Motoring groups give 2013 Budget a mixed reaction

GROUPS representing the nation's motorists have shared their thoughts on what this year's Budget could mean for your automotive wallet.

Chancellor George Osborne revealed a number of measures which will affect the cost of owning and running a car, including a proposed freeze in fuel duty rises later this year, which have met with a mixed reaction from motoring organisations.

The fuel duty freeze got a particularly warm welcome, with Professor Stephen Glaister, the director of the RAC Foundation, saying: “This news provides breathing space for families being smothered by the soaring costs of motoring, especially the 800,000 households spending more than a quarter of their income on operating a vehicle.

"Through this move, the chancellor will lose about £1bn a year in duty and VAT income, but tens of thousands of people will be saved from being forced to give up their cars against a backdrop of generally rising running costs.

"Freezing fuel duty does nothing to help the millions who rely on public transport. Bus services are seeing year-on-year cuts and government is still committed to above-inflation rail fares rises."

The chancellor, George Osborne, said: "We inherited a fuel duty escalator that would have seen above inflation increases in every year of this Parliament. We abolished the escalator and now we’ve now frozen fuel duty for two years. This has not been easy. The Government has foregone £6billion in revenues to date."

However, AA president Edmund King described the move as "relief, rather than joy" for drivers, while other transport groups were less supportive of the measures.

Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "Freezing fuel duty does nothing to help the millions who rely on public transport.

"Bus services are seeing year-on-year cuts and government is still committed to above-inflation rail fares rises."

Nissan, meanwhile, publicly expressed delight that Benefit in Kind (BIK) tax levels - such as its LEAF model - will now be set at 5%, rather than 13% as previously.

A spokesperson for the firm said: "The Budget announcement means that by keeping BIK rates for company EV drivers at the lowest rate, more will look to choose an EV like the LEAF as their next company car.

"This should increase EV sales, at the same time as helping bring down emission levels which is a priority both for companies meeting their corporate CSR objectives and for cities such as London to meet future EU emission targets."

Do you think the 2013 Budget has helped or hindered motorists? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below...

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Why the Dacia Sandero could be my sort of car

THIS WEEK I’ve mostly been waiting to find out which of my favourite foods is laced with horsemeat. Given some of the shocking stuff sat in the icy depths of my freezer, it’s almost inevitable.

I can’t be the only person in Britain who isn’t especially bothered, though –surely a bottom-of-the-range spaghetti bolog-neighs wouldn’t taste any better even if it didn’t have horsemeat in it? As long as it’s cheap, tastes vaguely nice and doesn’t instigate a trip to the doctor, I really couldn’t care less. All of which brings me to Dacia.

The company is Renault’s recession-busting riposte to all those credit-crunched UK motorists who want a cheap new car and nothing else – and, given all the non-petrolheads I know who simply want to get to work for as little as possible, that’s quite a few of us cash-strapped Brits. It’s not the first time you’ve able to buy a Dacia in this country – off-road enthusiasts with particularly long memories might just about recall the original Duster 4x4 of the 1980s variety – but the brand’s reintroduction here, having proven a hit on the continent, couldn’t be more perfectly timed. Think of it as Renault’s “Everyday Value” range.

It’s the sort of car my mate Tom, who’s just bought a Kia solely because it’s cheap and generously equipped on the warranty front, would get in an instant. None of this Taste The Difference motoring malarkey I go for – in the same way I’m not going to spend over the odds on a Marco Pierre White burger, he’s not going to stump up a car with GTI on its rump. In fact, a Dacia Sandero GTI would be a bit of an automotive oxymoron.

I’ve yet to drive the Sandero but of all of 2013’s new arrivals it’s one I’m particularly keen to try, partly because a) with no sign of an economic revival any time soon, Britain’s cheapest new car couldn’t be more relevant, and more importantly b) it looks like the kind of car I’d enjoy. Not only is it utterly unpretentious in just about every way, but because it’s small, light and unspoilt by unnecessary gadgets it could be just as much fun as the Citroen C1, the Toyota IQ and the Suzuki Swift Sport. Small cars are fun, so I’m looking forward to the Sandero.

But what particularly brightened my day when checking out Dacia’s website was discovering just what you get for your £5,995. In particular, the section on the Sandero’s spec sheet entitled “Comfort and Convenience”, which reveals exactly what the entry-level model’s buyers will get for their – wait for it – comfort and convenience. They will get winding rear windows. They will get a heated rear windscreen. And that’s it.

Still doesn’t stop me from wanting to test drive it, though.

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Is it any wonder Britain is falling out of love with the car?

THE doctor's been in and given his diagnosis. Britain is Castrol R deficient. As a nation, we are falling out of love with the car.

That's the finding of a new report, which concludes that we - and particularly my own group of petrolheads, the male twentysomethings - are driving in fewer numbers over smaller distances. Perhaps these days we can't be bothered getting in the car and driving to a mate's place, because it's easier to Facebook them instead.

I'd agree with the numbers - since the days when the Spice Girls were still topping the charts and the most sophisticated bit of handheld tech most kids had was a dead Tamagotchi, the number of young blokes in the North West with a driving licence has dropped by 18% - but not the logic. It's not that we don't still love our cars. We just can't afford them any more.

Motoring as a movement, no puns intended, is still being passed down to the next generation, if the number of lads younger than I am at classic car shows is anything to go by. Gigs like the Footman James show at the NEC, these days at least, are just as likely to draw fans of the original Fiesta XR2 as they are the Morris Minor or the Hillman Imp. I still shuddered when I saw an entire stand dedicated to the Vauxhall Nova!

Nope, the problem is the numbers; upwards of £1.30 a litre for petrol, anything in the region of £1,500 for insurance and the sort of obsession with miles per gallon which would have made a Rover Vitesse owner wince. Not that these aren't things we all have to deal with - remember, these days we're all in this together - and they're costs which most car nuts will still put up with, especially if they're clever and buy a pre ‘73 car with no road tax and classic car insurance. But I can see why most of my mates, even the ones vaguely interested in cars, give the idea an apathetic shrug before whipping out their iPhone.

I like the idea of motoring being a scene, a culture that gets passed down from my dad's generation to mine, which is why I love getting in these beautifully crafted machines, meeting up with likeminded folk and going on a drive to enjoy them. I just worry that in thirty years' time, the generation that follows me won't be able to afford it.

So the car, at least as an entity in modern day Britain, is a bit sick. Then again, I'd still take a Vauxhall Nova over public transport.

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