Petrol versus Diesel etc

2017 seems set to be the year that diesel drivers are hit with a perfect storm of issues and difficulties, with chatter already building about the potential for tax hikes and even diesel vehicle bans in cities.

Many diesel drivers have a solid reason to feel aggrieved by the government’s rapidly evolving stance on diesel vehicles and the emissions they produce. Under the last Labour government, people were positively encouraged to switch to diesel and Gordon Brown even gave tax breaks to individuals purchasing them.


Of course, that’s all changed since evidence emerged that diesel vehicles are far more damaging to the environment. Now the present government finds itself in the awkward position of having to dis-incentivise the use of vehicles that people were once proactively encouraged to buy – in a country with over 10 Million diesel cars on the road.

Read on here:


http://tinyurl.com/zo78w4a

By a fluke I was ahead of the storm when I changed from diesel to petrol in Feb 2014 - 18 months before the VW scandal broke cover.  I now have a Hybrid on order which will arrive in March and I will be free of road tax. Had the car arrived in April the tax would have been £140 per year.

I believe that governments will have no choice but to increase costs for diesel and gas guzzling petrol cars to get people to buy petrol and hybrids on the inevitable path for us all to have electric cars.

As far as I can see electric cars will always be a no no for most people, until they can be charged up at garages within a few minutes.  Needing a charge after a relatively few miles and for that to take several hours would be an absolute pain in the ass.  Hybrids are more sensible.  Personally, I won't be going down that route, I am probably now using my last car.  When I no longer feel safe driving, I will have to put up with buses for local journeys, and taxis for the odd longer journey.  Taxis may seem expensive, but for the occasional journey, they are infinitely cheaper than buying, taxing and insuring and running a conventional car. We can always have shopping delivered

I'm with andsome and the taxi notion on this one.

I've been unable to drive for many years due to non-functioning legs and it only takes a little calculation to work out the huge cost of buying, taxing and insuring and running a car and comparing what you spend on taxis. Obviously if you're zooming up and down the whole country everyday, this doesn't apply but I'm not doing that.

We have some very good neighbours and friends who take us shopping any time we want and, we have shopping delivered.

Nowadays there is no real reason to leave the house.

I had always been dead against diesel engines until a few years ago when swapping my jag, diesels were the only option, so somewhat reluctantly I got one and am now on my second one.
Very impressive fuel economy with 50 plus mpg and low emissions making my car tax £10 per year.

malcolm wrote:

I had always been dead against diesel engines until a few years ago when swapping my jag, diesels were the only option, so somewhat reluctantly I got one and am now on my second one.
Very impressive fuel economy with 50 plus mpg and low emissions making my car tax £10 per year.

The problem though is what is now known about the pollution diesels cause.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/10796035/Diesel-engines-responsible-for-7000-deaths-a-year.html

The emissions (pollution) caused by my jag are so low, much less than any petrol car, that car tax has been reduced accordingly ... 10 quid !!!!
Most pollution is caused by HGV's and vans.

The real answer lies in the development of an "exhaust washer", or some clever way of hanging two oxygen atoms on  to each carbon atom as it passes through a "cleaning box". I suspect that some sort of ultra high vibrations could be a "catalyst".
Maybe some of Mahlers output could be put to use.

Diesels have low CO2 emissions - which is the parameter used for setting road fund license rates. A modern large diesel may well have low CO2 emissions to get a low tax rate but this is now recognised as
unrepresentative of the environmental damage they cause.

Unlike petrol engines, Diesels emit high levels of extremely toxic nitrogen compounds - and it is these emissions that is now the concern.

The labour government led us down this road and encouraged people to change to diesel on a false promise and many deaths are the consequence.

Yes this is an oft used political ploy called moving the goalposts

It is yet another instance of politicians being totally ignorant of the real world. Just working from election to election on vote collecting schemes that have the appearance of being  of benefit to the people whilst having a sting in the tail for the electorate.
Every thing they touch ultimately goes "belly up".

Agreed - but that doesn't alter the fact that we have been lured down a dark and poison gas filled alley that needs to be addressed.

The government are now between a rock and a hard place - they need to reduce the environmental impact of diesel engines - but if they hit diesel owners too hard they will face electoral repercussions.

It will be interesting to see how this dilemma pans out.

Alan
It will be interesting to see how this dilemma pans out.


It will unfortunately  pan out, as every other Westminster based  decision does, with the public paying more money into the exchequer and only the politician's bank accounts benefiting. The rest of you can go to hell (until we come up with the next damn fool trick to releave you of your money).

This is the first instalment

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-4116540/Seven-ten-new-car-buyers-pay-road-tax-Spring.html

I was just enjoying the thought of ten quid road tax, when it suddenly jumps back up to £140 !!

I seriously doubt whether I will ever need to buy a new car, my present one should last me until I decide to stop driving. I have already cut down on very long journeys.