Dragotec Magus 2020
Because your mileage is lean it doesn’t mean your lifestyle has to be.
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So, just for fun, I plugged the real numbers from the IRL 2020 Toyota Corolla (a normal car available in most markets) into the calculator. This is the base “L” model, with no options, and the smallest engine available in the lineup. Road taxes are nearly $6000 for a base commuter sedan. Financing this car for 5 years is a monthly payment of $289, and the road tax (which I read a plate fee/tax disk) is just over $490/mo. That makes the road tax almost double the payments. I don’t own a car outside the US, but my tag fee is around $37 a year. Sana Marzio is really giving the finger to anyone thinking about owning a car. May be better to register the title to a P.O. box in Fruinia or Hetvesia and spring for a parking pass. (We all know rich people pay… different taxes than the rest of us.)
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So, what’s your point?
Smallest in your/our region. There’s a 1.2t engine available in several other countries because of things like the engine size taxes offered in this challenge.
Also while the corolla is “small” for american markets it’s at least 1 or 2 sizes larger than a “small” car in europe.
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This isn’t really that far removed from extremely small high population density jurisdictions (e.g. Singapore or places that impose high marginal costs on private (and ICE) car ownership (e.g. Norway).
Think about it for a second. This customer wants a car in this place where traffic is shithouse, wants a supercar at that because they’re a high-roller, but also wants to not pay taxes especially because they’re a high-roller. It makes perfect sense from a spoilt over-moneyed person who isn’t making a practical decision about their lifestyle point of view. And they especially don’t want a Corolla which is a C seg and actually not that small at all.
This just reads like a “booooo I don’t understand why governments can’t just make owning a car cheap like it is here”. Newsflash: it’s not unrealistic.
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Engine sizes can vary wildly across the world. Small in Japan is pretty tiny compared to the rest of the world. Small in the US is huge compared to the rest of the world. With the fictional world’s we have here, pretty much any value can be viable.
The tax rate we see here isn’t too far off from what you’d see in Norway/Sweeden either as far as I’m aware.
Aren’t they also like majority electric cars now though?
I think so. That’s why ICE taxes are so high in general there. They want to discourage fuel use.
My comment wasn’t so much a gripe, I just found the numbers generally shocking (based on my American perspective). I’m not arguing the validity of it, or its basis on taxes in very congested areas (I was comparing my CSR car to an IRL car to see if the road taxes seemed in the ball park).
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I get what you’re saying, as I’m also an American. Living on the West Coast, the taxes on a reasonably large car aren’t high. The issue is that fuel economy taxes are rolled into the costs of fuel. Over a year, it adds up to quite a lot.
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oh ok that’s fair, the margins are pretty huge aren’t they.
I’m always torn because I actually support limitations in private ownership of cars but I too am continuously tempted to buy a nice sporty car of my own and public transport around here is a bit lacking…
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Pfft!
Ban low performance drivers, not high performance cars.
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lmao I’d get behind this but then, just like the reason I don’t get a dashcam… what if I’m actually the really terrible driver… 
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We have this weird problem in America where a modern mentality of “if it’s big its safe” and/or the boomer mentality of “whoever has the biggest toys wins” combined with an EPA policy of basing fuel economy requirements on vehicle footprint (ie bigger vehicles can have higher emissions) has made the F150 Americas favorite sedan.
I realize it isn’t my concern what other people choose to drive, but I am a very practical person, so for every incompetent texting addict I see lumbering down the road in 3 tons of poorly guided metal I get a little judgmental. On the one hand, it’s your choice, on the other hand the damn things are filled with cameras and radar for “driver awareness” or some similar BS. If you can’t see out of it, don’t drive it. I had a customer the other day (I work at a dealership) who had a software update to mirror camera. The system handles the automatic brakes, and “lane assist” features. The issue was over sensitivity (the car could panic stop for no real reason) and the new calibration reduced sensitivity. Problem is the roads here are not in good shape (faded lines, etc), so the steering assist became less intrusive. Guy threw a temper tantrum because he was suddenly responsible for keeping his vehicle in the lane on his own.
Without getting too far down this, I support some (steep) taxes I have no solution for enforcing.
Empty seat tax, you pay extra for buying more car than you need.
Issue 1, what happens when a single person buys an (actual) sedan?
Issue 2, now the Suburban comes in the “cargo” edition. Still 24’ long, just has 2 seats.
Excess capacity tax, you need a use waiver/high tax for anything payload over 1/2 ton.
Issue 1, now pickups come in a town edition with super light springs.
Issue 2, what about the travel trailer owner who doesn’t want to own multiple cars?
Issue 3, what constitutes use?
Drivers license black list.
I don’t even know where to start this one.
Hold the driver accountable.
Texting and driving is legal, however your insurance can deny your claim is you are found (in court) to be distracted at the time of the crash. You bear 100% liability.
Issue 1, have you seen the US court system?
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While I agree with you, this goes off-topic, maybe let’s make a thread there?
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$37 in tag fee’s? (cries in Commiefornia)
Tag fees this year are $87.
I see this as discussing this CSR. I want to know why the government is successively taxing the more expensive cars in the tree if it was only about emissions and “too many cars”. Is that turing this country into more of a class structure by the car you can afford to drive? These are just fun questions. Governments make poor decisions all of the time, could this be a mistake? Would you rather have your country full of the cheapest models, or simply the cars that are the most efficient? When I was stationed in Iceland, my friend used to drive us around in his BMW516, which was kind of crazy considering my parents owned a BMW533. Even though our family sedan was the most efficient car we ever owned, the USA paid about 1/5 the amount for fuel value compared to Iceland. So having double the horsepower was a US trait, because BMW was known as a European sport brand, and having a thrifty but doggish car would ruin their reputation and brand image. On the other hand, we would ride around in my Trans Am because I could fuel the 5L on base at US prices. I remember one time on a road trip, remotely fueling for a full tank was the equivalent of 100 US dollars when on base it cost $15.
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