Should I complain to ASA about "road tax" in car ads?

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I wonder what they do consider misleading then, the must have a very soft view of what does.

misleading people and advertising using the wrong term are very different and i can see why its not in their remit.

enas wrote: »

everyone understands it's motor tax that's being referred to.

Why refer to it as "Road Tax" then?

buffalo wrote: »

For the same reason so many people call Spock "Dr Spock" when he's actually "Mr Spock". It's just a common mistake, and one that has become ingrained in our language. This line of questioning leads nowhere, ask instead, how do we fix it?

Such a line of questioning might lead nowhere on Boards, but that is to be expected.

I would suggest that mistakenly referring to the paediatrician rather than to the Vulcan does not instil a sense of entitlement of any sort, whereas the notion of "Road Tax" leads more than a few motorists to believe that they have purchased superior privileges that give them all sorts of priorities over other road users.

Beasty wrote: »

Do you really think referring to it as "Motor Tax" will change their attitude? Really??

Compare:

Cienciano wrote: »

The cyclists can go and pay some road tax before they start complaining

Cienciano wrote: »

The cyclists can go and pay some Motor Tax before they start complaining

Likewise, when you repeatedly use the term "road tax" as if it truly exists, or scream "pay some road tax" at people through your car window, you help to nurture the myth.

There's more to the "road tax" fantasy than the belief that it is something to be paid in order to be allowed use the roads.

That's bad enough in itself for cyclists, in that it automatically places these non payers of "road tax" in a different and dubious category of road user, who it seems are permitted to use the public highway only at the sufferance of the State and/or the motoring majority.

In my opinion, the "road tax" fallacy is loaded with notions of superiority, entitlement and expectations of payback and special indulgences. It suggests that yet another two-tier system exists, as if we didn't have enough of those already.

How do you influence culture? By giving cultural signals. Commercial interests such as the ASAI should not be enabling the propagation of such nonsense, and statutory bodies such as Revenue should not be giving it formal status by referring to it in its official documentation.

Same goes for Boards: automatic one-week ban for using the term "road tax" when Motor Tax should be used instead!

Here are some examples of the "road tax" meme on the interweb:

Lets not forget that it's the motorist that pays the road tax and insurance. they should bring in a registration system for bikes, and cyclists- like other road users - should have some form of third party insurance. then they can have the same rights as other road users.

I see no reason why, as a non-cyclist, my road tax should fund cycle lanes when they can do it. Obviously if the cyclist is also a car owner, the “pay once rule” applies.

When cyclists pay road tax i will give them some respect otherwise they are like pigeons on the road to me.

I hope these two pedestrian geniuses figure out a way to make the cyclists pay for their bridge, I'm weary from paying road tax to drive on the road, parking [sic] to park on the side of it, tolls to use the motorways and tunnel charges to let ships up the river to a port that is hardly ever used. Enough is enough.

What is the point in building cycle lanes when cyclists do not use them (overall). If they want them let them pay road tax and introduce fines for when they go through red lights etc which can be ringfenced to build and maintain the lanes.

what i think is funny is we get screwed for road tax an vehicale tax to keep rods in good order, no i think you should have pay for the right to use bike on road as they dont pay road tax do they and yet we still have make way for them on the road as if they were the cnuts wo layed the tarmac

Perhaps it is time these environmental accompliances [sic] got off their high saddles and remember a salient fact. Motorists pay road tax and insurance. The Government is anxious to widen the tax base. Might it not be timely to compel adult cyclists to pay road tax and insurance? After all, they are road users too.

That said, I’m all for some form of licencing for cyclists, and a bicycle tax: why should one set of road users have to abide by a pile of regulations and the other set doesn’t? If motorists and cyclists are both using the roads, both need to be licenced and both need to pay a road tax.

We are sitting in a protected space with impact bars and air bags and paying extortionate amounts of taxes on our vehicle purchase, parking, servicing, insurance and road tax. These cyclists are throwing themselves on to some of the most congested spaces in the world. They leap on to a vehicle which offers them no protection except a padded plastic hat. It is time for us to say to cyclists: you want to join our gang, get trained and pay up.

And those posy riders in their leotards should ride single file when on a main road and shut up and pay attention, when in bus lanes or cycle lanes ride side by side talk but still pay attention, plus cyclists don’t pay road tax but us motorists pay for the cycle lanes and i am a motorcyclist who looks out for himself and doesn’t whinge every time somebody nearly kills me

People with bikes pay nothing and get free parking, and also completely disregard the rules of the road, and seem to think they can use the entire road as they wish. Pay some road tax and then get back to me.

Cllr T. Brennan said that people travelling by car pay road tax and that they should be entitled to park in parking spaces.

And finally, a quote from the inimitable and entertaining Jeremy Clarkson demonstrating that many a true word is spoken in jest:

Trespassers in the motorcar's domain, they do not pay road tax and therefore have no right to be on the road. Some of them even believe they are going fast enough to not be an obstruction. Run them down to prove them wrong.

buffalo wrote: »

For the same reason so many people call Spock "Dr Spock" when he's actually "Mr Spock". It's just a common mistake, and one that has become ingrained in our language. This line of questioning leads nowhere, ask instead, how do we fix it?

Unless of course they actually mean Dr. Spock the famous pediatrician.
Road tax and Motor Tax are synonymous. The two Spocks are not. Unless of course you are talking about the young and old Spock in the 2009 Star Trek movie.

Just sayin' like.