High tax band for £40K+ new cars, choose less options?

[JCW-James]

I was going to buy a car with the options I need (mainly to drive to work 45 miles a day on slippery roads) but the dealer told me the car would cost £42K and I would have to pay more VEDuty.

Is it worth cutting back to save a few hundred on Vehicle excise duty e.g. easier to sell the car in a few years time?

Thanks fir your advice.

[samoht]

The cost is an extra £325 a year for five years (years 2-6), thus the total extra tax bill is £1625 spread over five years.

In resale terms if you sell it after three years, I suppose you might expect to get £650 less for the car as the new owner takes on that much extra tax liability. Or you could do better than that as they might not realise or might value the optional extras.

So easiest way to look at it, are you prepared to pay a total extra £1625 tax, on top of the cost of the options themselves, to have them? Totally up to you if it's worth that to you.


It's a bit different than the top rate of tax for cars sold 2006-17, where the car is in a higher rate of tax for life and thus used buyers may disprefer them - the extra bill is only for a five year period.