Safe Speed Forums

I have brought a new car, it falls in to Band E for road tax.

It has a 1.6 engine, I have just looked ford focus web site two (out of three) of their 1.6 engines fall into band D.

It follows therefor my car pumps more carbondioxide, and water into the air, This is because my engine is fully combusting more fuel than the foucs. This means I realse less Carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

If I am not mistaken carbon moxiode is a killer as it binds to heamoglobin, and prevents red blood cells transporting oxygen.
Some hydrocarbons are suspected to cause cancer, for example Benze.

If I am not mistaken trees need carbon dioxide to use in pohotsynthiesis, and produce food etc.
Water is usefull 1) for photosynthesis 2) There always seems to be a shortage in this country.

I hate the way people only seem to think about carbon dioxde and not the other crap cars can give out.

My car looks better too.

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

From the car manufacturer's own tests, the Government know what the official CO2, CO and HC figures are for virtually every car on the UK's roads. These are correlated with the numbers of each car recorded on the DVLA's database and monitored closely.

In recent years, car manufacturers have gone to great lengths to improve the efficiency of modern engines, reducing the amount of unburnt fuel (HC) and CO emitted into the atmosphere in favour of more of the relatively harmless gas CO2.

The Government recognised this trend and saw an opportunity...

By re-jigging Road Tax to be based on CO2 levels, the Government ended up with a much larger figure at the bottom of their spreadsheet.

It's the perfect example of a "stealth" tax increase. Nothing more, nothing less.

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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

We should not forget that H2O is a more potent greehhouse gas than CO2. Should be not be taxing H2O emissions instead?

You're right, it shouldn't just be about carbon dioxide. Benzine is a poisonous gas found in petrol fumes, known to cause leukaemia/cancer.