Personal property tax is a different thing altogether. Virginia does charge a personal property tax for cars, boats, planes, etc. Amount paid is based on the value of the item, so those who buy expensive things (and presumably can afford them) pay more taxes than those who buy more inexpensive things. Property tax goes into the general revenue fund and pays for things like state and county and city services, schools, etc. A road use tax goes to the transportation fund and pays for road improvements. Since you live in Northern Virginia, you also pay an extra bit of sales tax over the rest of the state which goes to the Northern Virginia transportation fund providing additional funds for more roads and maintenance up there.
Yes there are states that don't have personal property tax, but often they hit you with other kinds of taxes (higher gas taxes, higher income taxes, higher sales taxes, etc.). At the end of the day, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch and things have to be paid for somehow.
Having spent over 25 years in uniform and moved 17 times in that career, I've gotten to see a bit about the different ways states tax people and the different levels of service you get. To put things in perspective, when I lived in Illinois (near Chicago), the sales tax was about 3% higher than Virginia and the property tax on my house was 400% higher (that's correct...it was four times what it would be in Fairfax country for a house of similar assessed value). So when I moved here, my property tax on my house dropped by over 50% (I bought a more expensive house)...the cost of the personal property tax on my car in Virginia is minuscule compared to the amount I paid for a house half the value. And I live in Fairfax county with some of the best schools in the country while Illinois' schools were average at best. All in all, my anecdotal opinion is that taxes in Virginia are about average but much lower than other high income, major metropolitan areas and that money actually goes to things like roads and schools that make my life better (as compared to going to pork projects and corruption and "hire everyone jobs programs" like I saw in Chicago. I also believe the taxes are much lower than Maryland pretty much across the board. Just my opinion of course.