Changed my bike last Saturday to a Forza 300, which I taxed whilst at the dealer at £45 for 12 months. Today I taxed my wife's car, a Ford Fiesta, petrol, 1242cc engine, at £30 for 12 months. The Fiesta engine is more than 4 times in size, to that of the Forza and the weight / mass of the Fiesta must also be 4 times or more that of the Forza, yet I am paying 50% more in road tax for the Forza. The emissions of a 279cc petrol engine must be less, to my mind, than that of a 1242cc petrol engine , and the scooter takes up much less of the road, plus does 85 -90 mpg compared to about 45 mpg of the Fiesta, and will wear the road out less than a car.

Can anyone throw any light on why we pay more, for a small scooter, than for a car, in road tax?

Because bike road tax hasn't been updated to take emissions into consideration like car tax has .
It's like our old 1988 motorhome just 2 levels of tax above or below 1600 I think it is .For old cars with carbs .

Tell me about it.
My wife endures an annual Rant every time I have to tax my Honda 90 - and some small cars are FREE!

Nearly £70 for mine

£96 for my NC750, the bike must be low on emissions, it does 90mpg and is automatic.

I fall into that category too. Burgman 400 tax £45, Kia Picanto 1.0 Road tax 0.0
First time ever for me, it makes me feel really smug...

Crazy, my old smoky 207 diesel is £30. The clean euro 5 hyundai i40 is £150. My previous car a 2016 diesel focus was tax free.

Doesn't make sense

Chris, I think your i40 will be euro 6 or 6.2 like mine. You're a 66 or above plate aren't you? But it is crazy isn't it.

Then we have another dimension to consider. My bro in laws Kia E-Niro. No road tax, costs 2p to service each year, and he doesn't even pay for electricity to charge it up...lol. He uses all the free charging points at various places around his location. He can use his 7.2kw charger at home if he wants, but that costs him a heady £6.30 to charge from 20% to 100%. And he still moans about the cost of motoring, but then he is a northerner . As a by the way, he is averaging around 315 miles per full charge in everyday running around and that includes at least 60 miles of motorway work in his everyday drive. If he sticks to just urban driving the range goes over 400 miles on one charge. Pretty dam good. He's had the car near 18 months now. Loves the performance 201hp/204ps and 400nm of torque from zero revs. He has found that a 15min fast charge puts on average 140 miles in the tank. Again pretty good. No doubt in a few years EV's will attract road tax. They have to get it from somewhere.

Greyerbeard wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 8:37 am Tell me about it.
My wife endures an annual Rant every time I have to tax my Honda 90 - and some small cars are FREE!

yep my 1000cc suzuki celerio is zero/nothing which i like,and have had 84 mpg out if it,i did check it 3 times and the next door neighbour,but my scoots are £21 but to get a new car of what i got ,is now £155

I have a 2016 Microcar MGO3 car that I drive on my Bike Licence.
It has a 505cc Twin Cylinder petrol engine with 15 kW (21 bhp)
They don't tax it on the emissions even though it only puts out 115 grams of CO2, if they did that it would only be £30 a year.
It is classed as a private/light goods and it costs £170 a year

Andy