For the preservation of our driving heritage! Also after March - column

Auto Motor Klassiek » Column » For the preservation of our driving heritage! Also after March - column
Purchasing classics there

Already at primary school I read several car magazines that fell through our bus. Fortunately, my father and I shared an interest in cars, both new models and classics. Usually I first looked at the pictures and then at the stories about the most special classics to sort out. Two years ago I participated in a rally of the DHRC, an abctje around Hollands Kroon. Very nice to be able to drive around for a day in a silver-gray Peugeot 504 from 1969 with an open roof. Pure enjoyment.

No higher car taxes

If the vaccine is widely distributed, we will start exercising more. One thing is absolutely clear; the car is and remains the most important means of transport for millions of drivers who want to take the road every day. We have passed the barrier of 9 million drivers in our small country with more than 100.000 car enthusiasts with a classic. Almost 80% of all kilometers traveled in the Netherlands is with our holy cow. Freedom, fun, comfort and flexibility make us opt for the car. With new cars, young timers or occasionally with a classic. The first car rallies are also planned from the autumn. Clockwise or counterclockwise, over the next four years, a review of the complicated car taxes will also be on the political agenda. I think this should not lead to higher car taxes.

In our little country we jointly charge the use, purchase and possession of our car. And then the motorist pays 'surcharges', a kind of surcharge to your province, so that the provincial budget can be finalized. Why only the car owner directly contributes to bicycle paths, subsidies or your provincial government is a complete mystery to me. You now pay tax four times. And now, with the elections in sight, various parties are again arguing for a rush hour charge or road pricing. Are we really going to tax that car a fifth time? I wonder. Not for me; paying according to use sounds good, but only if the motor vehicle tax and BPM expire. With more than 20 billion in car taxes, motorists deliver more than their 'fair share' to the treasury. And this while only a few billion is invested annually in road maintenance and solving traffic bottlenecks for the future.

Standing up for our mobile cultural heritage

The extra burden on classics or young timers makes no sense. Enthusiasts usually drive relatively few kilometers for fun in cultural heritage, which causes little damage to the environment. The further phasing out of the 'oldtimer scheme' is therefore unreasonable. Then you only tease people for having a passion. I also know that many enthusiasts are already looking at cleaner petrol for the future of their classic. This is a good business. In short, we can forget symbol politics with all its consequences. Driving that classic with common sense! For all car enthusiasts, in any car. That is what I stand for as a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. 

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11 comments

  1. And then again VAT and excise duties on fuel, insurance tax if one takes out the compulsory insurance.
    Actually we live in a country of Robber gangs, you pay tax on your income, but on every euro that you spend, you pay tax in the form of VAT and Excise duties.
    I wonder what it was like before! 970 when there was no VAT yet.

    • Exactly the same: complainers about having to pay taxes. Even then by people who had no idea why it is ultimately a privilege to have to pay taxes in the Netherlands.

  2. You pay too much tax everywhere. But that is not a problem in itself, it is about what you get in return. Without going into further detail: in Belgium the tax burden is also high (as indicated in the comments) and you drive on the roads from pit to pit. In France you pay toll and the motorways there are of high quality in yellowing with other countries. In Italy you pay toll and there can just collapse a piece of highway.
    Driving into account is an enormous risk for citizens. Without competition (such as refueling abroad, opting for an N-road), the toll can be increased without limits. All kinds of political hobby horses come into the picture to milk a dairy cow further and further. It is not for nothing that we have abandoned the medieval toll. That toll was unfair and hindered fair economic development.
    The toll story is not entirely correct either: we have been taxing our fuel cars (motorcycles, mopeds) for years according to usage. Due to, among other things, the excise duty and VAT on fuel (consumption, kilometers, heavy right foot).
    In that sense, it would be more interesting (fairer and more future-oriented) to investigate whether electricity for transport (cars) cannot be taxed differently as electricity for household use. Or toll only for electric driving. Let's start with the future.

  3. Dear Laurens,
    have you forgotten that - 25 billion for weighing -, earmarked by yet another blonde politician ???? + the fact that this short-term policy, hopefully in a completely different cabinet!, certainly needs a lot of money, so.
    An example ; my wife drives an emission class 6 modern car, also on LPG, but the MRB has already been increased on January 7 !!
    As a REWARD for driving an environmentally friendly car! But positive are these hypocrites ?????? Nice country, and add a few million people too; that drives nice and relaxed !!

  4. The largest and most effective relief for the environment is to reduce the (world) population. And with that also a structural approach to our top XNUMX problems.
    In 2 generations, we will no longer have to worry about 'traffic bottlenecks' and more details like that. Indeed, real freedom. Until now, politics has not had the guts or is only interested in short-term scores. But maybe you dare to make a start by putting Child Benefit on the slope?

    • Indeed, if you really want to do something for the environment, then the message is “Do not have children and do not live too long”. The rest is conscience.

      • Longer living only affects a temporary population density count, and is not a single factor in a society with literally and figuratively more space based on smaller numbers of inhabitants. For example, with 10 million Dutch people, nobody is worried about that Peugeot 404 diesel, with which you can easily live for 94 years in terms of the environment.

  5. Sorry to say so, but I cannot see any confirmation that the tax on pre-oldtimer cars will be increased for the next 4 years. The writer, on the other hand, should be concerned about the impact of environmental zones on older hobby cars. If things go against you, you will no longer be allowed to enter the Ardennes with your classic car in a few years.

  6. Yes Laurens.
    It's no better in Belgium, you pay your blue taxes for your car, even if you don't drive it.
    And yes road pricing is also doing the rounds, this may also be on top of that.
    In the Brussels region, the idea was to abolish the annual road beasting for their residents in exchange for a tax on the use of the car in the city. Good idea tax more on the use and less on having.
    But this would mean that the Flemings and Walloons who drove into the city from outside Brussels would pay an extra tax. So there will not be.

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