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"Car Tax - What are we paying for?"

Any day now I'll be receiving my letter from the DVLA telling me that my car tax is due, and that I need to go and pay £160 to renew it for a year. However after paying this every year for the past 5 years I'm beginning to wonder just what the money goes towards other than supplying Tony Blair with a years supply of Just for Men. The money paid for road tax is meant, and I reiterate that, MEANT to pay for the upkeep of the roads, seeing as you want to use them. What I've noticed though is that everyday I drive to work over several pot holes, meteor craters and dinosaur footprints, not out of choice but out of the fact that my money isn't going where it should be. Well where is it going I hear you cry...well the answer is, I don't actually know.

There are people like Ken Livingston whos saying that public transport needs to be improved, but it's not just a case of speeding it up like he thinks. If he wants to get people out of cars and onto public transport then he needs to buy newer buses that don't look as flimsy as a tin of corned beef, and he needs to make them more comfortable. One of the main reasons that you wouldn't catch me on public transport is the fact that quite simply you end up sitting next to some genetic freak, who smells of rotting cabbages. Then theres the fact that in a car you have control of the heating, the music, the speed...and it's, forgive me if I'm wrong, slightly more of a babe magnet than a bus. So if Ken Livingston wants public transport improved he's going to have to do slightly more than introduce bus lanes (that's one thing your car tax money has been used for), and painting bits of road red or green, because I for one am not fooled by the kaleidoscope effect on the roads. If I'm giving the government £160 a year on top of my petrol tax of 80%, I want to know what the fat cats are doing with it (other than buying Jaguars to add to your collection).

What really annoys me with having to pay my road tax is that just because my car is 1.6L I have to pay more than someone with an engine under 1.6L even though my car is new and has extremely low emissions. The difference doesn't make me want to a smaller engined car which is what the scheme is trying to do...if anything it's annoying me so much that I want to go out and buy a 5.7L Corvette...lets see how they like that....although that is kinda shooting myself in the foot somewhat. But surely if we are paying ROAD tax, it's for the use of the roads and their up keep and so therefore it shouldn't matter how bigger engined your car is or how often you use the road...we should all pay the same.

As for Ken Livingstons congestion charge of £5 a day to get into London...can someone get him a clowns outfit. He thinks that the money will go towards improving public transport...therefore I want public transport to be like my car...only costs £1 in petrol to get to work from where I live - not £3 bus charge, I want airvents for every seat with hot and cold options, I want seats to be individual so that you don't end up with an elephant encroaching on your side of the seat, and I want to have my own sound system for my seat so I can listen to something else other than the weirdoes at the back of the bus singing cum-by-ya!

Car Tax - What are we paying for?

In order of money.
War
Schools
Hospitals
Public Transport (ahem)

This is all speculation.

In one of yesterdays national papers there was an article saying that there are 31million motorists in the country and after they've all paid for their petrol and tax etc for a year (this is before the congestion charge is taken into account) we are all combined giving the government £32Billion a year profit...thats about £1300.00 each!

Pollution from cars does only account for a small percentage of total pollution.

The methane produced from yer farts causes more damage to the ozone layer than petrol fumes.


That, and pollution from nuclear power stations.

Slaveunit wrote:
Take the car oif you have stuff to carry, but if it's just
> you, what's the point?

Warmer, wont get wet, and you can blast the stereo.

The world we live in demands people to have cars. Places of residence cannot supply work for the people that live there, so people have to travel.

The buses are useless. I have lost jobs because of the buses being unreliable. not to mention that the nearest bus stop is a 15 min walk, and i can do the entire journey in that time on the motorbike at half the price.

the trains are useless. everyone knows that.

They know that we are virtually forced to use the roads to get to work, and they are abusing their rights to make money off of us. The road user is hammered every year in road tax and petrol tax, and we have no choice but to lump it, as there is no other, working way.

Ride motorbikes, people. My bike tax is £42 this year, and mopeds are about £18. They are cheaper on fuel too. it would also mean the traffic would reduce, and if it builds up, you can go around it. Take the car oif you have stuff to carry, but if it's just you, what's the point?

And they will be raising even more money when that £5 daily charge to drive in central London is implemented.

Jonman wrote:

> It's possible that perhaps
> there's just not enough money raised by road tax to cover the cost of
> upkeep of the roads - ever think of that?

There are approx 20million cars on our roads (some estimate 30 but we'll use 20)...at say £160 a year (the higher average will account for the lower estimate of cars), so

20,000,000 x £160 = £3,200,000,000 (£3.2 Billion)

Now thats a lot of money and the interest on that sort of money would be astronomical. So i they probably have enough money for a few stones and some hot tar to fill in every pot hole - it's just a case of that, that to them is a waste of money!

You feel like the king of the road when you are in one.

And its much much safer than a normal car. Too bad about the other driver though...

And if you can afford one (most 4x4 are £20K minimum new), paying the £60+ in petrol a week shoudnt be a problem.

I hate people that drive Land Rovers in the city.


People down the road have one, and we live in extremley quiet suburbia, what's the point?

My dad used to have a Frontera.

2.8 litre engine.

did less than 20 miles to the gallon! It used to drink £60 minimum a week!