For those not following the other threads discussing the new VA $64/yr hybrid fees enacted last week, couple of tips (use your own judgement) : (1) Registration: There is a window of opportunity to register 3 -years in advance pre-fee. Go to DMVNOW.com and try this. I did it last week. You have to be 6-months or less away from your registration due date. You can do this up to July 1 we think (need to confirm). (2) Annual Property Taxes: IF you are a road warrior with over 12000 miles per year, you may be able to apply to your locality for blue book value adjustment on your vehicle. Suffice it to say, VA is making it hard for hybrids to compete financially, but these are some things you can do to try to manage your tax bill. For new vehicles, also sales tax going up 3 to 4.15%.
Hybrid fee ?? pure insanity. I understand that we are supposed to pay for the road infrastructure through taxes on gas and we the hybrid owners are kind of contributing less in that regard but there has to be a better way to handle this situation and not introduce something like a "hybrid fee" so as to discourage people from going green. Just reduce the tax on gas and charge uniformly more for registration fee for everyone, for example. I am sure many and more discussions on this happened in Virginia circles. This is the first time I heard of it, I couldn't help but express some outrage.
^^^Thanks for the outrage...it is the correct emotion because Prii are already very heavily taxed in northern VA. Virginia is sort of an "old-southern-traditions" state. It means hybrids make less financial sense in VA but the tips above should help some folks. By the way, CA is not way too different from VA. You too pay a lot more sales tax and yearly registration tax on a more expensive car like a hybrid. Not as bad as VA annual property tax (registration) + hybrid fees however. You come out ahead mainly because you have 70.5 cents (as of July 1) pump tax in CA (USA+CA). CA has highest pump tax, VA is lowest except Alaska, so a hybrid here has less tax savings at the pump to make up the difference.
