Almost a reason not to buy a new car -
Tell me about it, having a nightmare with the bigger engined stuff because of this sort of thing.
Just got a new 1.5 Mazda2 sport for the +1 with zero VAT (covered by Mazda Japan) which was indeed an attraction that helped to offset the loss on the trade-in and the excise tax was "only" £170 for the first year, so bearable .