Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
How much tax do you pay on gasoline? How about the scandanavians, how much did that new 1.8 liter car cost you $60,000, $65,000?
You're asking about Scandinavia, but I'll add a few comments here.
I personally think the current Labour government's attitude to motorists concerning taxation on road fuel is outrageous. Same thing applies to all previous Labour governments. Their policy of escalating the cost of road fuel at 6% above the level of inflation had to be abandoned three years ago, having led to a massive public revolt against road fuel costs, organised by some Welsh farmers. The real rub is the cost of diesel - cheaper than gasoline in most countries to reflect lower production costs - but
more expensive in Britain. That's because a Labour chancellor saw the growing popularity of diesel powered cars, and the lower cost coupled with the fact that many cars do 1½ times the mileage on the same quantity of diesel meant that people were not paying as much tax. Labour decided they could pay more, so increased the cost of diesel to what it is now - about 80p per litre. But if you go down to the local boat yard, you can buy diesel for about 35p per litre. But there are big fines for using non-road fuel in road vehicles.
As for cars, my 2.8 cost me about £20,000. That was just after VW reduced its UK price by about £3000 because people were going to Europe to buy cars. Holland has a high purchase tax on cars, so the car producers have to price cars at levels which the Dutch motorist is able and willing to pay. But the British can go there to buy a car, and not have to pay the tax - so there are deals to be had. I chose not to buy mine in Europe (long story) but a close friend of mine bought his Ford Focus 1.6 in Holland, and paid about £10,000.
But Grun has a point. A long time ago, I hired a Chevrolet Caprice Classic in Florida. I was an enormous car - 16' in length. It was so comfortable it felt like driving a bed! The automatic transmission selector was column mounted and the floor was flat, so the car could seat six easily, and could accommodate 4 suitcases in the trunk. It had air conditioning, a radio/cassette system (this was 1990), safety features like airbags, electric windows, power brakes and power steering. The gas tank capacity was 23 gallons!
Price then for this car was $16,000. At that time in Britain, the same money would have bought a Vauxhall Cavalier L model - only 4 seats, manual gears, smaller boot, basic radio if any, wind-up windows, no power steering, no servo assisted brakes, no air conditioning. A much smaller car.
But there have been reforms. Back then the car industry operated a cartel. Now you can buy a car at a supermarket almost. A Renault Laguna 1.8 here was about £12,000 at a time when the same car could be bought in Denmark for £6000 - because of not having to pay the Danish purchase tax. The car makers and dealers don't like the fact that they can no longer rip us off the way they did in the past.
