Are diesel cars now worthless?

[Kudoscycles]

Chris Grayling has said that diesel cars are poisoning us and we should not buy them anymore.
Wasn't there a time when we were all told to buy diesel because it was less pollution than petrol.
So do we all buy petrol now?
What about the thousands of diesel cars in the pipeline,are these now scrap?
This is what annoys about governments ,they make announcements without thinking through implications or solutions.
If you ran the London Diesel Car Centre,Grayling has hurt the guys business without compensation.
I love my diesel Audi and was about to buy another.
KudosDave

 

[flecc]

Diesel cars have always been worthless in my opinion, and I've always refused to contemplate having one, even as a free company car. I've always been aware of what filthy things they are, wider society now only beginning to wake up to that and one of my reasons for disliking them. Another is the irritating clatter they make while while warming up and still excess external noise once up to temperature.

Having plenty of truck driving experience I'm well aware of the advantages of diesel engines, but I think they should be confined to where they are still essential, high load, high torque applications.

But they should be barred where they are unnecessary, such as in cars, and it's a pity that they were ever introduced into car use. Citroen were first in 1933 with the Rosalie model, but Mercedes Benz were hard on their heels in 1936 with the 260D.
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[Danidl]

Chris Grayling has said that diesel cars are poisoning us and we should not buy them anymore.
Wasn't there a time when we were all told to buy diesel because it was less pollution than petrol.
So do we all buy petrol now?
What about the thousands of diesel cars in the pipeline,are these now scrap?
This is what annoys about governments ,they make announcements without thinking through implications or solutions.
If you ran the London Diesel Car Centre,Grayling has hurt the guys business without compensation.
I love my diesel Audi and was about to buy another.
KudosDave

All cars poison us. The nox emissions and carbon monoxide s are common to both petrol and diesel. The disadvantage of diesel is that it also produces carbon particles of a particular size which affect lungs.
The advantages of diesel are being eroded by the improved efficiency of petrol motors. I got into diesels from about 1992 when I released that I could travel up and down a journey of 100 miles on 2 gallons. The Audi 1995cc diesel in the A6 was a lovely machine, and with its high torque could be used almost like an automatic. I

 

[flecc]

All cars poison us.

Some don't, not at our location anyway:

 

[Steve A]

Even Teslas do. When you think of where they source product from and how it eventually gets to plant for build, it may well be more polluting than a locally sourced and manufactured diesel car (few and far between).

Flying for business / holidays / exports has massively increased and causes far more pollution.

Dinosaurs lived on earth for 175 million years (best scientific guess), waring civilisation about 6000 years and look at the damage we've done.

Where DOOMED!!!. I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything, but human species / growth is unsustainable.

Too clever for our own good

 

[flecc]

Even Teslas do.

But as I said, not at our location, so in driving one we aren't hurting ourselves or other locals.

But I agree, we can't carry on as we are, it will all end in tears. We either need to radically reduce our population or genetically engineer the human race to be about 18" tall and poikilothermic.
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[Steve A]

I get your point, but i'm afraid producing a gallon of fuel (petrol/diesel) is as polluting as a Tesla doing 20 miles using electricity, due to how electricity is produced.

God, i better take the battery off my e-bike

 

[Emo Rider]

True petrol head since day one. Never owned or would own a diesel. I have never been gagged by a petrol vehicle like I am almost daily by black smoke spewing diesels. Good riddance I say.

Now an electric car I would own because of their quiet power. However, when you do your homework about pollutants created in manufacture and the method of electric power generation, they're not as squeaky clean as one may think.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Not all diesels are the same. They range from agricultural to very sophisticated. The latest ones have Add Blue, which cleans up the exhaust a lot.

 

[Emo Rider]

Not all diesels are the same. They range from agricultural to very sophisticated. The latest ones have Add Blue, which cleans up the exhaust a lot.

Right you are about diesels getting better. And different types of diesel motors create different levels of pollution especially when not well maintained. Having said that, I think that cheating in emissions tests by major manufacturers have put a huge nail in their collective coffins.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Caring comment of the day....I have just been offered £11k off a brand new A6 allroad 320 diesel......see every black cloud has a silver lining.
KudosDave

 

[craiggor]

How dirty is veg oil ?

 

[Kudoscycles]

I assume that diesel cars are OK in rural areas ,bad in cities.
If this government are serious about stopping city pollution,then ban all vehicles ,petrol and diesel,except essential vehicles.
Provide a top quality public transport system and provide big car parks accessible by the M25.
It will cost a fortune,but will make our cities pedestrian/bicycle access,delightful places to be.
KudosDave

 

[mike killay]

I assume that diesel cars are OK in rural areas ,bad in cities.
If this government are serious about stopping city pollution,then ban all vehicles ,petrol and diesel,except essential vehicles.
Provide a top quality public transport system and provide big car parks accessible by the M25.
It will cost a fortune,but will make our cities pedestrian/bicycle access,delightful places to be.
KudosDave

London centric!

 

[Danidl]

How dirty is veg oil ?

In what sense?. It is low sulphur, which is good. It is using a carbon neutral material., The crops absorbed co2 from the atmosphere one or two years previously , so not a direct contributor to global warming.
The veg oil can be from recycled deep fat friers so it is using creatively a waste product. These are good features.
But land devoted to get oil production, is not being used to create food and there are famines.
... The original diesels were intended to run on plant derived oils and also rendered tallow and fats from the meat industry.

The production of the carbon particles is part of the combustion process and I would not expect that the exact composition of the diesel oil to greatly affect it.

 

[Danidl]

I assume that diesel cars are OK in rural areas ,bad in cities.
If this government are serious about stopping city pollution,then ban all vehicles ,petrol and diesel,except essential vehicles.
Provide a top quality public transport system and provide big car parks accessible by the M25.
It will cost a fortune,but will make our cities pedestrian/bicycle access,delightful places to be.
KudosDave

... Substitute less bad for ok and I agree with you. In rural areas there are plenty of other locations for the carbon particles to be trapped other than in human lungs... Leaves, grasses water.

 

[Danidl]

But as I said, not at our location, so in driving one we aren't hurting ourselves or other locals.

But I agree, we can't carry on as we are, it will all end in tears. We either need to radically reduce our population or genetically engineer the human race to be about 18" tall and poikilothermic.
.

... How might that be so, the nox , unconsumed hydrocarbons, and even the carbon micro particles generally diffuse into the air and travel downwind before dispersion.

 

[flecc]

... How might that be so, the nox , unconsumed hydrocarbons, and even the carbon micro particles generally diffuse into the air and travel downwind before dispersion.

And also upwind!

And if in my direction, dispersal continues all the way to me

Anyway, doesn't alter the fact that the production, electricity, car or battery, isn't where I'm driving most of the time.
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[mike killay]

It's a bit like all health warnings.
Now something is good for you (ie Milk, butter etc)
Then its bad for you,
Then perhaps it's not so bad.
Then it's good for you.
Probably somebody will come up with some way to clean diesel exhaust.

 

[flecc]

Probably somebody will come up with some way to clean diesel exhaust.

Its already known how, but when achieved the advantages over petrol for cars are lost, especially since the recent big advances in clean and economical petrol engines in cars.

The car choice now for the future is petrol, petrol-hybrid or electric, according to need, and I'm sure diesel will gradually disappear from cars. Governments want it and the industry will be happy with that, after all it means more sales.

It's the heavy vehicles that will benefit from any diesel clean-up gains, probably forced by new laws.
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