1.4 litre engine. You’ve seen 2 advertised, one is a X registration (January 2001) so it’s before the rules changed. This one is just taxed on the engine size alone, so as it’s below 1549cc it’ll cost £120 for a year’s tax. The other one is a Y registration (March 2001) so is based on the emissions. As it has a Co2 rating of 168 g/KM it’s in tax band E, so it’ll cost £170.00 for a year. That’s £50 more for an almost identical car!

Sometimes the new rules work in your favour. For instance, a newer 1.9 TDi 130BHP Golf from 2002 is rated at 146 g/KM of Co2, so it’ll cost just £120 per year. Buy the same Golf, but a few months older  (like a Y reg) and it’ll cost you £185.00 a year as it’s just based on engine size.

It’s always worth checking out the cost of taxing any car yo’re thinking of buying, as you can sometimes be in for a shock.   Things are set to get even more complicated next year, with even more new bands are invented.

My solution to all this is simple – either buy a car made before March 2001 with an engine below 1549cc and pay just £120 a year. Alternatively, buy a 2002 Citroen C3 1.4 HDi hatchback and enjoy 65mpg and £35 a year road tax. Finally, if you really don’t care I suggest a 1969 Chevrolet Impala with a 5.7 litre V8 engine. As it’s made before 1973 it’s classed as a historic vehicle and road tax is FREE. Mind you, being almost 18 feet long and managing around 12mpg, the saving of the free tax is soon forgotten!

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