Quote:
Originally Posted by steamship
Swings and roundabouts for people, depending on the mileage they do.
e.g. I have a '08 S8 which has the £535 tax rate, and spends most of the time just sitting there (last two trips were in August and October, totalling around 200 miles), so would be all for adding it to the cost of fuel. I also have a '04 A8 with the £305 tax rate, and have done just over 3,000 mile in six months, so again, would opt to add the cost to fuel. It's when you have people who drive 10k, 20k or even more miles per year, that the idea of adding the cost to fuel isn't such a good idea.
Using your example you have paid 26.25 pence per mile just for road tax for your two cars, that hardly seems fair does it? For my one car doing 18k per year, I am paying 2.5 pence per mile, how is it fair that you are paying 10x as much as me, per mile, to use the same roads?
I also have the same thoughts towards car insurance, where I'd like to have car insurance for when I actually use the car, not while it's parked up. There should be some form of two-tier insurance where the first part covers you for the car sitting around in your driveway or garage all year, and the second part that covers you for actual driving, and could be activated/paid as and when required, say for a minimum 7 day period.
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Doesn't really matter how many miles you do, adding to the cost of fuel is fairer for all. I'm a higher mileage driver and would welcome it. If I am doing more miles then of course I should be contributing more to the cost of the roads I use. Instead I have to pay £450 per year siply because the list price of my car new was more than £40,000. That is neither just nor fair, but easier for me to justify to myself than somebody only clocking up a few miles.
To a small extent, it could also further encourage people to buy more economical cars, or consider alternative fuel types, and potentially adjust their driving style too, slowing down a little on motorways for example. I find if I drive at 70mph on the motorway rather than 80mph, my fuel consumption improves by about 15-20%.
And for two car owners it's even better - I can only drive one car at a time, so paying full whack tax on two cars isn't justified.
As for insurance, almost all policies these days are costed on how many miles you declare you will be driving, so this is already part of the price of insurance.