How can I tell?  Well, considering that they’re planning a massive new set of tax initiatives targeting anyone who buys or operates a vehicle, it sure SEEMS like they don’t want you driving anywhere.

How massive, you ask?  Well, in terms of US dollars, you can figure that they’re planning to add roughly FIVE GRAND in taxes to the cost of every new car.  Of course, that particular tax is being phased in in installments over the course of the next eleven years, but still, five grand?  That’s no small feat.

And as if that weren’t horrendous enough, they’re also planning an increase in the gas tax, which will make gas cost, roughly, three pounds per liter, or in US money, roughly thirteen bucks a gallon.

This egregious push is being dubbed “essential” in order for Great Britain to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets, but critics, not surprisingly, are saying that this is all a push to treat drivers like the government’s own personal piggy bank.

This is, of course, nightmarish in its extremity, and hopefully will drive Brits into the streets to protest this sickening abuse of power.

Tags: Engalnd, gas prices, great britain, Law, taxes

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Over the course of the next two years, the British government, as announced by transport secretary Lord Adonis, has announced that they’ll be installing a whopping two thousand electric car “charging points” over the next two years.

First to benefit from the new additions will be Gateshead and Newcastle, and the word is that the charge points will be located near shops and other public thoroughfares, likely because that’s where people are mostly likely to be driving their electric cars to.  In an interesting move, some of them will also be placed curbside and in parking lots (park and juice up…now there’s an idea.).

Some of them will be free to use, while others will require an annual subscription fee to access, and hopefully everyone will know which is which well in advance to prevent any misunderstandings.  I can just see people pull up to a charge point with their battery on  low just to discover that they’ve pulled up to a subscription-only point.

Of course, since the subscription includes unlimited use, hopefully good Samaritans will be along to provide a little extra juice in cases like that.  But still–this is a pretty bright idea whose time has more than come.

Tags: charge point, Electric, electric car, free for use, great britain, subscription

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The Lotus Evora beat out 29 other cars to win the title of Performance Car of the Year for 2009 from Car Magazine. The list included marquee car brands like Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Porsche, giving you an idea of what this vehicle brings. All 30 cars went through subjective and objective testing on the driving roads of Great Britain. Among the highlights of the Lotus Evora during this event included the smooth navigation and steering.

And to refresh your memory, the Lotus Evora features a 280HP 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine paired with a 6-speed manual transmission gearbox.

(Source) Auto Spies

Tags: car brands, car magazine, Cars, Evora, great britain, Lamborghini, Lotus, manual transmission, memory, performance car of the year, petrol engine, Porsche, smooth navigation, transmission gearbox

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The British car scrappage scheme, which offered drivers up to two thousand pounds (roughly four thousand dollars US) to turn in a car ten years old or older for a new car is on track to run out of money fairly soon.

By most accounts, this British equivalent of Cash for Clunkers was a success, generating a six percent rise in car sales across Great Britain.  But half the money the program was allotted has been spent, and there are no signs that the British government intends to add any more to it, despite a fairly vocal outcry suggesting that they should.

Sometimes you’ve just got to know when to cut a deal short, folks, and in this case, now’s the time.  Hopefully it’ll help get the British economy back on its feet.

Tags: British law, car scrappage scheme, Cash for Clunkers, great britain

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In a move to help automotive sales, British drivers are being given subsidies to replace old cars with new ones. Not only will this help aid the struggling car makers in Great Britain but also help in improving carbon emissions that everyone knows accumulates from old cars.

“There may be other ways to lift car manufacturing, including schemes where you trade in old cars to buy new ones,” Mandelson said in an interview in Belfast, Northern Ireland. “I am looking at the experience of other countries.”

Car sales in Britain fell 31 percent in January from a year earlier, the ninth consecutive monthly decline.

(Source) Bloomberg

Tags: belfast northern ireland, british drivers, car makers, car sales, carbon emissions, great britain, subsidies

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The intent of the installation of speed cameras in Great Britain was to help normalize and place importance on how people should observe speed limits. This was actually done to promote safety for motorists although there have been a number of drivers now bickering with regards to their use as well as loopholes on the these “Speed Cameras” since there was no parliamentary law approved to use them in the first place.

Should they be successful, it would pave the way for an avalanche of claims from tens of thousands motorists who have been fined and had points put on their license.

Within the next few months courts in England and Scotland will decide whether motorists were punished unlawfully because of a drafting error dating back to the early 1990s.

As far as safety on the road is concerned, this measure is indeed commendable to place erring drivers in check and to avoid road accidents or mishaps. But that loophole is causing a lot of issues. Unless they are resolved, it is bound to lead to a bigger mess rather than a viable solution.

(Source) Telegraph

Tags: great britain, motorists, parliamentary law, speed cameras, speed limits

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