Volvo is offering a 50 per cent reduction in VRT when you buy a Flexifuel Volvo before 1 July, following the changes to Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) and Road Tax announced in December's Budget.

Volvo claims that Flexifuel buyers can make significant savings now when they buy a new Volvo rather than waiting until July.

Currently the Volvo line-up of Flexifuel cars comprises 1.8-litre engines fitted to the Volvo C30, S40 ad V50, as well as the recently announced 2.0-litre engines for the new Volvo V70 estate and the Volvo S80 Executive saloon. Volvo Flexifuel cars can run on any mixture of unleaded petrol or Ethanol-based E85 fuel, available from Maxol fuel stations around Ireland. Using E85 fuel has a positive impact on CO2 output. While producing similar CO2 emissions at the tail pipe, this fuel produces substantially less CO2 in total, from production to use.

The 50 per cent reduction in VRT for Flexifuel cars gives an effective VRT rate of 12.5 per cent on the Volvo C30, S40 and V50, and 15 per cent on the V70 and S80, when these cars are registered before 30 June. This is better than the VRT rates of between 16 per cent and 24 per cent that will be available on diesel cars after 1 July.

However VRT is only one part of the decision to buy now or wait until July. Some diesel cars registered from July will benefit from a reduction in Road Tax.

According to David Baddeley, Managing Director of Volvo Car Ireland, car buyers would still do better to buy now, rather than wait until July. "Figures from Volvo show that even allowing for the difference in Road Tax over three years, buying an S40 Flexifuel now could save as much as €3,500 when compared to the 2.0 Diesel versions in July and as much as €5,700 on the new Volvo V70," he said.

"The final piece of the buy now or wait jigsaw is what will happen to the value of your part exchange between now and July. Volvo's figures do not factor this in, but generally the view is that part exchanges will be worth less in July, if for no other reason than they are six months older than now."

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