Motorists are having a rough ride, says David Williams in the Evening Standard. Priced Off The Road [pdf], a report published this week by uSwitch, shows that the cost of insuring, taxing and fuelling a car has outstripped the official rate of inflation by 34% or £608 over the past decade. It now costs motorists an average of £2,393 to keep a car on the road.
There are various ways to keep your costs as low as possible but one of the main ones is to look at the tax band for your car. Changes to Vehicle Excise Duty mean cars will be divided into 13 groups (A to M) depending on their CO2 emissions. As of next year, annual road tax will go up to £440 for cars emitting more than 255g of CO2 per kilometre. The changes apply to any cars registered on or after 1 March 2001. If you’re thinking of buying a car, one of the cheapest and smallest is the Citroen C1, which does about 61 miles per gallon and costs £20 a year to tax. Or you could avoid tax altogether by buying a Toyota Prius or any car made pre-1973. To find the emissions and tax band of any car, see www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk.