rmac said:
Why would I say goodbye to my pickup which has a 5.7 liter engine?
I can afford the price of gasoline even if a large tax were to be added.
Please do not assume that everyone is willing to suffer driving an
underpowered, small size automobile to save a few bucks
(or to appease a few overzealous environmentalists).
Charging by the mile is the only fair way to tax.
As someone who runs a fleet including a 6.75 litre Bentley Turbo, a 6.7
litre V10 Excursion, a 7.2 Litre Jensen Interceptor III and whos
personal cars include a turbocharged V8 Range Rover (which averages
around 9 MPUSG) I have to agree that fuel prices, if you can afford
them, are irrelevant and will not change your choice of car.
However, I'm also involved closely with the UK secondhand Motor Trade
and when the fuel prices in the UK hit £1.15 UKP / Litre (£5.00 per USG)
combined with a perceived hike in road fund licence on large engined
cars - a lot of the general public believed erroneously that anything
with an engine larger than around 2.0 was going to cost £400 a year in
tax before turning a wheel - the value of anything with a large engine
dropped horrendously. I bought a Range Rover 4.6 around April for £1200,
the garage I bought it from had given £4000 for it as P/X in February
quite reasonably as it had a retail value Jan '08 of £5000. By April it
was almost impossible to sell because nobody knew what it was worth and
buyers of large cars has virtually disappeared in the UK even though the
fuel prices have dropped again.
--
Pete M - OMF#9
BMW 325i SE Touring
Range Rover V8 Turbo
Renault 30 TX Auto
"Wait! We can't stop here, this is Bat Country"