4x4 too far.

Cheap motor insurance comes at a price for city-dwellers as Mr. Brown gets dirty.

If you live, say, on the top of a hill, ok, lets say mountain, anything 5000feet above sea level for example, then its pretty much assumed you may need to purchase something that drives all four wheels to get you from the local (well, 150 mile round-trip local) ironically-named convenience store back to your barn door. Whatever the driving conditions. Although you can guarantee that you'll never see more than an hours light per year and you'll have no need whatsoever for any new-fangled inventions such as a fridge-freezer due to the fact you're living through your own Ice Age, you do value the life or death necessity in ownership of something rugged. Other than the woman you married. So, along with a pantry the size of an air-raid shelter and enough hiking socks to keep the most of Europe's Cub organisations going; until they metamorpahsise into Scouts, its publicly acceptable to be seen in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. By the two people and 6 sheep that acknowledge you from one seasons end to another.

The same leniency however, cannot be shown if you are called Fiona, visit Toni and Guy every couple of days, are married to Toby, (who's something marginally important in a media organisation), and who's fruit of their loins answer to the names of Amelia, Emily and Elijah. Because, living in harsh, unforgiving territory like Knightsbridge doesn't afford you the right to the aforementioned status symbol. Sorry, crucial mode of transport needed to get kids to private 'little school'. At the end of the street. If you haven't got legs.

Therefore today's budget may go some way to deciding who really needs the usual suspects, lined up to be shot down. BMW's X5, any Range Rover, VW's Touareg, Porsche's road-legal sofa, the Cayenne, Mercedes gas-powered boardroom, that ML thing, and the Jeep Cherokee. Sifting out the wheat from the chaff so to speak. Gordon Brown is the man who can make a difference. The organ grinder behind Ken Livingstone's monkey if you like. That's not to say Red Ken wasn't right to speak up in the first instance, infact it moves me to say it's the one and only time Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, has opened his frontal-cranium orifice and the series of nouns and verbs that pour out make any tangible sense. When discussing a crackdown been needed on the widespread overuse of 4x4's in postcodes that are defined by concrete boundaries.

So, sometime after 12.30pm today, the Prime Minister-in-waiting will do all that he can to ensure those that wantonly flaunt their wares, or in this case - oversized, over fuelled, over dangerous and over here yank-derived , interstate linking (what? Knightsbridge to Chelsea ?) SUV's - pay the price for the wickedness of their unmentionable ways. Or failing that, slap on an extra £30 quid a year to their road tax. A momentous decision that in one fell sweep will rid our roads of 1, maybe, 2 of these anti-establishment mobile gin-palaces for corporate movers and shakers. And Fi and Toby and their irritating seeds.

You see, Brown's 10 th budget, experts believe, will deliver an annual tax rise from £185 to somewhere in the region of £200 pounds for cars emitting more than 250grams of carbon dioxide emission, for every kilometre driven; with the treasury thought to be directly setting their sights on use of such gas-guzzling 4x4's, these 'Chelsea Tractors' as they've been dubbed by their many detractors that menacingly roam the conurbations of our nation. A new top rate of tax designed, they hope, to curb urban Britons fondness for two-tonne SUV's purchased with the daunting school run top of the agenda.

In the aftermath of substantial, often relentless lobbying by Greenpeace alongside other influential environmental organisations the measures undoubtedly have accrued cross party support, but some have gone as far as to criticise the increase as too small, to act as a worthwhile, meaningful deterrent

This dismissive, as too little, too late by some campaigners will only gather momentum when they learn that, to appease the car lobbyists on the other side, Brown may well suggest the rise only on new 4x4s sold. Not the existing millions already on the road.

Mark Strut of Greenpeace already argues; " To make a real difference we need a substantial increase in tax for these vehicles - an extra £30 would be pathetic".. going on to suggest that; "There needs to be about £300 pound difference between each band of car taxation to provide such an incentive". Whether or not this, what many would consider, drastic measure, ever comes to fruition remains to be seen, yet you can only agree with campaigners who comment that owners of large-engined SUV's will hardly bat an eyelid at having to stump up an extra £30 quid a year when they are often paying upwards of £30,000 to buy the 'must-have' vehicles in the first place.

Strut concludes by stressing;" Greenpeace would like to see a £1500 increase per annum for cars in the new top VED (Vehicle Excise Duty) band - those that emit more than 250g/co2 per km". Which naturally, would take some balls by any Chancellor to even suggest, let alone attempt to put into practice in the future.

But speaking of the future, I leave you with news reaching us here at insureyourmotor.co.uk of a potential riposte by one of the chastised manufacturers, Land Rover. Could we now have a case of poacher-turned-gamekeeper?

Land Rover is planning to put a cat amongst the pigeons by producing some of the cleanest cars imaginable. And in doing so, giving the environmentalists something more challenging to put in their pipes and smoke. Innovative technologies, such as the e-Terrain system have been recently showcased by the British-based motoring company who were at the forefront of the whole off-road phenomenon decades ago, whereby both dramatic reductions in fuel consumption are combined with notable losses in CO2 emissions.

Matthew Taylor, Managing Director of Land Rover said; "Our e-Terrain technologies are practical, feasible, real world solutions". he went on to say; "We are not prepared to dilute the essence of Land Rover, but we are very much committed to improving fuel economy and reducing harmful CO2 emissions"

They are not alone in forging new, environmentally conscious paths, as both Lexus and Saab have developed and put into production vehicles capable of running on alternate fuel sources of late.

So, food for thought. And plenty of load-carrying space for shopping bags too, so don't worry just yet Toby and Fi, Mr.Brown hasn't confiscated your toy yet, but who knows what lies around the corner.

If you must defy all logic and run the gauntlet of some 'greenies' and need to insure one of these much-maligned vehicles, then get in touch with us here at insureyourmotor.co.uk, who will track down the best quotes for you. Then, hide in the corner of the office and tell the environmental police it wasn't us.

Date - 21/09/2006