Doing a ton: it's the £100 petrol tank

THEY are renowned for guzzling gas, hogging city roads, blocking parking spaces and being a safety menace to pedestrians.

And now soaring fuel prices mean the cost of filling up many 4x4 vehicles has hit £100 for the first time, burning an ever bigger hole in their owners' deep pockets.

But new figures show that, despite financial encouragement from the Government for motorists to switch to smaller cars, sales of 4x4 vehicles are still increasing.

Last year 176,290 were sold in the UK, compared with 175,809 the year before, according to the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

More were sold in January this year than in the same month in 2007, suggesting sales are still on an upward curve.

Dealers in Scotland confirmed there was no let-up in demand for 'Chelsea tractors', despite the recent hike in fuel prices.

The Automobile Association says the average cost of a litre of diesel now stands at a record 114.25p, while petrol costs 106.75p a litre. That makes diesel 7.49p more expensive than it was at the start of the year and petrol 5.1p more. The cost of filling tanks that can hold 90 litres is now around £100.

A spokesman at Arnold Clark Toyota in Glasgow, which sells top-of-the-range Toyota Land Cruiser V8s, which have 93-litre tanks, said there was little sign of potential buyers being put off by rising fuel prices.

"We've actually completely run out of them at the moment," he said.

At Pentland LandRover in Edinburgh, where high-end Range Rovers cost around £70,000, a spokesman said sales were still healthy, despite rising costs.

"From bone-dry empty you are looking at up to £100 but fuel prices do not have a major effect."

Chief executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association, Douglas Robertson, said any dip in new car sales was likely to be replaced with extra used car purchases as the models became more popular.

"To be honest, the cost of running them is not that important to most of the people who buy them. If you are spending £60,000 on a car then you can probably afford a few more pence on petrol."

Michael Durno, a Glenlivet farmer, drives a Toyota Land Cruiser 3.0 with an 87-litre fuel tank. With the average local price of diesel at £1.16 a litre, a full tank of fuel now sets him back an eye-watering £100.92.

"But I use my 4x4 to get around the fields, and I need the pulling power for the trailer. For this kind of job you don't really have an option.

"I think that we are being penalised for the problems of the cities, and all those Chelsea tractors, as they call them. The Government are just clamping down on them to get the Brownie points."

Ministers have tried to crack down on the most polluting cars by increasing car tax for gas-guzzlers. From April 2009, drivers of the most polluting cars will pay vehicle excise duty of £440 compared with £400 at present.

Then, from April 2010, people buying new models that are the most polluting will pay vehicle excise duty of £950 as a 'showroom tax' in their first year of owning the vehicle, and after that will pay vehicle excise duty of £455 per year.

A Scottish Green Party spokesman said: "Even with the changes in the Budget, the real climate costs remain hidden for all the most polluting vehicles, not just 4x4s.

"Ministers should be working with their EU colleagues to set tougher limits on emissions, as well as cutting fares on the public transport alternatives.

"In the future, we'll look back on the fad for urban 4x4s with disbelief, like we do now with industrial asbestos or dumping waste at sea."

Driving down emissions

Alternative fuelling methods:

HYBRIDS

Hybrid electric vehicles employ a high-efficiency, very-low-emissions petrol engine, an electric-motor generator and a battery pack. They maximise power efficiency by reclaiming energy during deceleration. The Toyota Prius, the world's best selling hybrid, costs £17,000-£20,000, but delivers an impressive 65.7mpg.

LPG

Liquefied petroleum gas emits about 20% less CO2 than petrol and less harmful particulates than diesel. Conversion costs £1,500-£2,000, but LPG costs only about 50p a litre.

Defiant despite the eco-critics

EVENTS organiser Mary Cameron bought a Land Rover Discovery a year ago and would not now be parted from her treasured vehicle despite the rising costs.

The young businesswoman, who runs Carnival Chaos Productions, uses her 4x4 for her daily commutes between her home in the Borders village of Lilliesleaf and her offices in Edinburgh.

It has become an essential tool for her work and for her leisure time – she is a horse rider and the car is big enough to pull a horse trailer comfortably – even though the cost of filling the tank is now approaching £100.

"The diesel is expensive to get me up and down from the Borders and it usually costs me around £80 to fill up. In reality, though, it's probably more – I stop at £80 because I think that's enough."

She accepts that fuel costs are likely to keep on rising. "I believe in paying for quality. I feel very safe in the Land Rover and will replace it with another one when the time comes.

"The only problem is that it can be a bit of a problem to turn around in a cul-de-sac.

"And one day a lady accused me of having a big, gross, silver vehicle, implying I was being environmentally unfriendly by driving it. But I didn't see why I had to explain myself."