Time is not on the side of the Petrolhead

Only eleven days into 2011 and @FailCar is ranting again. This short blog will chime with many petrolheads.

Have you seen the price of petrol now? I remember when we all clenched as we saw it creeping up to £1 yet now that all seems like a distant memory. Yes it’s bad and yes it’s a pain in the arse but petrol is not the only thing that has become more expensive. Car tax on some motors has just turned ridiculous and insurance has apparently gone up across the board by 25%. Just think of the damage that this is doing to the future of motoring enthusiasts.

I don’t know about your views on the environment but I happen to think that ‘green’ is the new millennium bug. Ask anyone that worked in IT in 1999 and you will find out how much money utter tosh can make. Green is good. Green can now just be used as an excuse to make more money and tax on Co2? Are you kidding me? Somewhere in Whitehall a meeting took place and some sozzled old gent realised that the only thing we are not being taxed on is...air. It’s the ultimate tax.

Here lies the problem though. The cost of learning to drive now is at least £25 an hour and then on top of that having to fork out for tax and Insurance. I know some of the latest models have free/cheap tax but what use is that when all you can afford is a ten year old (probably French) hatchback?

If the government gets away with all this ‘green’ then it’s going to change the mindset of future generations.

Already we are seeing the change in mindset, just take a look at Toyota. No MR2, Celica, Supra, Starlet GT Turbo. OK, the AE86 concept looks like it will be coming through, (eventually),but still there has been a huge change in their product line-up and they don’t seem to be doing too badly!

It all depends on what the public wants and by financially crippling them in every aspect of motoring then you are eventually going to change demand. Without a new generation of petrolheads why would manufacturers bother with those ‘gamble’ cars? Renault Spider, Focus RS MK1, Honda NSX etc. Not going to happen in the future because the governments have forced people to look for the answer in the wrong places. It’s only been ten years since this ‘green’ stuff kicked off and already I feel like I have the attitude of Demolition Man.

Taco Bell anyone?