cster

Why has PS Lewis been banned?
I can see he is a bit of a sh*t stirrer, but to be honest I haven't seen anything by him that wasn't reasonable (in the literal sense of the word).
Was he abusive or threatening or something?

silent running

Completely agree Neil. It never ceases to amaze me how many people there are on here who moan that their thirsty, fast car is expensive to keep. As the saying goes; you pay your money, you take your choice. If you can afford it, then run whatever car you want, as long as you're compensating society for the choice you've made. If you can't afford it, stop whinging and live within your means. I think some people are a bit confused here and think that they have the RIGHT to drive on the public roads for free. Since when? I've been driving for 18 years and that whole time I've held a valid driving licence then taxed, insured and fuelled my cars to pay for that choice.

Car tax is not a new idea, why the sudden outcry because the numbers have changed? You don't like it, drive a different car, or don't drive at all. It's not exactly rocket science if you think about it from an economics point of view; in fact £400 a year road tax is an absolute bargain still - how many whingers on here will moan and moan but I guarantee they'll still PAY it next year, because to them the freedom to drive on the public highway and not have to wait at bus stops or cab ranks or take the train home etc is worth a lot more to them than 400 quid. In fact I bet even if road tax was £1000 a year a lot of keen drivers would STILL pay it if the only alternative is to live close to where you work or rely on public transport. This would only change if public transport were made a hell of a lot better, safer and cheaper, or the whole culture of work changed from commuting to working from home.

So the question is: let's say fuel duty was abolished and all you paid was road tax per mile travelled - what would you accept as your bill for the year? How much is the luxury of your own private transport to go where you want to, when you want to, worth?

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

your right in thinking the person that started this thread is a ********

Big-G

I don't think that there is a problem, if you want something, you will do your best to get it even at a cost. If I buy a car, I don't buy it thinking how much it will be worth in 2-3 years, I buy it to use it..

Let's prioritise the reasons for buying a Scooby, first and foremost it must be the brand name, all other reasons will become less significant once you have driven one.

As for fuel consumption, I get more smiles per gallon than any other car I have ever owned, and I've been driving since 1967 !!

pdm

I reckon the problem here is not the £300 this coming year and the £400 after that - its the potential for £2000 the following year. As people have already said its not too much of an issue with an extra £10 a month.

The LibDems have this as policy (I believe) and I reckon although Labour wouldnt do it in one go they would increase by another £100/£200 per year. The Tories have stated that cars over 300gm are the worst so I wonder whether a Band H might be in the offing if they get in in 2 years time.

If it went to £2000 in one go I'm going to lose a lot of money - who will buy a 3 year old car knowing it'll cost them say £2800 to put it on the road for tax and insurance.

To me the most unfair thing is the tax is backdated - ie the decision was made after I bought my car. If its to discourage cars like this to be bought why not make it from this year.

I just changed jobs to a more local job which means I do a lot less miles than most (in fact some days I'll walk/cycle) so my carbon footprint must be smaller than someone commuting even in a small car really. (And I know I could be putting out even less carbon with a smaller engined car).

It such a shame really - its the first really nice sporty car I've ever had - I'm not some arrogant idiot driver either !! I'm just an ordinary working bloke petrol head who saw a chance to run a car like this..

Oh well - its too late now - as I see it I've got 2 1/2 years with my car and then I'll have nothing to trade in/sell on to get something else. Righto - now for the PPP !!

HOWY

The same applies to most manufacturers trying to survive in the future, diesel is not the answer other fuels probably are. In the shorter term manufacturers will have to develop hybrid or electric cars. It strikes me as odd that there aren't more companies working on producing high performance electric cars such as the http://www.teslamotors.com Subaru have shown pictures of a hybrid they were working on so hopefully they might be around in the future.

Ironically there probably won't be a market for high performance cars in the future in the UK as roads get evermore gridlocked and speed cameras bumps etc continue to bring speeds down to a point where we might be better getting on a cycle!

stilover

I resent the fact that the government are putting up car tax.

80% of my driving is going to work and back. What with rising petrol prices and rising car tax, this means I have less money in my pocket at the end of the month. Will £300 or £400 a year Tax stop be buying the car I want? No. I don't like it but I'll pay it. However the point raised above could well be true. If the Government see that people are willing to pay whatever price to keep their cars, then we could well see car Tax rising £100 every year.

The EU are trying to bring in legislation stating that car manufactures can't sell cars with CO2 level above a certain figure (can't remember what that is now) but when I read it, and if it did become law, Porsche, Ferrari, Lambo, Audi etc etc would go bust.

The future isn't hybrid cars, but Bio fuels.

subarujimmy

iTrader: (3)

No matter what the price of petrol or road tax, most of us need and want a car. If we were all on the "bread-line" I'm sure most of us would sell our cars and buy something cheaper to run.
But the point is, that the government will still keep putting up petrol and taxes of all kinds to pay for their mis-management of funds.
IMHO all this co2 is just a cr@ppy excuse to rip us off, even the people who's cars dish-out fresh air still pay loads of tax!

thomsop

Subaru won't die (Excepting my2008)
I just got my new spec D 2 weeks ago (my first Subaru). Before I decided on the Subaru I test drove 5 other cars (and had 4 different test drives in WRX/STI), Mazda 6 MPS, A4 1.8T quattro, A3 2.0T quattro, Focus ST, Astra VRX. I was fully aware of the tax implications and still opted for the Subaru.
Why?
Performance
Driver involvement
"Feel"
Ride
Cost
Looks
Image
Equipment (spec D)

I love it to bits (despite being limited to 4k revs). My car is a luxury, I commute every day by train, so fuel consumption, servicing, consumables aren't an issue.
I buy a car for what enjoyment I can get out of it and not what it's going to cost me over the 2/3 years I'll own it.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

I too worry about Subaru's future in the UK.

The new model has "disposable" styling; evidently we aren't getting the WRX, which accounts for the majority of Scoobies sold in the UK. The Jury's out on the STi, but it's still going to be stuck with the same basic looks and -dime to a dollar- Subaru aren't going to give it the power it would need to have a performance advantage over hot hatches of a magnitude that the classic once enjoyed. Despite that, Ii will cost more to run, insure tax etc.... It'll depreciate ultra quick and fall into favour with exactly the kind of people who Subaru wanted to avoid i.e. chavs, who, afterall, like nothing more than to tart up a "plain jane" car that happens to be quick as std!

Ns04

silent running

Some interesting reading up there. Of course, it's in everyone's interest to limit their own personal expenditure whilst trying to increase their income. Rising car taxes is a real blow, especially the back-dated element which effects nearly new cars as well. That IS unfair, I will concede. But then like many aspects of car use policy, changes like this are nothing new. It wasn't so long ago that they stopped the rolling 'classic car' tax exemption and froze it in the 1970's. And collectors of eighties cars now just have to accept it as one of those things.

In answer to the point about how if people pay it, it will keep going up every year, I'd agree that yes, that probably is what's going to happen. It would be naive to think otherwise. Although car tax and petrol seem expensive to us now, they WILL inexorably rise in cost until they reach the point at which the man in the street REALLY can't afford to drive any more, because treasury tax income then levels out and starts to reduce and right there you have the REAL price of motoring freedom to the British public.

jayltee1

I heard they are going to impose that the average co2 level across each manufacturer's range has to be ~120/130 by 2012. That means they can still have performance cars but they will have to have some 'peddle and pops' to off-set that. BMW will manage to survive this, but no idea how Porsche will (or Subaru for that matter)???

bluto22b

Ruddy nora, you're easily pleased I suppose you think a leatherette sofa is a piece of fine furniture

Subaru interiors are certainly well screwed together but I would hardly call it luxury. It's a bit like saying Nora Batty will be the next Kate Moss

Enjoy your car anyway mate At least you tried the other makes/models first, respect

stara

that reply is taken out of context, what he meant was his car is a "luxury" in that it is not a necessity, duh

stara

just noticed that audishagger hasn't added his manditory bollox to this thread, so i'll do it on his behalf. (clears throat), the STI's midrange acceleration in 5th gear is not as potent as the S4, the ur quattro invented 4wd saloon cars, audi dolphin grey is nicer than subaru urban grey, blah, blah, blah (and so on and so on.)

bluto22b

I think you are being rather harsh, especially as you are barely out of Newbie status.

In a Clarkson voice:
"Audi build superior interiors to any car.........In the world"

They are also catching up in the performance car stakes. Audi RS4 anyone? Makes mincemeat out of even the latest M3 and the Avant version even beat the new M5 touring in a recent roadtest as the best all rounder. I don't see much hope for the MY08 Impreza do you? The firm is travelling backwards.

Back to the point, apologies I mis read the script - read it out of context Blutes rushes to the fridge to slap himself with a piece of wet haddock.

stilover

I now know how. Porsche own VW.

Offset a VW Polo with a 911 GT3. Might be bending the rules somewhat but if they can get away with it

Aston Martin might have a problem though

stara

hello mr bluto, being a newbie doesn't necessarily mean i was only just recently born, if i want a nice interior, i will sit inside a swedish sauna in sweden during the swedish naked blonde sauna festival. i recommend slapping yourself with a wet sledgehammer, as the haddock should be used for other things instead of "sense-slapping"

bluto22b

I haven't spoken anything of a violent manner. You are starting to annoy me, go away. unless you can post something worth reading

Now can someone please pull this thread back on topic before the fools start to hijack what was a sensible thread

silent running

LOL ok then yes, Subaru as a brand will go downhill unless they diversify and build more mainstream cars, which is what they've tried to do with the new Impreza hatch. What does that mean to me? Nothing, I'm not a shareholder, and it makes no odds to me personally whether they go bust or not. Fact is though, Subaru are only a small subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries who have plenty of other fish to fry.

Nor do I care one way or the other whether supercar manufacturers go bust either. As someone pointed out earlier, we'd all be driving 5mpg V8s if petrol was cheap enough and emissions weren't an issue, for no reason other than just because we COULD. If the EU reduce new car emissions to 120 or whatever it is, then it will simply mean that manufacturers will have an incentive to innovate and come up with cars that meet these requirements - as they have done year after year for decades to meet safety/environmental/performance legislation.

bluto22b

I see your point but I actually don't care either, I drive an Audi now but I am sure there are plenty of enthusiasts on this forum who would be gutted if Subaru disappeared with the likes of Lancia.

At the end of the day there will always be another manufacturer which comes along and steals the thunder.

Like Audi have with the new S3 Can be modded to over 300bhp with bluefin

And before anyone mentions cost just wait 3 or 4 years and then act

geesta

Audi, Audi ,Audi......................**** OFF!

bluto22b

My oh my, who is the member who is asking for an infraction

Behave on this forum everyone is entitled to their opinion

You ponce