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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This, pvig73, was my take on the CO2 emissions' banding when I was a councillor. I argued against it because I thought the available evidence did not support the claim that it was an "environmentally friendly parking charge". Nor that: "grading parking charges according to carbon emissions is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal in the fight against climate change."
I stopped asking for and publishing updates of the figures as it was clear that nobody took the slightest notice.
Ironically I think there are many people who do consider emissions rating when choosing a car. And in Haringey, not principally to pay a lower charge for their CPZ permit. But because they genuinely want a greener less polluting car. In other words, they have tried to act as responsible citizens. Some of them are among those who have been cheated and lied to.
I wonder what happens if a significant number of the CO2 emissions ratings are also found to be fraudulent? At what point do enough people say 'This has to stop', to produce the system change we clearly need?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Am I allowed to feel smug as I have never owned a car?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Well yes. I bought hybrid car ten years ago thinking that I would try to push the technology in the right direction after reading Tim Flannery's book, The Weather Makers. Rather than compete with the Japanese Hybrid technology it seems that the German motoring industry lobbied and cheated. Nice.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Don't get too excited John.. Not the GERMAN MOTORING INDUSTRY ..some, but not all cheated . Well that's how it stands at the moment.. and only on Diesel Vehicles .. so it seems.
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The U.K. was founded racist slave drivers, and also tried to convert most of Africa to christianity, while raping India of it's wealth, and enslaving parts of Asia killing millions.. Should we consider not visting it too?
A Concerned ex-brit who swapped his British passport for something more decent.
Using 'Nazi' card is so redolent of the Anglo-Saxon inferiority complex when it comes to the Germans. VW as it stands is the company started by the British in 1948.
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Is it criminal to continue to drive one of these motor vehicles? Watch the tide of opinion turn and it become increasingly seen to be so.
German car manufacturer admits that 1,189,906 British vehicles, including Audis, Seats and Skodas, were fitted with defeat devices.
The scale of the number means the UK is likely to be one of the worst affected countries by the scandal.
The company said: “Step by step, affected customers will be contacted, with details of a process to get their vehicles corrected in the near future. In the meantime, all vehicles are technically safe and roadworthy.
"Safe and roadworthy".... I laughed and laughed and laughed. I'd wondered how they made those diesel engines so good.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
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This issue isn't at all new John, just the level of skulduggery.
Perhaps 'What Car' is not bedtime magazine reading chez McMullan. Ages ago (at least ten years) it started a 'Real MPG' campaign/selling point when the disparity between EU test results and the fuel consumption they recorded in their on-road car tests was too big to discount.
It's now on their website as an app which gives, for any of the cars they've tested, an estimate of the fuel consumption a driver might expect based on urban/rural, congested/open road and gentle/fierce driving style. For the car I drive and how I drive it, it was pretty close. Yes it's aimed at fuel consumption/CO2 rather than NOx and particles which are the current issue.
I'm waiting for Boris wearing his Transport supremo hat to say something, because he's in the firing line from the EU about NOx levels in areas of London exceeding EU limits, and legal action is in process. "Not my fault, I've got a low emission zone, a congestion charge and I'm retiring the old taxis - it's all those new VW minicabs operated through Uber", or something.
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Have you read anything, Gordon, which suggests they've also been cheating all the tests including for CO2 emissions ratings? I've read about tests taken with overinflated tyres and with wing-mirrors folded. Both of which are rather more obvious than hidden software.
Have you spotted anything which suggests manufacturers other than VW are also cheating?
This begins to seem less like an exclusively Volkswagen problem and more a worldwide problem of trust; and the failure of both regulation and of whistle blowing. By which I mean that somebody knew. And they either didn't speak up; or did and were not listened to. Or worse - a huge cover-up?
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Yes there are plenty of descriptions of not-real-world practices out there such as you mention, starting on the BBC website. Gaming the test, you mean? Well the tests themselves, to the benefit of the automotive industry, game any real world practices of driving, e.g. in the test accelerating from 0 to 50 kph/31 mph over a 26-second interval. Wait and see for evidence is all I can offer re your specific question on illegality across the industry.
But I'll offer up an education parallel: teaching to the test.
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The educational/test parallel is very apt in my opinion. There is preparing appropriately for the test, good night's sleep, diet good, swotting, and there's taking a cellphone in to look stuff up on wikipedia. What VW did was the latter.
Another parallel is the tax system, the difference between avoiding the emissions and evading a test of the emissions. Jail for these people, they have poisoned us.
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This is not about fuel economy, it's obvious that manufacturers would "swot" for sitting a test for that. This is about the proliferation of diesel motors, despite the fact that their emissions are poisonous and kill thousands of people a year.
“The policy priority was climate change, [but] it was thought that air pollution regulations on vehicles would work,” said Martin Williams, who headed the UK government’s Air Quality Unit for 20 years and is now at King’s College London. “People said ‘sure, diesels emit more particulates and nitrogen oxides (NOx) but we have really stringent regulations”. Twenty years on, we have found out we were wrong.”
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