Euro 5 & new levy

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking of setting up as an owner driver for several years now, and I think I have the finances to both get the vehicle and satisfy the financial standing (specifically I’ve got £40K in the bank – is this realistic for a single artic doing subbing work?). Recently I heard that the government were putting up the road user levy by 20% per year for non-Euro 6 vehicles and dropping it by 10% for Euro 6 – the yearly rate is £1,000 so it’ll now be £900 for Euro 6 and £1,200 for everyone else.

I’ve noticed that the cheapest secondhand Euro 6 trucks (excluding low-powered ones, i.e. 360bhp 4x2s that were built for supermarkets and the like) are about £28K and they are 2013-4 and high mileage, the average being well over £40K which puts it well out of my price range, while there are some pretty good Euro 5s for under £20K. I’d like to own it outright and not have the debt of buying a very expensive unit or the committment of a lease.

Is it worth getting a Euro 5 truck now if I’m not intending to run vehicles into central London (where an ULEZ is being brought in)? The levy difference is a lot less than the difference between the costs of a Euro 5 and 6 truck, even a mediocre secondhand one. Are there a lot of other hidden costs that don’t apply with Euro 6? (I was aware of the weight penalty from having done tipper work.)

It’s not just Central London bringing these in. Other Cities are looking to introduce them by 2020, so need to look very carefully where you are looking to run to other wise in under 2 years you will have to be looking to change and by them the values of Euro V tractors will have dropped.

Negative Dan here ,keep your £40,000 and forget the idea .

Punchy Dan:
Negative Dan here ,keep your £40,000 and forget the idea .

Good advice Dan, Regards Larry.

Punchy Dan:
Negative Dan here ,keep your £40,000 and forget the idea .

100% correct.

Take good ISA investment advice from professionals and watch it grow into £60k in no time TAX FREE.
All while you sit on your arse!!!

While this happens take one of those Mon/Fri tramping jobs@ £850gross/week!!!

Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk

If you are really determined to get into road haulage then find work from several companies, set up an office in your home, sub the work out to others and take a nice big cut for yourself.

Only a madman would consider buying any euro6 truck outright, they are unreliable and cost a fortune to fix when they go wrong, not if but when!
If you must lease/rent etc has got to be the only safe way.

We have about 40 maybe 50 of the things and they are all turning into boomerang trucks, some dont even make it back from the dealer before breaking down again.
Its just like when Euro4 first came out and it took years for the techs to get their heads around what goes wrong and how to fix it, so they are still learning on the Euro6 versions.

Ps our drivers would love 360bhp :grimacing:

Only this morning driver put adblue in the derv tank and made it all of 500 yards before the engine stopped, thats going to cost a pretty penny.
Obviously the e4/5 models would also stop running in the same circumstances, the difference with e6 is its common rail and they are fragile at the best of times, so we could be talking high pressure pumps and injectors, even if a drain refill/bleed gets it running the contamination will casue trouble in the future.