My 4 litre 1951 Austin in the pic is a greedy cow, it is very inneficient by modern standards and will consume twice as much fuel as any 'gas guzzling' 4wd modern vehicle. God alone knows what the Co emissions are, no-one has measured it so all in all it's a 4 wheeled planet destroyer according to the 'green wellies' and twisted politicians! BUT.... it only does 1000 miles a year if it's lucky!
So, as someone said, it's all down to usage. Yes, Mrs Rich will drive her kids 4 miles to school in the wagon, then she might go to the supermarket or nip round for tea and buns with her friend round the corner but when it finally comes up for sale, invariably the mileage on these machines is a lot lower than that of the average family car. I would be interested to see an annual average total pollution figure for these vehicles and stack it up against that of a stanard use family car.
As it is, Mrs rich is already paying handsomely for the privelage of using that vehicle as it's using more fuel up per mile.
The fairest way of dealing with all the different classes of vhicles on the road is to add additional tax to the fuel price and scrap the road tax disk but for a myriad of reasons, there is no way they are doing this.
Mrs Rich probably votes conservative anyway so Mr Labour really doesn't care if he rips more from their wallet as he isn't getting her vote anyway, plus it really looks good for the election as it appeals to the green wellies and appeases the the tree huggers... better chance of those much needed votes!
One last thing, that 'gas guzzler can carry 5+ people .. and luggage.. it might get 20-30mpg depending on the engine. A modern high powered motorcycle will only carry two people, virtually no luggage and from what I've been told, will get about the same fuel economy (I stand to be corrected of course) so tell me, which is the biggest gas guzzler?
We are subject to the politics of 'do as I say, not as I do'..........ruddy politicians... scourge of the planet!