The exclusion of paper tax discs doesn’t mean that you won’t have to pay road tax. The tax will remain and the DVLA and police will rely only on digital records. So the only thing that will change is that your windscreen won’t have to have a sticker on it.
The colored tax discs appeared in 1923 while the perforated tax discs appeared in 1938. In that period, the discs usually lasted within the year of issue. It was 1961 when the 1-year system of payment was introduced to the public. The same year the design was improved making it very difficult to forge. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency became responsible for dealing with these discs in 1974.
They had decided to invest their money to protect the security of their families, so they proceeded from their house along a road, over a toll bridge in a car to see an independent financial adviser. If you park their car in the space that used to be free and pay a parking tax and trundle in to see their adviser.
Their adviser looks at their tax position, sees the capital they have is being taxed in the building society and recommends the most appropriate tax solution. They take the appropriate risk and invest. They charges a fee with Vat added to it. Clearly a stressful day, they pop in for a beer which is battered with tax and consider taking up smoking to deal with the stress but realize it would kill them twice.
The old 1.5 litre petrol unit is replaced with a 1.8 litre engine. This addresses one of the shortcomings of the old car – the lack of power at higher speeds. However as well as resulting in more power, it also results in better economy. Surprised? Well the smaller engine had to be worked too hard at higher speeds, and the economy suffered as a result. The new engine can spin at lower revs on long runs and so is more efficient – Toyota claims this makes it 10{08b18e09d61592545cfa906750c4e00403c6a3feee417d0287bb408a09483da0} more economical at motorway speeds.
It also looks good. Although the styling is very much evolutionary rather than revolutionary, it does look more sculptured, and it has a wider stance, especially when specified with the 17 inch alloy wheels on the top of the range models (as fitted to our test car). The base model gets 15 inch wheels with wheel covers, which makes the wheels look very weedy – like a manufacturer’s typical ‘eco-special’. It strikes me that they are trying to tackle the short sharp people (hedge funds et al) who make a mess of our markets but are missing them. In addition to giving the third generation Prius the power it needs, Toyota has also been busy improving the steering and suspension. The steering has better weight and the car feels less willowy around corners. But it still doesn’t have the driving dynamics of class-leaders in this area such as the Ford Focus.