Driving in Ireland

[soc]

Prompted by CJ's experience with the Gatso.....

<start_rant>
I'm begining to think that Ireland is REALLY turning into a crap place to live especially with regards to owning and driving cars. From what I can see life in general is getting very expensive but the service you get in return is crap!

Taking car ownership as an example:

- Car insurance is outragous for everyone regardless of what car you drive!

- Car tax although not really that expensive becomes a joke when you know that none of the revenue generated from car tax is actually spent on road improvements (its spent on out water systems)!! Take that into account with the EXTREMELY poor road system not to mention the mostly pathetic road surfaces and road tax is suddenly a total rip-off!

- Speed limits are a total joke with 30mph zones in stupid places and 60mph zones in stupid places! They've even made the bloody coast road past clontarf a 30mph zone - feels like you are walking at that speed !!!!!

- Petrol prices are a joke

- VRT is a joke

It seems to me that there is a concious effort in place to push motorists onto public transport by making it increasingly difficult to drive anywhere! I suppose this wouldn't be so bad if we had a public transport system - that in itself is a bloody joke! And not only that, we then have the bloody government rezoning areas for residential where you have no choice but to drive if you were to buy a house! F**king hell what a bunch to total arseholes - how the hell do they even tie their bloody shoelaces in the morning.... umm, I suppose they have someone, paid by our taxes, who does that for them!

When advertising Ireland we should use the slogan - "Ireland, welcome to the euro rip-off zone!"


<stop rant>

[CJ]

I have to agree with you on all of those points, especially on the cost of car ownership in this country - its unlike anywhere else in the world. I live about 2 miles from work and I pay about 500 quid a month to keep a car on the road (in slow moving traffic at that!), I could just as easily get on a push bike and get into work quicker than I would driving. If I didn't enjoy my FTO so much, it would be gone in a flash and I'd be on a motorbike.

Theres no easy answer to a lot of these issues, lets just hope things improve in the future.

CJ

[Ivan E]

So very true, rip off country at its extreme but have a look at this to annoy you more!

Your 10-year tax bill
Friday March 28th 2003


Retail price of small-family car: € 21,450

Sales tax

VRT €4,290

VAT €2,978

Total sales tax €7,268

******

Annual taxes aggregated for ten years:

Car licence (road tax) €3,940

Petrol taxes* €10,097

Total annual taxes €14,037

*based on an annual mileage of 12,000 and an average fuel consumption of 30 mpg. Annual petrol = 1800 litres. Retail petrol price taken as 92c/litre for 95 Grade unleaded petrol. 56.1c of price is tax.

*****

Insurance levy €140

2pc of annual premium, average annual premium taken as €700

*****

VAT on servicing* €480

*****


Ten-year total €21,925
******

Maintenance & spare parts averaged over 10 years

*VAT on parts purchased = 21pc. VAT on servicing incl parts fitted = 13.5pc. Typical figure over ten years for parts & servicing (incl tyre replacement every 42,000 miles) = €300 per year. VAT figure taken as €48.

How the 92c/litre of petrol breaks down

Excise Duty: 40.136

VAT: 21pc

Average price 92 cent

Duty = 40.136

VAT = 15.96 cent

Base price = 35.9 cent

Figures and calculations courtesy AA Ireland

Sample car (Renault Megane 1.5 dCi Authentique, 5dr) for purchase tax and road tax figures only.

[Daz]

[quote="shane"]

- VRT is a joke

[quote]

Here's something else to make your blood boil.....

VRT is actually illegal The irish government was told by the EU that it had to be removed, this was supposed to be done around 1990 but all they did was change the name of the tax to VRT (i don't know what it used to be called it was before my time) and this gave them a 10 year grace period so this ran out about 2000 but the thing is no-one has chalanged them in the courts yet. I guess people are afraid they would lose and it would cost the a fortune in solicator fees, but the thing is yes you would lose in all of the levels of the irish courts but if someone has the balls to take it all the way to the European courts they will win. And just look at what was on the news a few months ago some fella took the finish govenment to the european courts and won tho it did take about 2 years in total.