I am looking for input only from Volvo owners in Virginia here.

I don't want to clutter this board with this subject, so after this posting I'll take the subject off line. I just thought the board might provide access to other Virginia Volvo owners.

Basis for this survey: Virginia charges car owners a tax direcly on their cars and trucks. The tax is levied and collected locally, usually at county level. The basis for the levy is a "value" assigned to the car. My county professes to use NADA input to assign values. The county then bills the owner and the car tax is paid in December of each year. I believe this tax is being abused by local officials, and would like to compare data with other Virginia Volvo owners.

The specific problem I want to address: Our current Governor, James Gilmore, was elected on a platform that included phasing out the car tax. County and local officials all over the Dominion fought this bitterly during Mr. Gilmore's campaign, but he prevailed and the car tax is declining as planned. I suspect that, at least in our county, officials have chosen to over-value cars in order to maintain pre-phaseout levels of revenue, and thwart the Gov's intent. My own tax bill for 2000 was based on a value nearly 40% greater than any figure I can come up with. To help prove that, I need input from other Virginia Volvo owners to compare with my own figures. Specifically, I need to know (1) details of your Volvo; model, configuration (2 door, 4 door, wagon, etc.), extra equipment, condition, in your opinion, and mileage. (2) Your locality; county and zip code (I don't want your address). (3) How much car tax you were billed for in 2000 for this car. (4) Email address.

What I'll do: I'll use your car info to assign a value to your car based on data from the three web sites of Edmunds (www.edmunds.com), Kelly's Blue Book (www.kellybluebook.com), and NADA (www.nada.com). I'll return the researched values to your email address, and compile them county-by-county in a survey format yet to be determined. Gotta see the data first. When that's done, I'll also email a copy of the survey to you, and "rate" your county's fairness quotent about the tax rate you pay versus other respondees.

Ultimately, I hope to determine whether or not an illegal or at least unethical practice of assigning car tax values prevails in my own county. If so, I'll go to the local officials for an answer and then to the newspapers if I don't accept the answers. If I'm wrong, I'll say so when I release the survey. You're free to do what you like with the data in your locality.

Thanks for listening, and for your time.