Cheaper road tax thanks to CO2 cuts

Parker's has named the top manufacturers that are helping new car buyers save money on road tax by cutting CO2 emissions on their cars.

The drop in emissions is good news for new car buyers who will pay lower road tax because of it, but it will especially help from April 2010 when a new first-year, one-off tax means buyers could be charged up to £950 for a high polluting car, while low CO2 models will be tax free.

Top of the list were BMW and Mazda showing the biggest reductions in emissions down by 10 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, while Hyundai and Ford also showed decent drops with a change of 7 per cent and 6 per cent.

While Honda and PSA Peugeot/Citroen dropped the least - by just 2 per cent - they were already ahead of most manufacturers with low levels of average CO2.

As well as general improvements another reason for the drop in CO2 emissions from manufacturers is the introduction of specific models including the expanding BlueMotion range from Volkswagen, Econetic models by Ford and Eco2 range from Renault.

These figures are likely to be improved further with the introduction of more low emission models. These include the latest Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion that has emissions of just 99g/km as well as a new Ford Focus ECOnetic that also emits just 99g/km which means both of these models are free to tax.

In 2008 - when these latest figures were taken - there was a limited choice for buyers when it came to cars that were free to tax with the Honda Insight, SEAT Ibiza Ecomotive and Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion the only real choices.

However, from the start of 2010 this choice will be much bigger with around 11 models to choose from including low CO2 versions of Citroen C3 and Volvo C30 as well as those already on sale such as the Toyota IQ, Toyota Prius and Peugeot 207 Economique.

• Manufacturers performance for CO2 emissions