Tax top issue for car buyers
CAR dealers say tax is a main priority for customers on Teesside, amid calls for the latest Vehicle Excise Duty bandings to be scrapped.
The latest bandings, which alter tax on all cars built since 2001, have been dismissed as ‘mean’ not green by the House of Commons cross-party Environmental Audit Committee.
Meanwhile, a minority report from committee members called for plans to be shelved “until the financial and environmental impacts are properly assessed and a car scrappage scheme has been introduced”.
Teesside dealerships claim the main concern for people buying a new car is existing and prospective tax bandings.
Andrew Keenan, franchise manager of SG Petch in Middlesbrough, said: “Customers used to buy cars on spec, now their first question is ‘how much to tax it?’
“They want to know which cars fall into the £35-a-year band and people are worried about what will happen with the £900-a-year taxation idea on certain cars. Many are also downsizing from four-wheel drives to hatchbacks, or from two cars to one.”
Brian Mook, managing director of Stokesley Motors, said: “Many of Vauxhall’s new models now have low emissions anyway.
“There’s a definite shift away from 4x4s, people are buying smaller cars in readiness for when the tax hits.
“They are not really achieving much by taxing 4x4s, if people can afford £50,000 it won’t matter to them. Mid-range cars have been taxed too much.”
The audit committee claimed projected carbon savings from the latest bandings were ‘far less than they could be’ and there were concerns about the financial effects of raising car tax on existing vehicles of lower income households. It claimed poor communication bred suspicion that VED was a revenue-raising exercise, not a green tax.
