Diesel cars might be phased out.

Apparently they are not very good for the environment after all!!!

Val

 

Must admit I always thought diesel was the dirtiest fuel ever invented.

 

I changed to petrol 13 months ago, but simply went out and bought a new car and didn't bang on about I should get a massive subsidy like lots of people are now doing.

 

I've never owned or driven a diesel car. I think a lot of people own them because of fuel consumption but that's no longer the case. I have a petrol 1.2 turbo Clio that does 56mpg, why would I bother!

If they do phase them out then petrol prices will probably rise.

 

I think that TVO was worst than diesel

 

Never tried it, and not sure I want to.

I'll stick with petrol, might not get the MPG, but cant stand the rattle of diesels.

 

If you compare new petrol and new diesel engines then petrol wins. The efficiency of petrol engines drops off with age more steeply than diesel though so pretty soon it all levels out. The biggest problem is that the UK is one huge traffic jam!

Nope. It has always been as good as impossible to top yourself using the hosepipe method on a diesel car!

I have an 800cc diesel Smart that returns me over 80mpg doing the pottering about that it's used for! And its emissions are so low that road tax is free! There is another reason though. Amongst proper sensible sized cars the modern diesel engine is a wall of torque. By that what I mean is that at all sensible engine speeds if you put your foot down it will just get up and go.

 

You know more than me Longk, but I'm sure if I tried to top myself with a diesel I'd probably die two years later with a bad cough.

I've got a petrol turbo which is becoming almost as common now as the diesel turbos, and it does the same regarding torque, put your foot down at 1500 revs and it goes.

 

That would be about as good as it got. At least an old petrol engine killed quickly

On a daily basis I drive everything from the Smart through to German and Italian exotica. Modern diesels seriously outdo their petrol brothers.

 

I know Jaguar have a few diesels and they have got to be rubbish, Audi seem to be diesel mad, not sure BMW are, so much, VW same as Audi.
Ford diesels sound like every part of the engine is moving, but in different directions.
Not sure about Vauxhall, but then, nobody is really, are they?

Would I be right in saying the real top of the range stuff still use petrol?

 

As far as I know, the actual scientists have always said that diesel is filthy dirty stuff. The only reason diesel is 'better for the environment' is because what is better for the environment officially is decided by politicians rather than scientists. The scientists tell us stuff, the politicians completely fail to understand it, and they jump on one tiny little piece that they vaguely understand. Politicians understand for example that more CO2 in the air is bad, and diesels produce less CO2 because they use less fuel. They completely fail to comprehend that while CO2 is lower from a diesel than a comparable petrol engine, all the other nasties are in much greater measures. One of the nastiest being the 'large particulate matter', ie soot. The stuff that clogs and irritates people's respiratory tracts causing asthma and cancer and all sorts of other nasties.

Modern diesel engines have a thing called a DPF (diesel particulate filter) that is supposed to stop the soot getting out. They don't work, and lots of people simply remove them, but even when they are working, they work by trapping and burning the soot to release lots of CO2 and NO2 and other such unpleasantries, but at least when the engine is not operating in the zone where it is either letting the soot escape or burning it off, CO2 is lower than petrol, and that's good enough for the EU.

 

Anyone who has driven behind a bus on a hot day will tell you diesel is nasty stuff regarding soot and fumes.
But even the modern cars seem to put a pretty good plume of black smoke if the driver puts his foot down.
I do think the emmisions thing revolves around CO2 and not what really matters.

 

I don't understand why diesel and petrol are still the main focus. The technology for all electric is there. Its just the will to implement it that is absent.

 

I really dont think electric cars are practical yet, and the cost is also holding it back.
If we all suddenly went electric there would not be the infrastructure to support it, and who is going to pay for it?