New Calif bill to tax SUV's. PU's, etc.

[MVZ944T]

I haerd this on KFI tonight on the way home. Our state legislature has a new bill that has passed committee and looks like it will get voted on. It will basically put a $2,000 tax on the purchase of vehcles the state (CARB), deems to be on the high side of gas usage. With that bunch of nuts up there, it could be anything larger than a Prius. That same money would go as a rebate to those who do purchase vehicles such as the Prius. If you want to find out more, check out this site.
http://www.wedrivecalifornia.com

[harnishclan]

And this would be on top of the "Luxury Tax" and some of the highest vehicle registration fees in the country, not even counting the highest gas sales taxes and associated price. Wouldn't it be great if they worked on ways to reduce spending and costs instead of continually creating innovative ways to increase our tax burden.

[Gary Burch]

If more people drove smaller efficent automobiles instead of SUV's and pick-ups I doubt there would be $4-$5 gas prices on the horizion.

[MVZ944T]

Let us all know when you try and tow your racecar to WSIR behind a Honda.

[Greg Phillips]

Let us all know when you try and tow your racecar to WSIR behind a Honda.

Maybe the Honda Ridgeline

Greg

[Dan Chambers]

Let us all know when you try and tow your racecar to WSIR behind a Honda.

Sounds like the state wants a piece of the ">6000-lbs vehicle-federal tax-break-on-farm-equipment" rebate the big SUV's have been getting for the past few years. Wondered why recent SUV's have all weighed just over 6200-Lbs? Federal tax break.

Now: it's one thing to actually use the power of a large-engined vehicle for something important like towing a race car. For that, a huge fuel-consuming vehicle is needed for a distinctly valuable purpose.

It's the Cadillac Escalades /Ford Perversions /Chevy Bozo-Tahoes going to Starbucks with one itty-bitty person (notice the "Politically-correct non-gender" thing here) driving it; then goes home; then goes to pilates; then goes home; then goes to the salon; then goes home to watch Oprah..... ad infinitum ...... that's responsible for our fuel issues.

Big tow vehicles, used sparingly and for a purpose, are fine. The rest of the time, people should be driving smaller engined 4 and 6 cylinder vehicles that get higher fuel mileage ... like Porsches!

See you down the road.
Dan

[Jad]

All of Europe seems to survive and get their racecars to and from the track without a truck or SUV to be seen....

And as Dan said, the problem isn't when people use the capacity of the big vehicle, its that 99% of the time they don't. Like 4x4, that everyone must have, though most don't know why and certainly never need it, yet it takes about a 10% hit on fuel economy, maybe 5% for AWD.

I think it makes more sense to tax luxury items more and necessities less -- you gotta pay to play, but not to live Sure you can say raising taxes isn't fixing the real problem, but realistically, do you expect politicians to fix the spending problem???

Gotta get back to work, almost far enough into the year that the money I earn is mine to keep, not just to pay taxes with

[CoryM]

Most people in Europe probably don't have to drive 4+ hours over the Grapevine or Cajon Pass to get to their "local" track.

Maybe they should start by limiting the >6200 pound vehicle rebate to people who actually need it, not giving it to realty agents in H2's, instead of taxing everyone who needs/wants a pick-up truck.

If it's really for the environment why don't they let these large vehicles use the carpool lane instead of hybrids- so that they spend less time on the road emitting.

[MikeD]

I can't really speak for the European's. The only thing I know about them is that they have embraced Diesel to a much larger extent than we have. And don't get screwed for it (no sooner did I buy a diesel pickup than the price of diesel skyrocketed [much more so than petrol]). I would switch my Ford to use bio-diesel, but it will likely void the warranty.

I wouldn't mind the extra taxes so much if they went to benefit the general public. San Diego, has got to have the worst public/mass transit system in the state. Companies can get something like $130 per month tax break for each employee that uses mass transit. But if your office is more than a couple blocks away from the Trolley or Coaster it is an unrealistic. Give us usable mass transit for the money rather than using the new tax to give yourselves a pay raise.

You don't want me to drive my 10mpg pickup to the office? Give me a viable alternative. This [tax] isn't going to do it because even if I get an econobox for my commute, I still have to pay the Pickup tax. This tax isn't "encouraging" anything. It's penalizing those who legitimately need a Pickup or SUV.

[harnishclan]

Great point Mike. If we actually could see some evidence of our money working for us instead of disappearing to the north, might be a little more palatable. This state makes a fortune off of gas taxes and we have some of the worst roads in the country.

[Gary Burch]

Let us all know when you try and tow your racecar to WSIR behind a Honda.

I actually drive my race car to WSIR.

[Greg Phillips]

Let us all know when you try and tow your racecar to WSIR behind a Honda.

I actually drive my race car to WSIR.

And if all goes well, you can drive it home, but there are those worst case contingencies when it is best to have a friend with a trailer who will take your damaged car home behind their SUV
BTDT

Greg

[Bob Gagnon]

Does it make any sense to rent a truck for the few weekends a year that one needs to tow something?

[mfoley]

I find that I must make the prep as easy as possible or I just won't go to the track or to the lake. A truck and an enclosed trailer enable me to go to the track at the last minute and with minimal effort.

The way I look at the gas think is I live about 7 miles from work so I use about a gallon a day in my truck. I'm using the same fuel as someone getting 25 mpg and living 12.5 miles from work.

[Bob Gagnon]

It's interesting how Americans look at things so totally differently in terms of energy utilization than Europeans.

My wife is Danish and when her family visits they are stunned by the size of our vehicles- and how cheap the gas is. They have had to exist on $3-4.00 a gallon gas for decades, most of the cost is due to taxes. Currently their price is around $6.00 per gallon. Because of this cars are much smaller, public transportation is easy to use and many use bicycles to get to the store etc. where we would take a car.

A common size car is a VW Polo, a VW that is smaller than a Golf. A Volvo is a large car. Many own small trailers they atttach to their car to do the weekend household hauling that needs to be done.

Now here is the hooker sealing small cars in Denmark. The VAT or Value Added Tax on most cars is over 100% and the sales tax is calculated on top of that and is ~25%. A Porsche has a VAT of around 125% so a new Cayman over there costs on the order of $150,000 including sales tax.