Future of diesel vehicles??

Lots of talk about diesels being too dirty for the roads and higher taxes for diesel vehicles. My road tax is already stupidly high for my diesel car but when will it stop??

The government used to encourage diesel vehicles and that's why most cars sold in the UK are diesel.. now they want to tax them out of existence.... How can that be fair??

And where will it stop? Once all the diesels are off the road will they then attack petrol cars??

What's everyone's thoughts??

My thoughts: Buy a classic!

You can pay super extra tax for buying a Tesla which is good clean fun or buy an old Roller/Lambo/whatever for less money which actively kills kittens and puppies with it's obnoxious fumes yet pay not tax.

*Insert conspiracy theory here.*

I am in danger here of riding a hobby horse. I am a member of several car forums including classics and have been banging on for years that the tax incentives to buy diesel make no sense whatsoever. The problem is that when politicians want votes they'll say and do whatever they think Joe Public will fall for - and they somehow persuaded people that diesels were better for the environment.

Having pulled off that bit of trickery the motor manufacturers then began the build cars to meet the political trend, so you end up with cars designed by politicians and accountants rather than engineers. Look at the problems that beset many modern diesels, just plain bonkers to build engines and systems that are so complex and expensive to maintain. The whole point of diesels was their simplicity and reliability.

It is fair? No! People have done what the government told them to do, or at least encouraged them to do. Now the politicians have realised that they got it wrong they're just changing the rules without regard for the millions of people who are left with technology that is a mess. Just look at the VW fiasco, that's what happens when cars are designed to meet political ambition.

Then you've got the new tax rules from 1st April which again hammers people who are doing what the politicians have encouraged us to do - buy low emissions cars = low tax. So when too many people do that it's not a success because the government loses revenue. So they simply hammer new taxes onto cleaner engines.

At the end of the day we're in the closing stages of fossil fuels and change is always expensive, so someone has to pay. I run a classic which is tax free - hurrah - but it's not much good as a daily in modern traffic. So I also run a modern petrol which I use to tow a small caravan. The caravan fraternity have by and large almost all gone to diesel with modern caravans getting bigger and heavier. I'll bet the next generation of 'vans will be smaller and lighter because people won't be using diesels to tow with.

The problem is that the politicians who told us to buy diesels are no longer running things. With the turnover of power so quick, driven not least by the media and the public's increasingly short attention span, politicians think in the short term. That's where the real issue lies. We need a political system that rewards long term strategy.

Right - I'm off to buy a horse before they raise the tax on grass.

Well thanks for that Joeman - great thread the very day I'm due to pick up a new(ish) diesel XC90!

It's all down to the Global warming con .. tax this tax that , as long as you pay its ok to pollute , its all bollox .

... How can that be fair??

I got shot of my sense of fairness ages ago, society didn't seem to appreciate what it was. Made everything more tolerable.

Well thanks for that Joeman - great thread the very day I'm due to pick up a new(ish) diesel XC90!

It's ok, you'll get a grand against a new one back when they bring out the diesel scrappage scheme...

Well thanks for that Joeman - great thread the very day I'm due to pick up a new(ish) diesel XC90!

It's ok, you'll get a grand against a new one back when they bring out the diesel scrappage scheme...

Ha! Anyway - here's the new car. Apologies for posting an agricultural vehicle on a bike forum...

I Look at the problems that beset many modern diesels, just plain bonkers to build engines and systems that are so complex and expensive to maintain. The whole point of diesels was their simplicity and reliability.

The caravan fraternity have by and large almost all gone to diesel with modern caravans getting bigger and heavier. I'll bet the next generation of 'vans will be smaller and lighter because people won't be using diesels to tow with.

 

Yep. to make the cars smooth to drive and reduce the vibs enter Dual Mass flywheels. dealer price £1000 for new clutch.

I have a diesel bought 'cause i did long runs and tow a 'van. Its great for this. but when i replace it will look at petrol, but the suitable range is not great due to new cars being lighter and petrol engines have the torque range high up the rev range. will probably end up with a largish petrol automatic.

How soon are these changes coming into place? I changed to diesel last July with the view to keep the car 5yr or so.

Might buy a nissan leaf or renault twizy

Looks like my next car is going to be a pedal car then. The government will only be happy when we are all riding round on push bike and using horse and carriage to transport goods !

If they do a scrappage scheme it will be older diesels pre 2004 I reckon .

How soon are these changes coming into place? I changed to diesel last July with the view to keep the car 5yr or so.

Might buy a nissan leaf or renault twizy

My road tax went up 20quid already... So it's already started.

If they do a scrappage scheme it will be older diesels pre 2004 I reckon .

Oh great - more good news: our other XC90 is a late 2004 model.

My company car list is pretty much exclusively diesels because they are the only ones that can meet the CO2 limits that the company imposes, with the exception of a couple of Hybrids.....but they're not big enough to haul the kit that I need to do my job. Also, as the Hybrids have petrol engines, I'd have to pay back the petrol engine rate for my private mileage to the company.....

I wonder how our old European neighbours are dealing with this, as most cars in France, Germany, Netherlands, etc are diesel.....

I've just bought another diesel!

£30 a year tax!

I've just bought another diesel!

£30 a year tax!

Mine just cost me £520 for 12 months road tax

yes but yours probably goes a bit better!

My company car list is pretty much exclusively diesels because they are the only ones that can meet the CO2 limits that the company imposes, with the exception of a couple of Hybrids.....but they're not big enough to haul the kit that I need to do my job. Also, as the Hybrids have petrol engines, I'd have to pay back the petrol engine rate for my private mileage to the company.....

I wonder how our old European neighbours are dealing with this, as most cars in France, Germany, Netherlands, etc are diesel.....

Sod the EU...Brexit is underway

what about murica? with their huge gas guzzlers!

I will stick to my 1.6 tdi with £0 road tax for a while

if push comes to shove we will buy a newer petrol thats just as economical

Just been to see about selling mine on the way home, its lost 3.5k in value in 7 month Do you think the value of diesels has dropped in general with this recent talk?

Just spent a fortune on servicing the thing! Cars are right money pits, might go back to cycling!

Just been to see about selling mine on the way home, its lost 3.5k in value in 7 month Do you think the value of diesels has dropped in general with this recent talk?

Just spent a fortune on servicing the thing! Cars are right money pits, might go back to cycling!

Well that depends on what car it is and year?

If you bought it new its probably about right

Sod the EU...Brexit is underway

what about murica? with their huge gas guzzlers!

:

The rest of Europe isnt getting stitched up by their own governments for driving diesels...

When our diesel cars become worthless i think we should all drive them into the low emissions zone and set them on fire!

Fair?

I have a long list of ways the UK.gov has stitched me up in the last few budgets. They basically don't want anyone to earn money or invest for their future or have nice things.

Hate the UK government, doesn't matter who's in power they're all as currupt as each other.

We import millions of tons of goods that could of easily been built here in the U/K thousand upon thousands of job lost to cheap over seas suppliers.

Shipping these goods has gone unnoticed the pollution generated by containers ships is mind blowing read on.

For 31 years, the IMO has operated a policy agreed by the 169 governments that make up the organisation which allows most ships to burn bunker fuel.

Christian Eyde Moller, boss of the DK shipping company in Rotterdam, recently described this as ‘just waste oil, basically what is left over after all the cleaner fuels have been extracted from crude oil. It’s tar, the same as asphalt. It’s the cheapest and dirtiest fuel in the world’.

Bunker fuel is also thick with sulphur. IMO rules allow ships to burn fuel containing up to 4.5 per cent sulphur. That is 4,500 times more than is allowed in car fuel in

the European Union. The sulphur comes out of ship funnels as tiny particles, and it is these that get deep into lungs.

Thanks to the IMO’s rules, the largest ships can each emit as much as 5,000 tons of sulphur in a year – the same as 50million typical cars, each emitting an average of 100 grams of sulphur a year.

With an estimated 800million cars driving around the planet, that means 16 super-ships can emit as much sulphur as the world fleet of cars.

So as you can see l think once again the motorist is just being shafted.