Zero tax cars

[surveyor]

I bought a car today for my daughter at an auction, not one I’d particularly expected to buy, and in fact French cars were on my do not buy list.

I’m very surprised (and pleased) to find the tax on a 2015 1.4 euro 5 diesel Peugeot 208 to be nil.

Any one else had similar surprises? I really don’t understand the justification..

[Mr Squarekins]

Early BMW i8 had this. Then tax was sacked on after 2016 I think. 2014/15 cars had zero road tax.

[SweptVolume]

Presumably it slips in under 100 g/km CO2.

[anyoldcardave]

Probably one of the reasons diesel suddenly became toxic, after being told it wasn,t.

Even 35 quid does not cover the processing costs of taxing a vehicle, money talks

[FA57REN]

surveyor said:

Any one else had similar surprises? I really don’t understand the justification..

It was a 2001 tax hack to encourage adoption of diesels in order to meet the Kyoto CO2 targets. It did a good job at that, increasing sales of diesels to 50% of market, but in so doing hugely increased nitrous oxide emissions to beyond toxicity levels and particulate emissions by a magnitude.

The 2018 VED changes were designed to rebalance CO2 versus other emissions.

[GeniusOfLove]

I accidentally bought a 2013 208 1.6 HDi at auction 3 years ago and it's been a fantastic shed, I used it for a while then gave it to my brother who has taken it up to 150,000 miles with no issues at all. It needed the EOLYS diesel exhaust fluid bag refilled and I put a timing belt on it but aside from that it's done about 40k of hard use without anything beyond oil changes.

They're really quite light which translates into how well they drive and how light they are on tyres and suspension bits too. Would unreservedly recommend one.

[S100HP]

I'm paying £20 for my 208 ATM. It makes looking at things like the C6 at £720 a year seem even more eye wateringly expensive than it already is. Can tax my car for 36 years for the cost of one year with a C6.

[tweenster]

I have a 2016 Ford Focus ST3 diesel estate - £20 a year road tax. Yes, that did surprise me!

[Eyersey1234]

My Focus 1.5tdci is zero value road tax as it creeps in under the 100g CO2 threshold

[98elise]

Eyersey1234 said:

My Focus 1.5tdci is zero value road tax as it creeps in under the 100g CO2 threshold

My brother has the estate version. For a big versatile car it's really handy being zero. Will make an excellent shed when they get a bit older. My focus costs £150 a year to insure so I could keep one on the road for just over £10 a month!

[LuS1fer]

Our two Fiat Pandas from 09 and 11 are both 35 quid each, cheap as chips but you have to watch out for the Eleganza version which has a AC and the tax flies up to well over a 100 quid.

[GeniusOfLove]

LuS1fer said:

Our two Fiat Pandas from 09 and 11 are both 35 quid each, cheap as chips but you have to watch out for the Eleganza version which has a AC and the tax flies up to well over a 100 quid.

Oh what a sod, is being cool and comfortable all year round worth another £65 quid a year. I think it is you know? Especially if you can haggle the first three years tax off the price because it's "so expensive to tax"

[FilH]

OH expiranced the joys of £30/35 VED for several years, unfortunatly the bell end Khan put a stop to that! So paying 5 times that and more on fuel. But at least shes not Killing 1000s a year now.

[anonymous-user]

My previous car was £30/£35 per year, once you have experienced it you are ruined for life.

I am currently paying £210 a year which seems like a rip off.

As for £735 fk that.

[fflump]

My old gen 2 Cayenne V6 PHEV (2015) was £0.

It was quite a surprise as it had >400 bhp and only did 15 miles on leccy only so unless pootling around town its CO2 g/km was hardly justifying £0 car tax!

[Skodapondy]

My lad pays something like £30 a year on his 2016 Seat Ibiza FR. The wifes Skoda Rapid is £190, both cars have a four cylinder 1.2TSi engine with no stop/start function before you ask! If this can be explained I would love to hear the reason.

[Master Bean]

My petrol Fiesta is free but it is slow and will blow up soon. My mum has the more powerful 125hp model which is also free to tax.

[whp1983]

I had a 2008 M3 originally from Isle of Man…. Had generic LGV tax of £135 a year at time

[mike9009]

We own the following vehicles and have paid zero road tax this year. Not done intentionally, but feel quite smug about it.

2015 MINI Cooper D 5dr
2015 DS3 Sport (diesel)
1982 VW air cooled camper.

There will be changes to this from April 2925. It feels a bit woolly about our cars. It seems car registered post 2017 are more certain. Might need to read it all again......

[e-honda]

anyoldcardave said:

Probably one of the reasons diesel suddenly became toxic, after being told it wasn,t.

Even 35 quid does not cover the processing costs of taxing a vehicle, money talks

I wish people would stop believing this accountancy rhetoric which would have you believe that it costs £50 to process a transaction.

£35 on every one of the 45 million tax vehicles amounts to £1.6bn, that's near 10x the dvla's budget

in 2022-2023 it looks like they spent about £125m on VED collection and enforcement, and a net £42m after collection of fines and other fees.
so less than £1 per vehicle, or less than £3 if you insist on using the total expenditure.