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Hi Thomas,

It’s possible. If your car is the 2.0-litre 140hp TDCi saloon with a manual gearbox, then its CO₂ emissions should be rated at 156g/km, which would give you a motor tax bill of €570 a year. However, if it’s the automatic version, then the CO₂ rating jumps to 189g/km, and that’s a €750 bill. 

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Hi Raj,

Technically, yes, you have to pay VRT, but actually no, you don’t. How it works is this — any car with CO₂ emissions from 0-80g/km is in Band A1 for VRT, which means you have to pay 14 per cent of the Irish open market selling price. However, all electric vehicles are given a €5,000 rebate on their VRT, so as long as the 14 per cent doesn’t work out at more than €5,000, you won’t actually have to pay anything. 

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Hi David,

How about a BMW 320i? Not as powerful as your 330d, of course, but a really lovely engine, and pretty frugal for all those long journeys. Of course, if you’re buying a year-old car then diesel is still a viable option, especially if you’re racking those miles up, so another 330d could well be a good choice. It’s Euro 6 emissions compliant, so even if there are some penalties for diesel models coming down the line, it probably (fingers crossed) won’t be affected.

There are some other options, of course. How about a Lexus GS 300h? Big, comfy, great for long journeys, and 40mpg+, plus you’re future-proofing yourself with a hybrid (not a plugin). The IS 300h is also a good bet, but is a touch small on the inside, hence we’d possibly try and spend the extra to the the GS. Here are a few reviews to read:

Lexus GS reviews

Lexus IS reviews

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Hi John,

It does depend on the year, but as an example, a 2010 1.2 Grande Punto has CO₂ emissions of 139g/km so will cost €280 a year to tax.

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Hi Mark,

While anecdotal evidence suggests that there are differences between NCT test centres (and even testers), they are all supposed to follow the same NCT manual. We've scoured it and there doesn't appear to be a specific reference to the engine management light. However, there is allowance for a 'preliminary check' on the engine and a failure can be because of 'obvious engine defects'. That's quite open for interpretation and a tester could well decide that an engine management light on falls under that.

To be fair, if it is on, then it means there's something up with the emissions control system (or its sensors) and the car is not at the standard it should be. Hence I'd recommend getting the issue sorted before going for the NCT.

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Hi Hugh,

It’s only a rough guess, as ever with VRT, but it should be in the region of €3,300.

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Hi Philip,

The advantage of a hybrid (as opposed to a plugin hybrid) is that you can, theoretically, use a smaller petrol engine, running on the fuel-saving (but power-sapping) Atkinson combustion cycle, and use an electric motor, fed with power by an on-board battery pack that’s charged by both the engine and regenerative braking, to fill in the gaps and holes in the power delivery.

It’s a relatively more simple system than a plugin hybrid, and has the convenience advantage that you don’t actually have to plug it in. Up until quite recently, such hybrids tended to be very thirsty unless driven in a very specific way, and were especially poor in both performance and economy terms on long motorway journeys. Recent improvements in software and battery design (and Toyota is at the cutting edge here) mean that hybrids are now comparable with diesel cars when it comes to overall economy, and much better in town traffic. They’re generally much better for harmful emissions such as nitrogen oxide as well.

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Hi Karen,

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Hi Caroline,

That model has CO₂ emissions of 194g/km so it’ll cost you €1,250 to tax for a year.

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Hi Anthony,

Assuming it’s the five-speed manual model with four-wheel drive then it has CO₂ emissions of 165g/km, and that means Band D tax at €570 a year.