I read in the paper this morning that the second hand prices of Diesel cars have dropped another 10% ! Can’t understand what all the fuss is about considering it was only a few years ago that Diesel was been promoted as “the” fuel ! And in any case petrol is never going to make any headway into the commercial market place and Diesel will continue to power the World as far as moving goods is concerned. So what does everyone think ? Cheers Bewick.
Not bothered either way really, I still run two diesels. It is only the emission issue with diesel that is the issue and I can’t see electric power making a large impact for a few years, although they are more common now than a year or so ago and charging points are appearing at hospitals, supermarkets and service areas. My neighbours bragged about how their low emission petrol cars were exempt from road tax, however this year they have both had to pay as that ruling has now changed! 
Interesting thing on TV recently regarding a road accident and one car involved was a hybrid, the emergency services spotted that and wouldn’t go near it incase the bodyshell was ‘live’ so that is something I wasn’t aware of? 
Pete.
It’s a no brainer.Diesel is a dirty obsolete fuel that should have been taken out 10 years ago.While petrol/LPG fuelled engines can provide as good if not better specific outputs without the ridiculous emissions levels and expensive aggro involved in cleaning them up.The only surprise being how diesel car values haven’t dropped further.Usually based on skinflint low mileage drivers trying to save a penny on their fuel costs to spend a pound on maintaining emissions systems among other expensive diesel issues.
As for the government if they were really serious about cleaning up the air quality then they’d remove all road fuel taxes on LPG and reduce them on petrol and put it on diesel thereby making LPG the fuel of choice for commercials.But that obviously isn’t their agenda.
all this plug in stuff is great IF you have a driveway / garage where you can plug the thing in, where I live its all Victorian terrace and park on the road stuff, even the brand new housing estate doesn’t have parking places directly outside the houses, so where do you plug it, you cant just trail cables over the path. personally going from Wellingborough to Coventry every day , as I do,full electric = dead duck , cant charge it at home , cant charge it at work, not spending an hour a day charging it on the a14 (if there’s a charging point)
I tried an auris hybrid and was unimpressed , I was trying to imagine this 1.8 petrol combined with the battery dragging my fully loaded, plus roof box , hybrid car along the autoroute at 120 k/mh , couldn’t see where it would better the economy of a diesel.
to my mind hybrids and electrics = urban great, distance get a diesel, personally I have a Toyota iq 1.33 to get to Coventry and back daily, plus a bit of local up to town and back then a diesel SsangYong 4x4 if the weathers bad , holidays and anything else.
I can see electrics coming into what we build , a small compact dumper or digger working in an urban environment , certainly a lot quieter and cleaner than a diesel.
tony
windrush:
Interesting thing on TV recently regarding a road accident and one car involved was a hybrid, the emergency services spotted that and wouldn’t go near it incase the bodyshell was ‘live’ so that is something I wasn’t aware of?
Hybrid and electric cars are very much more dangerous both to work on and more significantly to anyone 1st on the scene of an RTC, 600v DC will kill.
I think the whole thing is a con. We were encouraged to buy diesel and move away from petrol because diesel was much cleaner . I bought a very nice Volvo S80 2.5t se lux petrol only to find it was just under £500 a year to tax but it was too late. I eventually moved it on and bought a 2.4 D5 Volvo S80 Executive with an annual tax rate of around £180 , the D5 did 10 mpg more so not only was I paying through the nose at the pump I was paying excessive road tax too on the petrol. I have just bought a Volvo S90 Inscription with a 2 litre 4 cylinder diesel that isn`t doing much more than the D5 on fuel but it costs £30 a year on tax. Petrol is now cheaper than diesel so do we all switch back … not likely 
On the face of it, now is an excellent time to pick up a bargain diesel car, lots of owners are being panicked into offloading them by the media hype. But what of the future? It is very likely the government (of whichever colour) will hike excise duty on diesels to a point where any initial savings are more than negated, just as they did with diesel fuel prices. Petrol cars are reaching very good mileage figures these days, but larger cars, SUVs and 4x4s and some older cars are also being penalised by heavy taxation. As more and more electric, hybrid and small petrol cars come on to the road paying little or no ‘road tax’, the lost revenue has to be found somewhere else. But why should they get away so lightly? Whatever its method of propulsion, any vehicle takes up the same space on the road and causes the road to wear just as its fossil-fuelled equivalent. Environmentalists can quote “zero emissions” 'til the cows come home, but the power used to recharge electric vehicles has to come from somewhere, and that “somewhere” likely as not will be creating emissions of its own.We are already nearing a power generation crisis, not having sufficient generating capacity and no real progress in replacing time-expired or environmentally undesirable power stations. This situation will only get worse as more electric vehicles hit the road. Another problem is the cost of replacement and disposal of life-expired batteries, and a likely shortage of the materials needed to make them. According to Tesla’s own figures, a set of batteries for it’s recently announced electric truck will cost in the region of $200,000. Battery lifespan is estimated to be around 3-5 years, depending on type of usage. Apparently, the lithium used in modern batteries is quite a rare and volatile element, also used in drug manufacture. Most deposits of the compounds bearing it are to be found in Chile and Australia, although there are said to be small amounts in the old tin mines in Cornwall and South Wales. Practical hydrogen fuel cell technology is still some way off (although Chrysler experimented with it in the 1950’s - the De Soto Cella 1 - look it up!), and there have been experiments with “water engines” which resulted in their inventors suddenly becoming very rich, or very dead, and the idea quietly going away. It could be time for steam power to make a comeback. About forty years ago, an amateur inventor in America incorporated a very advanced system of his own design into a 1973 mid-size Chevrolet, using a new design of flash boiler driving an old Mercury V-6 outboard motor. The builder claimed it could raise steam from cold in less than 30 seconds, produced the equivalent of 300bhp with vivid acceleration and a top speed of around 130 mph, running on kerosene (paraffin). Fuel consumption was said to be equivalent to that of a contemporary 1500cc petrol car. Surely modern technological advances could improve on this backyard mechanic’s efforts? Whatever happens, the oil companies will not be too pleased to have much of their raison d’etre being taken away, so expect them to be branching into alternative technologies before long.
ramone:
I think the whole thing is a con. We were encouraged to buy diesel and move away from petrol because diesel was much cleaner .
Leave it out.
Diesel buyers are all about the ( often just perceived ) cost savings at the pump.While everyone knows it’s a dirtier fuel than petrol.Especially when the tight fisted scrooges then try to save even more by not maintaining the things and removing DPF’s and/or running them on paraffin.
I’ve been thinking of the environment and just got rid of my V6 3.0 diesel and got a 2.0 l petrol 
Were I work we have a few electric powered vans, fully charged they will do 80 miles but that’s before you put any lights or heaters on, that knocks it down a lot, we also have gas powered wagons about 4 to 5 years old and are absolute rubbish,full autos and no guts when you want to pull away esp when loaded
This is “Peggy” a 24 years old 306
D Turbo took her off the road last year due to not being able to sit low down due to an accident
£240 a year tax
This is her replacement which I’ve lost about 3 thousand pounds in depreciation in just over a year due to the anti diesel brigade £130 a year tax
This was my privately taxed HGV which again due to my accident I had to let go last year Road tax £185 per year
I don’t know how they work out the Road fund licence it’s mind boggling
interesting subject… now ive had diesel cars from the early 80s Granada 2 with 2.1 Peugeot engine,then on to Toyotas Cressidas with the 2.2, Carina, …then went to small petrol engine ,but not for long they were costing as much as the larger more comfortable diesel saloons. I then had a Skoda Felicia 1.9sdi estate new and after 2 yrs I traded in on a new Skoda Felicia 1.3 dual fuel lpg. ,As usual I kept a book on used fuel/maintenance and what I found was at the time LPG was easy to find (I had the location book) price was within 1-2p from Scottish borders to Essex to cornwall so that was ok,what was the main fault apart from the loss o boot storage due to tank in spare wheel place,was the MPG this I found was aprox 75% of petrol so it worked out cheaper to run but not enough to take the risk after the warranty ran out ,so Skoda Fabia 1.9 sdi and it booked out as 60mpg ave. james.
I ran a number of Merc diesels during the 80’s and 90’s mainly because of the large annual mileages I did and this is a shot of the last one I ran and the best IMHO an E300 although all the previous ones gave faultless service ! Our TM over the years ran Opel 2:1 and 2:3 D’s, a Volvo with 6cyl VW engine and a couple of Merc 240D’s the last one had the 5 cyl engine IIRC. The Fleet Engineer ran 2:1 Granada then a Taxi spec 2:5 Granada and then two new shape (jelly mould) with the 2:5D all the Ford diesels were the Peugeot engine and it was cheaper to buy spares from a Peugeot Dealer than the Ford Dealer funnily enough ! his last motor was a big Vauxhall D , just can’t remember the model name ! I had my share of big petrol engine motors in the 70’s early 80’s but I was quite happy to demonstrate I was just as frugal and economical as I expected others to be ! Cheers Bewick.
aye I should have said 2.1 Peugeot engine in the Granada 
the 2.5 was the dogs ■■■■■■■■ had a friend with one and as you said Taxi spec with power steering …the 2.1 Granada was Armstrong steering . same as you said filters were much cheaper from Peugeot dealer but through a factor I found out that fuel filters from a MF tractor fitted the 2.1 engine Big savings. the 1.7d in Astras were a good engine but had a habit at 100000ml of the belt/chain going.(cant remember which but sure can mind pulling 2 friends home on Friday nights from Carlisle one from the big roundabout at the council offices and another a week or so later from down the botchergate from a pub carpark.just what I needed after away for the week late 80s…and being the only “friend” wae a car dolly.
These were the two first Granada D’s, the 400V one was 2:1 and it had a full spec and was described as a ■■■■■■■ “Christmas Tree” by the late David Hirst the Sales Director of Lakeland Ford in Kendal ! The new shape red one was the Taxi Spec 2:5 D.
This chap has my sense of humour trying to upgrade from this leg powered model, made me chuckle anyway. My Mrs has a diesel pugget 308 dangerous on a motorway as it gets to 90 to easy and you don’t know your doing it, the best diesel car I ever owned was a new Audi A6 as smooth as butter to drive and also my Mrs had a new A4 both brilliant cars and they did not depreciate like a lead balloon either. also had lots of discoveries but the last was a V8 and for its weight it went really well, cheers Buzzer.
I’ve been running Diesel cars since the early 80’s, still got one now, not really interested in getting a DPF nor euros 5 or 6, euro 3 is plenty modern enough ta very much, my current beasty is year 2005, i keep it seriously well serviced and cared for so hoping to get at least another 10 years before it needs too much doing.
Not a fan of european cars any more, Japanese for me, though quite happy to consider Korean when the time comes, but there is so little (nothing actually) made new these days that i would want to buy.
Hope they do ban me and my old car from cities 
, perfect excuse never to go anywhere any of the crap holes ever again…unless being well paid to drive some bugger else’s lorry
The health implications of diesel, petrol, LPG, coal and whatever other fuels have been known for decades.
The legislation changes to stimulate consumption. The propaganda preceding the legislation creates the enthusiasm for the market to change. People change their cars, more cars are made, more wealth goes to those who own the money funding the investment. It’s got bugger all to do with protecting the environment or peoples’ health.
It’s bad, IMO. I don’t remember such cynical use of the law to stimulate waste in the 1970s and earlier. Can anyone cite any examples of taxation or legislation, forcing apparently contradictory or illogical changes in the specification of vehicles, in those days?
My oldest friend worked as a scientist at “a government owned vehicle testing facility” for all of his working life and they made the government aware of the various pollution dangers from diesel engines many years ago. They were then told to keep quiet about it of course.
Pete.