Beat the VAT man - buy a car now

You've probably heard this quite a few times this year already – but now really is the best time to buy a new car.

Shelling out for a brand new motor around Christmas time isn't normally the first thing on people's minds, but this year should be different.

Why? Well, unless you've been hibernating, you won't have failed to miss the news that VAT is going back up to 17.5 per cent on 1 January 2010 from its current 15 per cent level. That means an increase of 2.5 per cent in the price of every new car sold in the UK. Put that in monetary terms and it equates to an additional £2,177 on an Aston Martin Vantage V8.