Many of the vehicles driven by farming families will get
more expensive to run, thanks to changes in last week's budget
designed to encourage drivers to switch to lower-emission
vehicles.
The Chancellor introduced two measures that will penalise the
bigger-engined (and often 4x4) vehicles that typically pump out
more carbon dioxide.
One is a
first-year "road tax" (Vehicle Excise Duty) rate, arriving in
2010, that will range from £115 to £950 depending on a vehicle's
CO2 output. The other is a change in the pricing structure of
standard road tax that will favour smaller-engined cars with low
CO2 outputs but hit bigger vehicles hard.
The new scheme will divide cars into 13 bands (up from the
current seven), ranging from those under 100g/km CO2 output at the
bottom of the scale to those above 255 g/km output at the top.
Range Rover
A new £53,550
Range Rover V8 diesel, for instance, producing 295g/km will
attract a £950 first-year road tax charge from 2010. Existing
models, meanwhile, will pay the standard rate of £400 this year,
rising to £455 in 2010.
Panda 4x4
At the other end of the scale, a new £9660
Panda 4x4 (the
smallest all-wheel-drive vehicle on the market) will attract a
first-year road tax of a more modest £155, while existing models
will pay a standard road tax cost of £145 in 2008 and £155 in
2010.
Pick-up trucks come into the
light goods category and now pay £180/year road tax,
irrespective of the vehicle's CO2 output.
These new rates apply only to cars registered after 1 March,
2001. If your car is older than that you'll pay £120/year if the
engine size is below 1549cc and £185/year if it's above.
Fuel prices
Despite the Chancellor's decision to postpone his threatened
2p/litre fuel duty rise, farming families are also grappling with
rising fuel prices.
Someone driving 12,000 miles a year in a diesel
Land Rover Discovery, for instance, and getting 30mpg, would
have spent £1454 on fuel in March 2004, £1690 in March 2007 and
£2072 in March 2008.
So how will some of the typical cars run by farming families
fare under the new system? Here's a snapshot.