Practically Classics Forum

we dont pay road tax over here, fuel is slightly cheaper too, there are tolls on the motorway but the national roads are very good so i use motorways rarely..

Here in France we pay a one off tax when we first register our car's . That's it for as long as you own the car. This is based on the cars power & if it has any thing considered to be a 'luxury'. An automatic is considered a luxury so is a turbo. My 170hp manual Volvo is 11cv (chevaux) the same auto would be 13cv. My 240 is 9cv. My old 480 Turbo auto was also nine, manual box would have been a 7cv. The tax is a set price per CV & this is halved once the car reaches 10 years. IIRC I paid something like 209€ for my 11cv (which is over 10yrs old) a couple of years back.

Insurance, well I pay monthly & break down cover is inclusive, I pay arounf 53€ per month for both my 850 & 240 (3rd party).

Fuel, France used to be a lot cheaper than UK for unleaded, which is around 1.55€ a litre now. Diesal is still cheaper at around 1.33€

Contrôle Technique (French MOT) is required for all cars from 3 years old (IIRC) & is once every 2 years. The test apparently covers more points than the UK yearly test, or so I understand. The one thing I do like about the French test is that it is carried out by 'CT' centres that only carry out the test. They do not repair at all so have nothing to gain by failing a car. The downside is that, like many national chains here, each is a franchise. So standards do vary very much from one place to the next.

rich. wrote:we don't pay road tax over here....

Yay!

Paul240480 wrote:Here in France we pay a one off tax when we first register our cars . That's it for as long as you own the car.....

Boo!

Seems they get you one way or the other then. Maybe I'll stay in the UK.

'68 Triumph and a collection of bicyles.
Not very much fuel tax and no VED.
Sorted.

JLS wrote: Maybe I'll stay in the UK. Boo!

fit?

Road fund licence is a rip-off as far as I'm concerned. With the current level of tax on the fuel itself, I really can't see why we still have to pay £x amount per year for a 'licence'. Paying per mile / per litre should be sufficient.

As already stated, we're taxed on evrything to do with motoring: VAT on parts and servicing (if you pay someone else to do it), Insurance Premium Tax, Fuel Tax, Road Tax, Speeding Fines ( ), AND we pay all that tax with cash we've already suffered Income Tax and NI on...

As for the cars...

- TR6 was manufactured a few months the wrong side of Dec '72, so I will have to pay the usual £210 pa (?) or £112 per 6 months for that
- VW Camper is 1971, so free road tax (woo hoo!). Not gonna be anywhere near road legal for a while yet though.
- MX5 just taxed today for 6 months of glorious British Summer. £112.75 to the Chancellor. Kerrching. Suppose we're on to a slight winner here as a 2002 reg MX5 would be in Band K at £260pa
- Alfa is all year round so £210 pa for that. Same story as the mazda in that the same spec car a few months younger would cost £235pa on the emmissions banding
- Jeep. Just SORN'd that today as not expecting much snow for the next 6 months. Only costs £112 for 6 months and would cost a bloomin fortune if it was taxed on emmissions (never mind the fact I'm burning ten pound notes faster than you can say 'Global Warming' at an average 20 mpg).
- Peugeot 107 - A BARGAIN £20 per year! Nearly as good as free really, and does 50+ mpg too. The girlfriend loves it, and I must agree it is a great little car. Just can't bring myself to get rid of the other cars and buy myself one of these though.

My Rover P6 1974 is €48 annually as it is over thirty years old (Irish System). Nice!! However my not so trusty Toyota Carina E TD is €630 approx to tax for the year. This is an anachronistic CC based system. Cars of 2008 vintage and younger are taxed on their carbon emissions. However since 1993 when the EU enforced Catalytic Convertors on everyone, why can't all the cars post 1993 be taxed on CO2 emissions on a sliding scale dependent on year of manufacture. I only do about 10K a year, as far as I'm concerned I should pay less tax than some person in a KIA Picanto who does 20K a year or more. It's not as if the roads here are billiard smooth. I broke my radiator on a pothole last thursday so my Toyota is waiting for a new one. €175 thank you At least I can fit it myself.
However they're changing our NCT (MOT) to yearly instead of biannually for cars over ten years old. This is bullsh*t. My car is probably better maintained than a lot of newer cars I see.