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
-
Permalink Reply by dbh1954 on
-
Maybe you'd like to buy me a nice new petrol car so I can stop driving my diesel car!!
-
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
-
Of course not or I would have offered. I can suggest a bicycle.
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
-
John, If I'm correctly reading the article you linked to, the cheating is not confined to Diesel engines. Which means the problem gets larger still. Especially if - as the article appears to suggest - CO2 emissions data may also have been cheated.
One set of people being deceived are the 'greener' car owners who have relied on the emission ratings as a guide to their car-buying. Or have been persuaded by the lower tax rates.
As drivers who live in Controlled Parking Zones will know, Haringey bands its permit charges according to CO2 emissions.
-
-
I've just been appraised of some of the things that I would need to do to get the 75mpg Toyota tell me I should be able to get out of my car and I'm not sure you could call it cheating, more appropriate behaviour for a test if you're allowed:
- Make sure the battery is new and fully charged
- Put duct tape over the gaps in the doors/panels
- Over inflate the tyres
- Drive slowly
I've tried the last two and they work amazingly well but the best I've achieved is 65mpg. Having a mode that your vehicle goes into which reduces power and therefore consumption/emissions is a little more than the gaming of the system that Toyota seem to have done with the Prius.
-
Permalink Reply by pvig73 on
-
I passed an Eco driving test and have a certificate to prove it but the instructor was telling me to block change gears (e.g. changing from 2nd to 4th and leaving out 3rd) and changing gear early at a low speed don't sit well with me.
Block changing isn't good for the gearbox and changing early makes the car pick up inertia/speed meaning using the brake more and as a result, braking can use more energy and fuel then accelerating lightly in a lower gear.
Regarding your points John and definitely not having a dig as I see your points but:
1. A battery can only be new once and as I do only 4500 miles annually, I'm not willing to buy a new one every couple of months.
2. How do we get in? Plus, I'm not going for a top speed run!
3. Over inflated tyres reduces grip
4. Good point until you get horn blasted by impatient people behind.
I do try to drive lightly and have gotten 74mpg during an average motorway journey which was great.
-
-
My car is not a small one like a VW Golf so I think getting 75mpg out of it is amazing. I drive with half an eye on the computer that plots my fuel consumption in real time and have become slightly obsessed by ways to reduce it. For a long journey on nice long motorways (once a year to Spain and back) over inflating your tyres works really well. The drag of bicycles on the back is appalling. Driving at 60mph is tedious and people are overtaking you but sometimes you're also doing 80mph and managing 75mpg as well, usually downhill with a tailwind. I'm going to duct tape the gaps next year and see how it works, but not before testing it on the paintwork. I think getting in and out will just mean lightly duct taping one of the doors. I have a theory that once we get self driving cars they will effectively be able to drive milimetres away from one another on motorways which will also reduce drag, perhaps negotiating to take turns at the front etc.
Very well done on the 74mpg, I can dream.
-
-
75mpg is great John. I have a Fiat Grande Punto 1.2TDi (Multijet) and I reckon I could get more range if the tank was slightly bigger (obvious statement really!). Also, the car suffers monumental turbo lag meaning I end up being like a boy racer just to pull away! My computer has gone blank sadly so until I get that fixed, I have no idea what mpg I will be doing. Taping the bonnet and bumper shut lines/gaps will help and I'd like to give that a go to be honest so maybe the next long journey I may try it.
I find that trying to drive efficiently, the car uses more fuel. If you drive it steady and give it a bit (which cars need to de-coke them), I find the car more economical.
-
-
This really winds me up (not you Alan) but I am so infuriated that our CPZ's are determined by emissions and not the vehicle size. It's not like we leave our cars running overnight is it!? The reason for the CPZ was so that residents could park outside their homes.
The VW "green cheat" has turned the motoring world upside down. Merc and BMW may be investigated too.
VW is a huge company as they own Audi, Porsche, SEAT, Skoda, Bugatti, Bentley and Lamborghini. There are reports that 2.1 million Audi's are thought to be affected. How many of the other companies that they own have in affected?
-
-
The Porsche family own 50% of VW. The German province of Saxony own 20%. I think it was with the introduction of the Focus (1997?) that manufacturers started moving to much winder vehicles for the comfort of the aging baby-boomer population. Just look at the difference between the modern mini and its predecessor. These things take up increasing amounts of space in our cities, before you even turn the motors on and they start polluting. Before the ladder was made one way I would have said that there was enough space for the streets to be two way but not now with some of the monsters we park outside our homes.
-
Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
-
Small corrections: The German STATE of NIEDERSACHSEN (Lower Saxony) :-) The Saxon Free State (FREISTAAT SACHSEN) is something else.
How many more of your assertions are incorrect?
-
-
Sorry yes, Lower Saxony. As a boy from Upper Hutt I should be more sensitive to the distinction.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
