M market watch

[plenty]

Whilst the road tax is obvs ridiculous I still don’t get why it’s a reason not to buy an M. Folk will go away for a nice weekend somewhere that costs the same but yet balk at spending it to drive one all year round…or 6 months for half the tax. That’s one single weekend that’s paid for a years tax.

If you frame it like that, then absolutely. But alternative framings are available, e.g.:

- If you own the car for five years that's £3,560 in tax, if it doesn't go up further.

- Many people who own these cars own more than one car. I personally own four. I can swallow £1k in RFL per year, But close to £3k per year is much harder to accept.

- Of course you can SORN when not using, as I do. But it's still difficult to accept this amount of RFL for a car I might drive 3-4 times max per active month.

[tomscott]

It's my own fault for doing so little milage in the Z but thats what annoys me about it.

I do 20k a year in my JCW and its £180 I do 3k in the Z4M and its £710.

Its not like its a problem just an annoyance and one that keeps getting larger every year.

[Gwest44]

That is essentially the desired effect of the CO2 based tax system and every year the annoyance level will increase until it reaches a point that each individual owner decides to move on - resigning these car's to track toy's only.

It's the inverse to what they've done with EV's - £0 Road tax on low emission car's will soon be a thing of the past once ownership volume has reached the required objective.

[john-e89]

Whilst the road tax is obvs ridiculous I still don’t get why it’s a reason not to buy an M. Folk will go away for a nice weekend somewhere that costs the same but yet balk at spending it to drive one all year round…or 6 months for half the tax. That’s one single weekend that’s paid for a years tax.

If you frame it like that, then absolutely. But alternative framings are available, e.g.:

- If you own the car for five years that's £3,560 in tax, if it doesn't go up further.

- Many people who own these cars own more than one car. I personally own four. I can swallow £1k in RFL per year, But close to £3k per year is much harder to accept.

- Of course you can SORN when not using, as I do. But it's still difficult to accept this amount of RFL for a car I might drive 3-4 times max per active month.

I get that absolutely and you’re right of course, that’s my scenario too. You have to want an M of course, you’re getting a quirky yet one off never again car, we don’t need to go into what they are, if you know, you know, and have to accept its foibles, running costs etc, they’re obvs not a run of the mill vehicle, and if that’s an issue then don’t have one, but personally I don’t see road tax alone as a reason not to buy one if you can accept everything else.

[original guvnor]

I think the RFL cost on these is not a significant factor in values.

I’ve recently bought an M135i xdrive and the RFL is £570, and will be for another 5 years, because the list price when new was over £40k, meaning the normal £180 annual cost is increased by £390 additional tax. If you buy any half decent performance car that is two to three years old for, say £25k, the chances are that the original list price would’ve been greater than £40k, putting you in that category where you pay the additional £390 pa. For example, a Golf R, A35, S3, Civic Type R, Cupra Formentor (with the Golf R engine), Supra, new Z4, as well as any Porsche, pretty much all fall foul of it as well. So the additional RFL cost for the M’s is not going to be a significant barrier to someone looking at spending £20-25k on a sports car. They’ve factored the majority of that in.

[beanie]

for it now to fall strangely to £110 a year.

Nothing personal PVR, but this really annnoys me. I have a feeling the X5M and the Z4M have similar emissions yet the yearly tax (after the initial few) are miles apart.

Utterly insane system made all the more unpalatable when you consider there are a few Ms that fall within the lower tax banding threshold.

[pvr]

for it now to fall strangely to £110 a year.

Nothing personal PVR, but this really annnoys me. I have a feeling the X5M and the Z4M have similar emissions yet the yearly tax (after the initial few) are miles apart.

Utterly insane system made all the more unpalatable when you consider there are a few Ms that fall within the lower tax banding threshold.

No offence taken. It is madness, the X5M is a 4.8 litre V8 which is half the tax that I pay for the Golf, or the 3.0 si for that matter.

[john-e89]

Same old boring story, it’s like how the country’s being run, everything’s arse about tit….

[Mr Tidy]

Thanks for that pvr.

I suppose we all look for different things. When I was still working and buying newer cars I always tended to avoid high milers because I knew they would be hard to move on when the time came.

But now I'm running teenage BMWs I focus more on condition and history because given their age both of mine have done well below the annual average. Plus I couldn't afford a low mileage MC when I bought mine, I'd have had to wait a couple of years!

And never having had an M car before I wanted to scratch that itch while I could.

[taz1966]

Whilst the road tax is obvs ridiculous I still don’t get why it’s a reason not to buy an M. Folk will go away for a nice weekend somewhere that costs the same but yet balk at spending it to drive one all year round…or 6 months for half the tax. That’s one single weekend that’s paid for a years tax.

If you frame it like that, then absolutely. But alternative framings are available, e.g.:

- If you own the car for five years that's £3,560 in tax, if it doesn't go up further.

- Many people who own these cars own more than one car. I personally own four. I can swallow £1k in RFL per year, But close to £3k per year is much harder to accept.

- Of course you can SORN when not using, as I do. But it's still difficult to accept this amount of RFL for a car I might drive 3-4 times max per active month.

I think personally it is how you look at it.Most people would not blink an eye at going on holiday and spending 3K and what do you get for that ,just memories.
Not only that it depends on how you view your car.For me i love cars and they have always been my passion
A few years back i used to shoot competitively and that cost me around 8K a year so a few hundred quid on the tax and maintenance is nothing
I think what i am trying to say is if it is your hobby it is cheap to most other thinks out there

[Taz]

I've just retaxed mine after 4 years

I'm sure it's bloody doubled from when I last taxed it

A few years back I had all my cars taxed and insured at the same time. I now just tax and insured when only necessary

[Beemingallover]

I have a Z4M roadster Interlagos Blue with Sepang Bronze leather, how can I find out the number that were U.K. sold originally?
Thanks.

[Mr Tidy]

A forum member compiled a detailed database of all 3.0Si and M models - here's a link:- http://perso.numericable.fr/tonyz4c/

Based on that it looks like 180 Interlagos Blue MRs were registered in the UK, but there seem to have been 2 versions of Sepang Bronze leather. You'd probably need a VIN decoder to see which your car has.

[Beemingallover]

A forum member compiled a detailed database of all 3.0Si and M models - here's a link:- http://perso.numericable.fr/tonyz4c/

Based on that it looks like 180 Interlagos Blue MRs were registered in the UK, but there seem to have been 2 versions of Sepang Bronze leather. You'd probably need a VIN decoder to see which your car has.

Thanks. Yes I wondered that on Sepang, mine is light grey in colour and some seem a darker shade.

[mfvideography]

Hi all,

I'm selling my Z4M Roadster now. Here's the listing on the forum. £16,750 with the original wheels, exhaust & airbox + the aftermarket bits too.
viewtopic.php?t=146509