Petrol or diesel?
Open a newspaper or surf the web for just a short time and the chances are you’ll come across a news story about how diesel cars are killing us all, thanks to their heavily toxic emissions. It’s so unfair. After all, we were coerced into buying diesel-powered cars thanks to their low CO2 emissions and now we’re being told that those same cars are pariahs because they’re destroying our air quality. At this point it’s worth reading our blog on emissions standards for new cars, because if you believe everything you read in the media you’ll assume that diesel cars really are the work of the devil. The reality of course is that the latest models are incredibly clean – the problem is that there are millions of older cars out there being used every day, which are nothing like as clean. With the average lifespan for a car in the UK a little under 14 years, and with the latest rules having come into force less than a couple of years ago, it’s going to take a long time to rid our streets of the dirtiest motors. In a bid to speed up the process there’s talk of a diesel scrappage scheme being introduced, but how many people will be able to afford to throw away a car that may have years of faithful service left to give would remain to be seen.