Motoring News

Millennium, or newer, cars are now being monitored for their CO2
emissions – and your used car dealer is being sent the information.

The May edition of the ‘black book’ issued by CAP will not only give
monetary values for trade-in and suggested retail prices for used
vehicles, as well as the insurance bands, but it will list the CO2
emissions readings, and the amount of VED (tax disc) that they will
attract.

Mark Norman, operational development manager at CAP, said: "We have now
introduced CO2 figures into Black Book because we believe that VED rates will become as influential on consumer choice as fuel economy and insurance costs.

"Traders and dealers should get into the habit now of taking into
account the likely VED bands of cars they acquire because the new rules
will apply to all cars registered from March 2001. Depending on the
speed of growing consumer awareness, this means that there is already an increased risk that many older, low-value cars will become less desirable to customers.

"This risk will increase dramatically when the new VED rates are
introduced in 2009."

CAP has calculated that for some cars, buyers will baulk at paying out
hundreds of pounds each year to tax, let alone insure their cars, if the value has depreciated so quickly that the annual running costs equal the purchase cost.