Glad mine runs on that nice clean petrol!

[Brandane]

Looks like diesel cars are going to be hard to shift:
MSN article.
I reckon the second hand value of my 1600cc petrol Toyota might just have taken a step upwards. Who knows, they might even cut the £200 VED I currently pay, and make up the difference from diesel car owners. Then I woke up .

 

[Drago]

That's less news, more utter speculation.

 

[Brandane]

That's less news, more utter speculation.

Speculation is what decides the markets for commodities. Take a diesel car into a car dealer today and see what they offer you as a trade in price.

 

[Drago]

It won't be a penny different to the amount they would have offered on Monday.

 

[Mo1959]

They encouraged us to buy diesels by making them more fuel efficient and the diesel was also cheaper than petrol, and low and behold, now that there are a huge amount on the roads, diesel is quite a bit dearer than petrol. I thought diesel was less refined so should be cheaper to produce??

 

[Brandane]

It won't be a penny different to the amount they would have offered on Monday.

.....only if you're willing to take another diesel out of their showroom.

 

[Drago]

It's telling that not one single manufacturer has dropped the list price of their diesel models as a consequence of this.

Until a government scrutinises the issue and formulates some options that they are willing to consider, the consumer end of the market is unlikely to react. As correctly mentioned in the article, road traffic makes up a relatively small proportion of such pollutants, and of that number freight traffic is by far the largest contributor.

Not that I'm in the market, but if I were it would make zero difference to a buying decision today. In 5 years time that might be different... or it might not. At this point I, like anyone else, can only speculate. In 5 years time the crude oil may have risen again making MPG of more expensive concern to consumers. Who knows? No one.

 

[sidevalve]

They encouraged us to buy diesels by making them more fuel efficient and the diesel was also cheaper than petrol, and low and behold, now that there are a huge amount on the roads, diesel is quite a bit dearer than petrol. I thought diesel was less refined so should be cheaper to produce??

It is. The vast majority of the cost of fuel [around 60%] is simply tax. All the huff and blow about the profits of the oil companies etc made by the government and others is simply a big smokescreen. The actual amount the 'profits' make to the price of a litre of fuel is minimal.

 

[Dan B]

[QUOTE 3669900, member: 9609"]what ever gov we get they will have some very tough decisions to come up with before the end of the year on pollution, by law they need to drastically reduce nox emissions - strange that non of the main parties are addressing this pre election.[/QUOTE]
Why would they? "Elect us and we'll tell you you can't use your car any more" is hardly a vote winner

 

[Brandane]

It is. The vast majority of the cost of fuel [around 60%] is simply tax. All the huff and blow about the profits of the oil companies etc made by the government and others is simply a big smokescreen. The actual amount the 'profits' make to the price of a litre of fuel is minimal.

The pre-tax price of diesel/petrol is actually a bargain, considering the process involved in getting it to the pumps. Exploration - discovery - extraction - transporting it to the refinery - refining - transporting it to the forecourt. Compare that to the costs involved in making Coca Cola, or mineral water, and the price of that per litre from the supermarket shelves.

 

[mjr]

And yet "elect us and we'll give you better alternatives to your car" would be popular with people who feel they've often no feasible alternatives to wasting their time driving because the roads have been made too unnecessarily dangerous and mass transport too awkward. I think politicians are lagging behind in realising just how little people like sitting in traffic jams and how unhappy they are at more and more countryside being lost to motorways.

 

[Alex H]

diesel is quite a bit dearer than petrol.

You live in the wrong country (where is that smug emoticon )

 

[Chrisc]

No mention in these articles about the Euro6 diesel engines and new SCR cats that are fitted to Mercs and Vauxhalls currently and will be standard in the next few years. These reduce NOx emissions to near zero so the problem will go away when older cars like mine are scrapped.
Hey, there's an idea, a scrappage scheme, offer me a nice incentive and I'll buy that new Merc I've been promising myself.

 

[Tanis8472]

Its also remarkable how many folk misunderstand diesel engined cars.
They are great if you do lots of miles per year (not town driving), but for town driving they don't generally fully heat up to the most efficient operating temperature, thereby using more diesel and wearing quicker.

That was a stupid idea for the road tax (hehehe) to be based on CO2 the way it was.

 

[Levo-Lon]

I just went back to a diesel as im fed up with low power petrol cars..so nice to have a car that does 120mph and pulls like a good un in all gears 70mpg and 30 quid tax..my van costs 225 to tax as its a 56 plate..so they are far better than 10yr ago.
ive just done 6yrs of dropping derv for weezy petrol cars with useless power outputs, gives em a drum to bang i guess....china india usa mexico...but we will pay fines i spose