We have some bad news for owners of Mazda's rotary powered RX-8 coupé; it appears that the Revenue is refusing to tax RX-8s registered as 1.3-litre in engine size, instead requiring owners to re-register the cars as 1.7-litre.
The relationship between rotary engines and the Irish government is a long and storied one that culminates in Mazda Ireland, at the time of the RX-8's launch in 2004, agreeing to a formula that puts the RX-8's cubic capacity higher than official documentation from Mazda in Japan.
The Mazda Renesis engine in the RX-8 features two chambers of 654cc capacity leading to the Mazda Japan declaration, but Irish legislation introduced in 1992 to account for rotary engines adds in a further layer relating to output-shaft revolutions, which means that all RX-8s sold by Mazda Ireland were registered with a 1,742cc capacity (i.e. 1.7-litre).
Some owners, who took it upon themselves to re-register their car under the 'true' capacity, using a Certificate of Conformity from Mazda Japan, now find that their cars are 'black-listed' on Motortax.ie. When they ring Revenue about this they are instructed that they must re-register the cars as 1.7-litre.
CompleteCar.ie understands that there are between 70 and 80 so-called 'black-listed' cars that will have to be re-registered before they can be taxed.
Anything else?
Word is also filtering though of a crackdown on Nissan 350Z sports cars that have been registered as commercial vehicles. A handful of owners of the two-seat coupé have registered their car as a commercial to avoid paying the top rate of motor tax, but arrangements are now being made for Revenue to inspect these 'vans' and look into the owners' commercial use.