Evening all

Im actually a newbie but the forum looks brilliant.Being honest I havent owned a great many Fords certainly nothing you could really describe as a fast Ford.My first being a knackered Mk3 Escort 1.6 which lost more oil than BP but refused to break down. My 2nd was a 1997 Mondeo Ghia saloon which had 110k under its wheels but drove like it had half that mileage as it had been a bank managers car with money no object maintenance.This brings us up to date with the latest addition which is my wifes car a Fiesta 1.25 Freestyle 3dr in Silver.I think its such a cracking little car nippy with a lovely gearbox and nice handling.

Im actually considering a Focus ST170 for myself but I was really surprised by the cost of road tax at 245 quid for 12mths.Is this right ?

Thanks all and its nice to be here.

 

Firstly welcome, unless they have put up the price sinse last year but i pay Ł215 a year for mine

 

Yeah they have put it up to Ł245 - I paid mine a few weeks ago.

 

Why???

 

245 quid wow thats steep Ive just taxed my focus tdci sport.
St170 looks and not far off a st170 performance wise with a remap and only 125 road tax a year and 40-55 mpg.
If you dont mind the derv clatter id get one of these

 

To be honest I have looked at a few hot hatches and the ST170 was the most expensive I think the co2 is shown as about 212 which is higher than a Skoda VRS with a 1.8 Turbo shown as 192 ?

Even a 2.0 Zetec is 245.00 per year whereas the 1.6 drops to 155.00

Thanks for the welcome

 

Yes the Skoda is more efficient and hence less road tax.

Martin

 

Would rather have the octavia, much better car in my opinion and i absoultly hate the feel of the gearbox in the st170

 

Sorry guys this is a Ford forum and I wasnt comparing the Skoda against the Focus just making the point that I am very surprised at the cost of road tax for an ST170.

 

Thats nothing the father in law just bought a 57 plate mazda 3 mps and his is over Ł400
but had he bought the new one it would only be Ł200 odds tax is shit these days.

 

Skoda Octavia vRS all day!

 

Why did they put it up or why did I pay it? On both counts I have no idea.

Seriously though, they obviously put it up to rake in taxes because they are broke and don't know what to do. All this goes on under the guise of 'being green' or something equally bullshit. If it goes up again I'll probably get rid of it. Might do that anyway and get something I'm not being raped by the government to drive. They are nice cars with decent handling, but definitely not worth paying a substantial amount more in taxes and fuel to get about in than an equivalent turbo diesel with a decent map.