Good bye diesel cars ..will this make secondhand cars almost worthless

[Dryce]

And you dont think petrol vehicles are a danger to health?

Well you can be sure if the problem for 'the authorities' is diesel today then if they ban diesels it will be petrol tomorrow.

There may be a problem that needs to be addressed but there is also an agenda which is also in part responsible for defining and thereby creating the problem.

 

[Dizzy]

Well apparently newer models now have very low emissions but of course all are still a health hazard.

 

[E55BOF]

Was Clarkson right - "The Devil's fuel"?

It's all b******s really; the media froth suggests motoring Armageddon is imminent, with unidentified 'some experts' giving supposed opinions, but I'd bet nothing will happen quickly. The Greens, predictably, are as daft as ever, but lawmakers/politicians living in the real world are rather less so; they have to contend with reality.

As for banning diesels from towns and cities, that's a really wizard wheeze; to keep up supplies of - well, almost everything really - huge numbers of coolies will be required, which will bring the unemployment figures way down...



The one thing you can be sure of is that most of us will end up paying more tax, but as I run an E55K, and can (just about) afford to do so, I'm not too worried either way. I do feel (a bit) for those who buy big, gas-guzzling hybrids, though; they're not too economical in the real, long fast motorway journey, world, are they?

 

[Dryce]

Well apparently newer models now have very low emissions but of course all are still a health hazard.

Well it's moved the focus off CO2 .................... for now.

 

[Dryce]

lawmakers/politicians living in the real world

Are there such animals?

Let me answer my own question ....... no.

 

[Doodle]

Given that what they appear to be looking at is banning diesel cars from the capital to meet air pollution laws, for most diesel car owners this will make no difference to their ownership.

How many of us visit the congestion charge zone in the 12 years since its introduction? If I want to get into central London, I take the train/tube.

 

[markjay]

The supposed issue is the impact of pollution diectly within our cities - so the context here is more about local pollution than global pollution.

Correct, and this is also why the link between the London Congestion Charge and CO2 emission is totally inexplicable.

 

[219]

...its usually the ones that are more than about 3 years old or so that appear to be emitting the most soot

I haven't had anything remotely as new as that in recent years

 

[219]

We have recently got rid of both our Diesel cars and are , once again , an all petrol family , and back in my comfort zone .

 

[spookycat]

answer is no, i work for a car manufactor building diesels and we will be launching a new diesel engine shortly

 

[Power_n_Glory]

Many years ago, before diesels were quite as popular in the UK, I visited Paris and during an otherwise very enjoyable trip was disgusted at the air quality - much more so than the dog poo etc on the pavement. Because they were all diesels which then were pretty rank anyway. Bizarre that the French now seem to have had a volte face, so to speak. As a wheezy boy with a note from matron, my asthma is definitely worse in London and when the pollution levels go up.

New ones are much better all round of course but for it's still a judgement of CO2 and particulate emissions (particularly those short stop-start journeys) for most of us. I reluctantly had a diesel Multipla only coz it was a much better drive than the ironically breathless petrol version and as it was for longer journeys I reckoned the motorways is a better place for that stuff.

I have voted with my lungs and we have now returned to a petrol-only household, a tiny 1.0 litre car for most journeys and a big one for distance/comfort and outright speed.

 

[markjay]

There is a difference between noticeable and unnoticeable pollution... and diesels tend to produce more of the noticeable type (both in terms of fumes and noise).

Obviously this does not mean that petrol engine emissions are good for your lungs... just that the experience is less unpleasant

 

[tec]

Any extra emission zone charging system will take years to implement.
The London diesel zone does not start until 2020 and this would have already taken years of planning.
It will be 2030 probably at the earliest before any new cities start charging for diesels.


For those us that do not live in or travel to city centres there will probably be no change for existing diesel owners, so no reason to panic sell your car for a long time.

I alway find petrol cars smell worse than diesels, but I know it's not the smell that allegedly is killing people.

 

[grober]

For quite some time now many manufacturers have offered a very limited choice [ if any] of petrol engined versions of their models in the UK. I'm still uncertain of whether this has lead to chicken or egg effect in the recent UK car population. Is this a reflection of the current taxation regime for company car purchase in the UK and merely a response of dealerships in the cars they wish to stock or something else ? Since diesel is now the more expensive fuel you would expect that might have redressed the balance somewhat but if you ain't paying for the fuel anyway- does it matter? Even in diesel lovin France they often have a better choice of Mercedes petrol engined cars implying there are perhaps other factors skewing the market than mere choice.

 

[grober]

In terms of diesel cars I would venture they will initially be banned only in certain environmentally sensitive high traffic density urban areas where NOx and particulates are a particular problem. This may be introduced on a sliding scale over the next few years with perhaps Euro 6 compatible cars being exempt initially [ with NOx reducing adblue [urea] technology] -----all this leading to a volte-face situation where diesel car owners are forced to reverse the current trend of DPF removal and a new cottage industry of DPF and NOx ADD-ON technology becomes necessary to keep older diesel cars on the road legally ?

 

[artyman]

I wonder what will happen to all the diesel buses and lorries in towns then. I can remember as a kid back in the 50's following old lorries belching out huge clouds of black smoke, I'm still here. Then there was the scare about lead in petrol and we went to unleaded, and so it goes on, what next for the politicians to come up with to further manipulate our lives. If it's an EU directive then the sooner we control our own destiny and not be subject to Brussel bureacrats the better.

 

[grober]

Not sure what you are trying to say here. Would non membership of the EU prevent disease induced by vehicle pollution?
1955 No of cars on the road approx 3 Million
2011 No of cars on the road approx 28.5 million = 83% [ total vehicle fleet of 34.2 million]
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9038/vls-2011.pdf

 

[tec]

If it's all about pollution and health, then why does charging £12/day in London fix that issue?

It's all about tax, and nothing to do with pollution/health issues.

The rich can carry on polluting the world.

 

[Chewa]

As someone who spends a lot of time in France (and drives a 280CDI), I suspect this won't happen too quickly (at least not before I retire, move permanently to France and change the E class for a Dacia 4x4 and a 2CV).

The French buy diesels in their droves and (the populace)are very adept at fighting any EC moves they don't consider to suit them.

It will come, no doubt, and as a cyclist I'll be happy enough when it does, but not for a while methinks.

 

[Reggie-rock]

In my opinion if you need a diesel car to get to work for the fuel economy, you work too far from home.
Diesels engines should be only for HGVs or buses etc.
Where I work all the Mercedes HGV fleet have been converted to LPG which saves in fuel costs as they only do 9 mpg.