I must admit, I was very very tempted by the BMW 125i M Sport from my previous post. For me, a quite perfect car - manual gearbox, six cylinder engine, blue with white interior, not big, looks great.
The thing that stopped me buying the most (I could have bought it, I had the funds, I've now spent the funds elsewhere to remove the temptation) was the road tax. £395 road tax. My Audi A3 184PS is £195. I don't want to have two cars, so I would have sold the A3 to make way for the 125i M Sport (the A3 is more practical, so makes more sense keeping that.) I'm so sick of paying tax for things in the UK, we pay too much and don't get good value for money.
Yes, £200 a year difference in tax isn't that much, less than £20 a month, but one thing you can be certain of with the UK government, taxes will go up. I can see a few years down the road, £500 tax, £1000 tax.... I think car tax is a scandal, because you could have a car that you hardly ever use, but have to pay this scandalous fee just for the privilege of being able to use it. With petrol and diesel cars, we already pay tax on fuel (what we pay on fuel is mostly tax), so why this stupid road tax!? (which is not spent on the roads)
Car drivers are a cash cow for our incompetent government and civil service who just waste money. I wouldn't mind paying all the tax I pay, if I felt the UK Taxpayer was getting good value for their money. We're not, the waste, corruption, inefficiency, and stupidity of the establishment, is off the charts.
And, to be honest, I kind of quite like having a car I don't care about that much, parked in front of my house. I'm not tempted to use it for small journeys - like going to the supermarket, I can just walk (and I don't pay any tax ... every drop of fuel drunk by your car has a tax cost). If I have a nice car in front of my house I'd want to use it much more.
Having said that, never say never, I have changed my mind many times before 🙂 (the FOMO factor is strong with the 125i M)
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Update! 03/05/2025 I went to see the Blue 125i and was disappointed. Not sure what went wrong:
- Was I underwhelmed by the size!? Maybe. It is very small and the foot well seemed tight and was offset.
- Was I surprised to find the trader operating from a residential address!? Maybe, not that it matters.
- Did the ivory leather interior not generate the reaction I thought it would!? Yes, it seemed almost yellowy, and looked old - which it is ... 15 years old.
- The squeaking belt after the road test!? Yes, a bit worrying. But I think by then I'd already decided against it.
Kind-of funny that from afar I was saying "perfect car", but in reality (in the flesh) it disappoints. Ho-hum!
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