I am likely to formally move to The Netherlands at some point next year and I want to buy a new or nearly new car at least 6 months before I do (to avoid the dreaded BPM). I will buy some kind of SUV and had assumed that a 2 litre turbodiesel or lpg fuelled vehicle would be the most cost-effective to run. However, I am told that Dutch Road Tax (or equivalent) is paid quarterly and, apart for being high on SUVs, is approximately double for diesel and triple for lpg over regular petrol.

Can anyone clarify the actual situation for me, please ? Are there any reductions / credits for hybrid vehciles as there are in the UK (especially London) ? If so, I might buy a used Lexus RX400h from a friend in the US this summer and initially import and register in the UK (I know the procedure for doing this).

TIA.

J.

My diesel is around 250 euros a quarter for tax. I think petrol would be 60ish. LPG, no idea. It's regional and does vary a bit.

Diesel was 1.41 a litre today. Again, petrol, no idea. But diesel (fuel) is taxed less than petrol, which means when you cross the border into Germany diesel is more expensive and petrol roughly the same.

There's more autogas here than anywhere else in Europe, as far as I can tell - I've never seen so many autogas stations...

So roughly 240 euros a year for petrol? If that's the case then it's not much different to here in Oz, the diesel rate sounds bloody high?!?

I have a diesel car and over the last year, the diesel prices have gone up 40%. Diesel is usually about 20 cents/litre cheaper than normal - I think you need to drive 800-900/km a month to even out any advantage you get in cheaper petrol vs. the higher road tax. And yeah, once you cross the border, diesel can be more expensive.

My diesel roadtax is €1072 a year for an average weighing car (that tax went up about 7% in the last year) - if I had normal petrol, the tax would be half that.

You can find petrol prices here=
http://www.brandstofprijzen.nl/

A lot of the cost is based on the car weight - so an SUV will naturally be very expensive to own. It looks like my car costs have gone up 20% in just over a year - I kind of wish I didn't have a diesel now- and if it keeps going this route, I may switch to Greenwheels as I don't drive all that much

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I have found the site that calculates the exact answer according to province, fuel type & weight of vehicle : car tax calculator.

For a small SUV in Utrecht province, this is about EUR219/quarter for petrol, nearly 400 for diesel, 330 for lpg, so the saving is about 1.5 tanks of fuel, petrol vs. diesel. I think I will still go the diesel route, as resale values are usually so much better.