Monday's evening news show "Aktuaalne kaamera" spoke to car dealerships about the upcoming changes.

The registration fee makes all cars more expensive, said Priit Ärmpalu, head of Nordauto.

"Certain cars are undoubtedly no longer viable for sale because the registration tax has become so high. These are heavy vehicles with high CO2 emissions. However, older cars benefit from an age coefficient, which makes the registration fee more affordable again," said Priit Ärmpalu, CEO of Nordauto.

Mait Kalamees, manager of Tartu-based Tehase Auto, said the registration fee could have been waived altogether. However, he said introducing additional taxes on vehicles was inevitable.

A new fee must also be paid when a car changes ownership for the first time.

"In general, when a car is inexpensive and older, the buyer is typically someone with a lower income. Price sensitivity is highly justified in such cases – if a car costs €1,000 or €2,000 and the car tax adds an additional 50 percent, then the purchase becomes unreasonable, " Kalamees told AK.

For example, the registration fee could be a quarter of the current market price of a 15-year-old Toyota Avensis or Ford Mondeo. But it would be only a few percent of the price of a new car with a hybrid engine.

The Transport Administration says the average registration fee is less than 10 percent of the car's value. But PwC Estonia Senior Consultant Raiko Puustusmaa said it is not clear how the agency arrived at that figure.

"When we talk about lower-end vehicles, which are also the most common form of transportation among people with lower incomes, the registration fee for such cars may not be low at all. It could be more than 10 percent, 50 percent, or even close to the entire value of the car. Yes, the registration fee has its effect, as it likely prevents highly polluting vehicles from being imported into Estonia. However, the vehicles that are already in Estonia will not simply disappear. What might happen is that the registration fee could eventually phase out these vehicles, making them obsolete and unused," Puustusmaa said.

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