Glad mine runs on that nice clean petrol!

[Tanis8472]

Yeah, i like the low down pull of modern common rail td's.
The newer petrol turbos are a lot better than 5 years ago too.

 

[mybike]

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.

I'm waiting for someone to offer free bikes to pensioners.

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

There's a load of nonsense around CO2

 

[Over The Hill]

A car is good for 200,000 miles these days.
Lets say you get 30mpg from the petrol one and 50mpg from the diesel one of similar size (medium car).
Over the life of the petrol car you put in £38,000 of fuel at todays prices while the diesel one covers the same ground on £24,000 of fuel.
(other costs are about the same) (fuel at £1.18 d and £1.12 p per litre cost)
So unless the government is about to give me the £14,000 difference I think I will stick with the diesel.

 

[glenn forger]

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

Only if the filters are serviced. No emission check on diesels-just smoke- and no component checks at all on MOTs.

 

[Andy_R]

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.

Don't forget you get taxed twice on diesel and petrol. Fuel duty is levied first, then VAT (on the inflated price - not the other way round).

 

[NorthernDave]

Bought a Zero VED rated Euro 5 diesel 18 months ago - mainly because I was told it was a green, clean car - and paid a premium for doing so.
Now, thanks largely to a group of unelected lawyers using the courts for their own political aims, I look losing a fortune. I'll take a hit on the value of the car, I'll have to pay to go into the town where I live (my wife car shares the commute - something else we're supposed to do).
Public transport is a joke here, with one company having a virtual monopoly on bus services and providing a service that reflects that, and a council who will apparently do everything they can to avoid keeping traffic moving.
Oh and at least one of the emissions recording stations is sat next to a row of bus stops where they sit churning out fumes all day...

 

[ufkacbln]

It is really a red herring that avoids the real problem

All engines that burn hydrocarbons emit these gasses

However by introducing a "baddie" we can avoid the issue that ALL use of vehicles emitting these gasses could be reviewed

 

[gbb]

As always, there's pros and cons re petrol/diesel cars.
My Astra 1.6 SRI is really pokey from low speed, accelerates really well...but it does lag higher up the rev band, a bit wheezy as meta ion says...but it does 45mpg easily, I can squeeze 50 if I drive real careful.
My son has a 1.9 CDTI SRI vectra, bloody thing goes like a rocket...but in every diesel he's had, the maintenance costs are higher, fuel is dearer of course and he's replaced the DMF in each of his last diesels...plus clutch plus water pump because its silly not to, you risk potentially big bills.
Gain in one hand, lose with the other.

 

[Kevoffthetee]

I can't fault my 2.0D volvo S40. its have the official Volvo remap and I get power al the way through the gears, sit on the motorway at 70 (and a couple) doing 1400 revs and clocking 75mpg.

My company installs LPG Autogas into petrols cars from 3 cylinders VWs to 6.3litre supercharged mercedes and I drive a diesel, says a lot

 

[Over The Hill]

As always, there's pros and cons re petrol/diesel cars.
My Astra 1.6 SRI is really pokey from low speed, accelerates really well...but it does lag higher up the rev band, a bit wheezy as meta ion says...but it does 45mpg easily, I can squeeze 50 if I drive real careful.
My son has a 1.9 CDTI SRI vectra, bloody thing goes like a rocket...but in every diesel he's had, the maintenance costs are higher, fuel is dearer of course and he's replaced the DMF in each of his last diesels...plus clutch plus water pump because its silly not to, you risk potentially big bills.
Gain in one hand, lose with the other.

Most of the issues are overcome by buying a diesel car from a maker who uses decent diesel engines. Vauxhall make rubbish engines. My 8 year old Merc diesel is on 125,000 miles and drives like new, it has never has a spanner on the engine. Before that I had father in laws Peugeot 406 diesel that he had from new and I sold it on to a friend. That is now 16 years old, and is still running on all original engine at about 150k I was out in it today and it runs perfectly.

 

[mybike]

Must confess that when I drove into work in my 1.6 Focus I always had to wait for the diesels to get up to speed, unless I was at the front at the lights. As for CO2, it's just an excuse to make us pay more taxes.

 

[Tanis8472]

Only if the filters are serviced. No emission check on diesels-just smoke- and no component checks at all on MOTs.

AFAIK, they are introducing checks for cat/dmf etc soon.

 

[mybike]

I've heard they're going to check CO2 output from cyclists soon.

 

[Dave the Smeghead]

I've heard they're going to check CO2 output from cyclists soon.

As long as they don't check for, and tax, methane emissions

 

[mybike]

As long as they don't check for, and tax, methane emissions

Or hot air.