From 1909:-

"A few years ago two gentlemen were dining at a Shrewsbury Hotel when a
lumbering car was driven into the yard. Like many of the early motors, this
one was neither silent nor odourless, and one of the diners, pointing to the
snorting machinery, observed to his friend, "If ever I should become
Chancellor of the Exchequer, those are the things I should make contribute
pretty generously to the finances of the country". The speaker was Mr David
Lloyd George, now the Chancellor".

So, no change then?