I have just purchased my very first "Smart Passion" first registered in 2005. I live in th UK so don't know any comparison of Road Tax or Insurance on these cars elsewhere in the world. Because the UKs road tax is calculated mostly on co2 emissions, the great majority of Smart Cars of my model fall into the £35.00 a year bracket meaning they emit below 120g/kmof co2. My Smart however seems to have 1g/km co2 more than the majority, meaning it was first registered at having an output of 121g/km and putting it into the higher road tax bracket which means I pay £120.00 a year for my car. I can't get any answers from either the DVLA in the UK or from Mercedes as to why this should be. The DVLA say they cannot alter this number unless the manufacturers of my car say the results of my co2 emissions are incorrect.
I am totally puzzled by this, and would love to hear a justifable reason explaining this difference of £85.00 a year which is quite substantial in my eyes.
Also, while on the running cost of these little beauties, why on earth are they so costly to insure? With the same company I insured my last vehicle, a Renault Kangoo Van of the same year and value, I was quoted £108.00 a year more to insure my Smart Passion?
Any reasonable explanations would be greatfully received .......Thankyou Dave
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Comment by Herb Bell on April 21, 2010 at 12:41pm -
Oops! Now you let the cat out of the bag and the politicians will vigorously leap on the chance to hit all electric car owners with a "road tax" to make sure everyone pays their "fair share" to keep up the roads! I wish they were anywhere near as assiduous in making sure the Rich and Super-rich also paid their fair share of income taxes. But that's another story.
I have some old SMART brochures that list two of the German model 450's as emitting 113 g/km of CO2, with the 55KW (60 bhp, SAE) model spouting 127 g/km and the turbo-diesel emitting 90 g/km. So, yes, those were the factory numbers for the 1999 models, which I think may have remained unchanged until the 451 model was released in 2007. In the EU, they now have all kinds of new "norms" to progressively reduce CO2 emissions. You may be thinking of the super-low emissions now found in the new diesel SMART.
Here in America, there was a semi-secret "club" of diesel car owners who ran untaxed #2 heating oil or kerosene in their cars, so the states began to require that road diesel fuel be dyed (I forget what color - maybe green?) to help in catching these tax cheats. But I never heard of this thing being enforced.
- Comment by John Walsh on April 2, 2010 at 7:22am
- Is your 'passion' fitted with any of the optional wide tyres / wheels ?? . When I purchased my first smart in 2004 my dealer warned that fitting wider tyres and wheels would increase 'rolling-resistance' which consequently increases fuel consumption, increasing co2 emissions - thus the increased road tax.
- Comment by Forest on April 1, 2010 at 3:42pm
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Would Love to help, But we don't have the same Variable Road tax here. We do pay the Tax at the Pump every time we fill up, and that brings up a new issue.
AS more and more cars use less gas and with the introduction of the Nissan Leaf, the Mini Electric and the smart ED, who is paying to have the roads repaired? That money used to come from the Tax at the Pump, if your filling up as much, but driving on the same roads then why are you not paying to keep them repaired?
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