Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Own a diesel vehicle? Please don't drive it.
Everyone in London with a diesel vehicle should consider no longer driving it. We are being poisoned.VW's cheating is just the tip of the iceberg:
Diesel cars are niche in the US, and in most of the rest of the world, representing just one in 7 cars sold worldwide. The VW recall is not large by global standards. But in Europe over half of new cars are diesels – 7.5 million of the 10 million sold globally last year were bought in Europe. There is strong evidence that similar illegal devices are also used in Europe by both VW and other manufacturers. Since 2009 (when VW began using defeat devices) over 40 million diesel cars have been sold in Europe, a sixth of all cars on the road today.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Thanks, John. The article shows that the people fixing the game are the lobbyists. And not just for VW.
There's an important equalities aspect to this. The health risk from particulates increases for people living closer to major roads and highways. Which has implications for small local decisions as well as nationally and internationally.This is one reason I oppose the plan to build housing next to the north side of Monument Way; removing the wall and strip of green between that fast wide road and Chesnut Estate.
In a public meeting, so-called planners justified this as providing an "active frontage". True. Though perhaps more active for particulates than for humansAlso why Zena Brabazon - when she was on the Planning Committee - challenged the removal of the earth bund on the south side of Monument Way which used to protect Welbourne School grounds. (It has been replaced by a barrier which is supposed to reduce sound.) Google Street view shows the location and you can go back to 2008 to see the bund.
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People may be interested in an article called Big Road Blues - Living near a highway can be bad for your health. It describes research by Tufts University in 2012 from Boston Massachusetts; monitoring levels of NOx and particulates near the city's major highways.I hope that Jeremy Corbyn, and Sadiq Khan are on the phone to Natalie Bennett to discuss what's happened. And perhaps with a lot more still to be exposed?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Not quite, they were up against Toyota and Honda who had hybrid vehicles. We have always known that diesel is a very dirty fuel, have you ever seen a diesel mechanic compared to a normal one? Rather than engage with the hybrid technology they invented a "new clean" diesel engine and then they needed to lobby. The lobbying came after the disgusting decision to go diesel.
I don't really buy the argument that the electricity used to power electric and therefore emission-less vehicles is produced by burning coal and is therefore bad either. Imagine burning that coal the way we burn diesel in our cities, next to our homes and schools.
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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The buyers of new cars in this country do seem to have been steered very effectively towards diesel engines over the last few yeras. The few times I have driven diesels I didn't like them and my personal prejudice is against them, partly because of the noise they used to make, also the smell of the fuel and the narrower range of engine revs over which they pull well - leading to more frequent gear changes.
When it came to considering buying a new car in 2001, I reasoned that given my low annual mileage, the saving in fuel consumption would barely cover the higher cost of a diesel car. Also, I read somewhere that a diesel engine achieves its best performance on longer journey when the engine is fully hot. This speaks against them being suitable for my many short trips in towns although better for the one or two long trips I make each year.
So I bought a petrol car in 2001 and earlier this year, I enquired about buying a new one just like the old one. I was astonished to find that Volvo no longer make a petrol engine version for sale in UK. I was so incensed that I went to their web-site for approved second hand cars. There I found that of the 273 second hand Volvo V70s available for sale in the UK only 3 had petrol engines. That explains their decision not to bother marketing a petrol version any longer. I bought one of the three which I hope will do me for a few years more of low mileage driving. It will be interesting to see whether demand for petrol engines picks up following the diesel scandal. The effect on second hand prices will also be instructive.
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From the Guardian this morning:
"The Guardian revealed last week that diesel cars from Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat, Volvo and Jeep all pumped out significantly more NOx in more realistic driving conditions. NOx pollution is at illegal levels in many parts of the UK and is believed to have caused many thousands of premature deaths and billions of pounds in health costs."
- my emphasis.
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Permalink Reply by dbh1954 on
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The whole thing is just depressing. I want to change my car now as my nice efficient diesel clearly isn't what it purported to be. However like Dick says it's almost impossible to find a modern petrol car. Only a few years ago this wouldn't have been the case.
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This is the other direction manufacturers went in, hybrid for sale.
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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on
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Avoid school roads when choosing a journeys route at the very least.
Diesels are still very much on sale. On visiting the nearest VW commercial dealership in Bounds Green (on the North Circular,) I couldn't find one petrol vehicle in the the whole car lot. No gear change there Volkswagen.
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