§ 01 — the letter

The car was £2,000. The letter three weeks later was £790.

Nobody lied to you. That number was published — in a table, on a government website, free, months before you ever walked onto that forecourt.

You simply did not know the table existed, and the man who sold you the car was under no obligation whatsoever to mention it.

Every figure on this page comes from GOV.UK, and the address of each one is printed beside it so you can go and read the original.

Get the files — £19

Instant download · nothing ships · 30-day refund, you keep the files

A man in his fifties on a used-car forecourt, holding a tablet showing the guide — Five files. Fifteen pages. Every figure with the GOV.UK address underneath it.

§ 02 — the band

That £2,000 car is a £2,790 car. And it is a £2,790 car again next year.

You looked at the windscreen. Two thousand pounds. You had a look round it, you took it for a drive, you haggled a bit and you paid. Everything you did was sensible.

What you could not see from the driver's seat is which road tax band that particular engine falls into. Two cars of the same model, same year, same shape, sitting a metre apart on the same forecourt, can be two bands apart — because one has forty more brake horsepower and crossed a line somebody drew in a table.

The tax band is not a secret. It is published, by the government, in a table anyone can open, before you ever leave the house — the vehicle tax rate tables, published by GOV.UK.

The table exists. It has always existed. What does not exist anywhere is the version of it that sits next to the MOT failure rate, next to the insurance group, next to what the part that always goes costs to replace.

That is four different places, about a car you have not chosen yet.

§ 03 — the two lines

One gram of CO₂. One hundred and thirty-five pounds a year.

Here is the whole table, for every car registered between March 2001 and March 2017 — which is very nearly every car on a British forecourt under five thousand pounds. It does not rise smoothly. It has two cliffs.

Vehicle tax rates · petrol (TC48), diesel (TC49), alternative fuel (59) · published on GOV.UK · read 7 August 2026
Band	CO₂ emissions	12 months
A	Up to 100 g/km	£20
B	101 to 110 g/km	£20
C	111 to 120 g/km	£35
↑ one gram · £135 a year · every year you own it
D	121 to 130 g/km	£170
E	131 to 140 g/km	£200
F	141 to 150 g/km	£225
G	151 to 165 g/km	£275
H	166 to 175 g/km	£325
I	176 to 185 g/km	£360
J	186 to 200 g/km	£410
K	201 to 225 g/km	£445
↑ one gram · £315 a year · and this is the one that catches families
L	226 to 255 g/km	£760
M	Over 255 g/km	£790

Think about what puts a car over that line. A slightly bigger engine. An automatic gearbox instead of a manual. The larger alloy wheels the previous owner was so pleased about. None of those things feel like a tax decision when you are looking at the car. All of them are.

And it is not who you would think it catches. Not somebody buying a supercar. Somebody buying a big, sensible, seven-seat thing to take grandchildren about in. An older estate. A diesel four-by-four that looks like exactly the right amount of car for the money.

Those are often genuinely good cars. The car is not the problem. Nobody told you where the line was.

§ 04 — free to know

Three things nobody tells you, and none of them cost anything.

Not homework. Three facts that change what you look at, and they work the moment you have read them.

One · the mileage is written down at every test

Every MOT that car has taken since 2005 is on a public record, and the tester writes the mileage each time. Read that column oldest to newest. It should only ever go up. If it goes down, the record has told you something the seller has not. If it barely moves for two years and then jumps twenty thousand, that is a different story from the one about a careful previous owner.

Two · one number on the logbook sets the bill for years

Not the engine size. Not the age, the mileage or the condition. A carbon dioxide figure, in grams per kilometre, printed in a box on the V5C. That single number decides which tax band the car sits in — and two cars of the same model, parked a metre apart, can be two bands apart because of it. Ask to see the V5C before you discuss price. If the seller will not show it, you have learned something more useful than the figure.

Three · a safety recall is the manufacturer's bill, not yours

When a fault affects a whole run of vehicles, the manufacturer pays to put it right. Not discounted — free. Cars are sold every day with one still open, and almost never out of dishonesty: the trade does not run that check as a matter of course, and no rule says it must. But it is your car by Friday.

All three are public and all three are free. Knowing them is worth something today. Having them in your hand — the bands, the words, the checks, on one folded card in your pocket — is what the files are for.

§ 05 — the forecourt

Nobody ever sent you a letter about any of this.

You have bought cars before. You are not a fool, and this page is not going to talk to you as though you were.

But the last time you bought one, the world had a person in it. A bloke at a garage you had used for years, who would tell you straight whether a car was worth the money, because he wanted you back next time.

That arrangement is mostly gone. What replaced it is a young lad with a tablet who was not born when you passed your test, who is measured on units this month, and who has been trained — properly trained, on a course — in what to say when you go quiet.

Here is the thing worth saying out loud: at no point did anybody sit you down and explain how the pricing actually works now. Not the dealer, not the manufacturer, not the government that publishes the tables. It was simply assumed you would work it out, and if you did not, that was your lookout.

Checking the free MOT history on a phone while standing on a forecourt — The record is free, public, and readable on your phone while he fetches the keys.

§ 06 — what it is

What That Cheap Car Actually Costs

Five files. Fifteen pages. You read them on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and they print cleanly at home. Set in large type — genuinely large, not “large for a PDF”.

The Keep Cost

What that car costs you in a year before you have driven it anywhere, built from public sources listed underneath.

The Tax Band

Which band that exact engine falls into, straight from the government table, with the address so you can check it yourself.

The Record

What to look for in that car's MOT history before you pay, and which advisory means walk away.

The Words

The one question to ask the seller about that specific car — and what the honest answer sounds like.

The pages printed at home on ordinary paper, with THE KEEP COST at the top — Printed at home on ordinary paper. Nothing ships.

§ 07 — the price

We will tell you plainly what that pays for.

This is shorter than the guides it competes with, on purpose, because everything we could not source came out. No chapter on finance. No chapter on modifications. Where there is no published figure, it says so and moves on.

And it has to be maintained. The tax tables move every April. That is what nineteen pounds pays for: not more pages — fewer pages, and a re-check calendar.

01
Start Here
What each file is for and the order to read them.
2 pp.
02
The Tax Trap Table
The whole band table, with the two cliff edges marked.
4 pp.
03
The MOT Decoder
Reading the free official record on your phone, and what the four words mean.
4 pp.
04
The Forecourt Card
One page to print and fold. Eight questions on the front, the walkthrough on the back.
2 pp.
05
The Source Sheet, Dated
Every figure with the address it came from, the date read, and the next re-check.
3 pp.

Get all five files — £19

Instant download · nothing ships · 30-day refund, you keep the files

§ 08 — the test

Thirty days. And the test is on us, not on you.

Everything in these files came from somewhere public. We print where.

Open them tonight. Pick any three numbers — any three, your choice. Under each one is the GOV.UK page it came from. Go and look them up.

If one of them does not say what we said it says, reply to your receipt within thirty days and we refund every penny — and you keep all five files.

And here is what you will find when you go. The government publishes the tax band. It publishes the MOT record. It publishes them in different places, about a car you have already chosen. What it will not tell you is which of the four two-thousand-pound cars on your local forecourt is the one that costs £790 a year to keep.

Nobody publishes that. That is what this is.

We are not asking you to trust us. We are asking you to check us.

§ 09 — questions

The questions people actually ask.

Isn't all of this free on the government website?

Yes. Every figure in these files is, and the address of each one is printed underneath it so you can go and read the original. What is free is the tax table. What is not free is somebody sitting with that table next to the MOT rules next to the recall check, for months, and working out what a buyer actually needs before handing over money. The government will confirm any number in here. It will not tell you which car to buy. It was never trying to.

Is this a printed book?

No. It is digital and always will be. Five PDFs, fifteen pages, by email the moment you pay. They open on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and print cleanly at home on ordinary paper. Most people print the Forecourt Card and nothing else.

Nineteen pounds. What is missing?

Pages are missing, and that is the point. No chapter on finance, no list of parts prices — because there is no published figure we can put a GOV.UK address under. Where we could not source a number, it is not in here, and the Source Sheet says so plainly. Fifteen pages that survive being checked is worth more than fifty that do not.

I am not buying a car this month. Is it still worth it?

The bands are the same whether you buy in March or next March, and the files are yours with the updates. But the honest answer is that the best time to read them is the fortnight before you start looking — not the afternoon you are standing on the forecourt with a tablet turned round to face you.

Does it cover electric and hybrid?

It covers what is published. Where the figure exists it is in there with its source. Where the government has not set one, the files say so instead of estimating. That happens more often with newer electric models and we are explicit about which ones.

How do I know it is still accurate next April?

You do not have to guess. Every figure carries the date it was last read, and the Source Sheet lists the next scheduled re-check. The tables move in April; the new edition comes to the email address you bought with, at no extra cost. If we ever stop doing the re-checks, the dates will stop moving and you will know without us telling you.

Who wrote it?

There is no famous name on the cover and that is deliberate. You were going to look up whoever wrote this. A name you cannot verify is worth less than a source you can. Under every line is the address where you can read the original. The document is the authority. It is the only kind that holds up when you check it.

How does the refund work?

Reply to your receipt within thirty days and say you want it. No form, no reason required, no phone call. It goes back to the card you paid with, and you keep all five files.

§ 10 — no deadline

There is no countdown on this page, and there never has been.

We are not going to tell you the price goes up on Sunday. But there is a real clock, and it is not ours. The tables change every April. The MOT history you can read free today is the same one the seller can read — the only difference is which of you bothered.

You are going to spend two thousand pounds, or five, or twelve. Somebody in that transaction is going to know exactly what that car costs to keep.

It costs nineteen pounds for that person to be you.