Driving green could take you into the red

Car makers and their franchised dealer networks are facing a dilemma; they want to sell “green” cars that help the planet and reduce co2 emissions but in reality are still failing to appeal successfully to the majority of the car buying public and are thus still some way from getting buyers to consider them in any great numbers.

I wouldn’t presume to know the overall affect that dirty cars have on the environment and whilst I think most of us appreciate that something must be done, the products on offer should be far superior and more desirable than they are at present if the average beleaguered car driver is to respond favourably.

It seems that the car driver is clobbered from every angle, whether it be an increase in prices or road tax, rising fuel prices, toll roads, congestion charges VAT, the list is seemingly endless, so is it too much to ask for a decent comfortable reliable car which will help with climate change but not cost the national debt?

Well not at the moment it seems if the latest revelations are anything to go by (electric cars may be costlier than petrol vehicles).

The fact that owning and driving an electric car is likely to cost you more, despite tax breaks and subsidies, and the greater depreciation taken into consideration only the staunchest of ‘eco-friendly’ car drivers would want to consider a totally “green” car at present.

Unfortunately successive governments have seen fit to batter the car user whilst still maintaining substandard public transport services and underprepared roads. What they have singularly failed to realise when attempting to tax us off the road is that the more they push the more the driver resists and continues using their car and buying what they want in defiance of government.

Indeed car use is increasing and there are more cars on the road than ever and the average age of all these cars is creeping up so somewhere the message is getting lost (average age of cars on UK roads increases).

There are currently over 34 million cars registered in the UK so why not try a different approach which might include actually consulting with some of the owners these cars who currently contribute hundreds of millions in contributions to continue having the privilege of using a car on Britain’s roads?