Porsche to go to court over congestion charge

[temi]

Porsche is to mount a legal challenge to Ken Livingstone's decision to raise the London congestion charge from £8 to £25 for the highest-polluting vehicles.
The luxury car company said it believed that the increase was unfair and wouldn't actually help the environment.
It plans to write to the Mayor of London this week giving him 14 days to respond before it applies for a judicial review.
“A massive congestion charge increase is quite simply unjust," said Andy Goss, managing director of Porsche Cars GB. (source: times online)




I do not agree with the increase in the congestion charge but I also do not think its any of Porches's business what the congestion charge rate is.

[TeamPlayer]

I`m all for charging the gas guzzlers a premium for using a lot of fuel. More so though with the 4x4`s which let`s face it over here are hardly ever used for off-road stuff anyway.

If they want to own a gas guzzler let `em pay for it I say, especially when it comes to road fund licenses.

[temi]

I agree with you as well, what I do not agree with is Porche going to court over it, is it any of their business? How many Londoners drive their car?

[OldWelshGuy]

my car des 22 to a gallon it runs on super unleaded, your car does 50MPG so I am ALREADY paying 2.5 times more tax than you in your neat little car, so why should I pay more road tax? Why should I pay more congestion charge?

Final question, are YOU happy to pay a LOT more tax when my heavy user subsidy of my paying 2.5 times the tax you are now paying stops when i am forced to change my car? I pay around £70 a week in fuel tax for using my Saab, where is the government going to get money from to make up for it?

This has NOTHING to do with global warming at all, and EVERYTHING to do with raising more money. A 3.0ltr Porsche will be a LOT cleaner than a 1.1 mini that is 15 years old!

Porsche MUSt challenge this or else it will bring business to its knees.

[TeamPlayer]

We should all remember that natural resources, including oil, are not limitless. To me it`s all about social responsibility, not just about how much tax is paid.

Why have a car which does half the mileage of many others? Not just thinking of us Brits here, but what about the Americans with their Hummers and so forth? Why a vehicle which does something like nine miles to the gallon? Fuel will run out one day, and the more irresponsible car owners are, the quicker that day will come.

[OldWelshGuy]

TP that is classic communist talk and is a slippery slope to financial meltdown IMO.

A few years back I worked 16-20 hours a day, it involved travelling up and down the country. I used to drive, then when I could afford it I got someone else to drive and used the car as a mobile office, it changed my life.

NOW you and OTHER PEOPLE are telling ME what I can and can't do.

Why did I work so hard? I employed 40 people I put millions into the economy because I was driven by ambition to have what i wanted. I wanted a Porsche and other exotic cars, I wanted a nice 500SEL to be driven around in.

take those dreams away and you take away the motivation.

Where does it stop?
Oh you can't have a big house, they cost too much to heat! Swimming pool, NO WAY are you allowed to heat it!

Central heating? forget it! Shower daily? no chance share a bath once a week with everyone else in your neighbourhood.

As I say it is a slippery slope and i am TOTALLY against it.

I am not sure where you live, but ministers and others are so determined to get punish car owners of ANY type. use public transport they say.

Swansea is 11 miles from my house. in our village we get one bus an hour, into the next town, where we have to change, it gets 2 buses per hour directly into Swansea. It takes 2 hours to get 11 miles!

A car is NOT a luxury in rural areas it is a NECESSITY!

When you take away freedom of choice, you take away the motivation of a lot of people who do what they do to be different.

[TeamPlayer]

I just view it as being socially aware rather than being told what we can and can`t do. People have to be socially responsible otherwise we`ll destroy the earth with our greenhouse gasses, that`s not rocket science.

The guy who has a car which does 10 to the gallon could just as easily drive a car which does 40 to the gallon, whilst at the same time helping the community. I didn`t say anything about going without a car altogether. I`m not sure I`d call that a form of communism.

[OldWelshGuy]

First off I should say i was kidding in my first reply, I am very socially concious, I spend a fortune on making sure I am kind to the planet. I have the house insulated to the hilt, have low temperature thermostats, solar panels, (got refused planning for a wind turbine). I donate money to forestation projects, I recycle as much as I can, and I do as much as I can locally to help my locaenvironment.

I am fully aware of global warming, but disagree with the common thought that it is PURELY our behaviour doing it We have after all had 2 ice ages so it has got hot and cold before

The issue I have is with LEGISLATING restriction of choice. They have this year made it illegal to produce or import 150watt bulbs for example. Ovehe next few years you will only be able to buy low energy bulbs. Now I and many others have chandeliers in every room, each uses 5-10 bulbs, and the low energy bulbs simply do not fit. This leaves me with a bill running to over £10,000 to replace my entire lighting system because the government say so! AMERICA is buyiong gas imissions quotas from other countries, CHINA is taking absolutely no notice of anti polloution, nor is India.

FAR BETTER our illustrio government blocked the import of cheap goods from these countries until they came into line.

BUT...
hang on...
Wait....

Banning cheap imports would drive inflation sky high as cheap imports are the only thing that jhas been keeping inflation down.

THAT is why I get angry about being told what I can and can't drive. This governement with its double standards is bring the Uk VERY close to anarchy. Unless it sorts out its fuel taxes, its immigration issues and ridiculous human rights legislation, and its yob culture issues, it will find itself in serious trouble.

[TeamPlayer]

Can`t disagree with you there, OWG. China, India are now becoming fast emerging economies and they want what the west has had for years - but at what price? I doubt they could care less about pollution, and the US only pays lip service to it. Our leaders globe trot using airplanes as though there`s no tomorrow, so they hardly set much of an example. They`re all too fond of saying one thing and doing something else.

As for the yob culture, I had to laugh when I read (just briefly) a report saying Tesco`s are blaming others for selling cheap booze! That`s rich coming from them!

[OldWelshGuy]

HANG ON... Lets leave cheap booze out of this, iwe are in the middle of the six nations rugby tournament, I need all the cheap booze I can get my hands on LOL

I am very emotional about stuff, and it gets my goat when so much is made on such a small element that will hurt people a LOT. congestion charges for example, and slaughtering someone for using a larger engine, while allowing the largest polluters in the world to continue SURELY a pollution tax on imported goods from China and India would be better (although I was a buyer, and to get around that I would have set up a new company in a clean country, shipped the goods into that company/country and resold them from there) I hate how easy it is to get around things LOL