Despite the recent debates over diesel vehicles, and the government announcing that it is going to ban the sale of them from 2040 to fight against air pollution, drivers remain defiant in their plans to purchase diesel cars. So much so, in fact, that the price that used diesels cars are selling for increased by 6% in August year on year. Meanwhile, searches for diesel cars rose between May and August too. According to research carried out by Auto Trader, not only are people still buying diesel cars, they’re willing to pay more for them too.
Diesel is most popular fuel
The Auto Trader research also uncovered that 55% of consumers have been searching for diesel cars over any other fuel type. In addition, half of those who already own a diesel car are intending to buy a similar vehicle the next time they’re in the market for one. This suggests that those who own diesels still see them as being the best type of car to own, even though they have been shown to be detrimental to the environment.
Auto Trader has said that its research shows that the public still has a strong appetite for diesel cars. The negative press surrounding them doesn’t seem to have put people off buying them.
It also seems that people are happy to keep hold of their old diesel vehicles. Diesel car adverts only increased by 0.3% year on year, suggesting that those who own them aren’t concerned about what they’ve been hearing and are happy to go on driving their current models.
Diesel bans around Europe
It’s not just the UK government that is warning people about the effects that owning a diesel car has on the environment. Cities around Europe are also acting to try to make their air cleaner and their roads less toxic. They are doing this by planning a range of different bans, with some cities planning to enforce these sooner than others.
Oslo in Norway, for example, is currently going through a temporary diesel ban. This was put into place at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Barcelona has vowed to ban cars more than 20 years old from its roads from 2019.
Working to a similar timescale to the UK, Paris will have a ban on new petrol and diesel cars by 2040. With the more immediate future in mind, Athens aims to have all diesel cars and trucks off of its roads by 2025.
Making diesel drivers pay
As well as banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040, the UK government is also introducing a tax for those who drive older diesel cars that don’t meet the strict Euro-6 emissions standards.
Interestingly, the research carried out by Auto Trader also suggests that consumers are finding the task of buying a new car more challenging. Buyers are feeling confused and anxious about the news surrounding different fuel types and the new taxation penalties for diesel drivers are no doubt further clouding the issue.
Working together
It is important for motorists to focus on the fact that both the government and car manufacturers are working together towards the same goal of creating better air quality. This is why they are introducing safer, more efficient cars to the UK’s roads.
This is reflected in the fact that so many car manufacturers are now offering diesel scrappage schemes. Their goal is to get older, more polluting vehicles off of the roads, and to help their customers to purchase cleaner models. This approach will help to reduce the overall level of toxins released into the air.
With this in mind, it is vital that drivers don’t let negative press control their decisions about which cars to buy, and that they complete their own research to gain a good understanding of the options available.
Has the recent negative publicity made you feel more inclined to ditch your old diesel in favour of a different fuel type? Or do you plan to stick with diesels for the foreseeable future? Leave a comment to let us know!
How does Oslo get any supplies brought in from the rest of Europe? We have all stood,or sat, at the ferry ports watching as the lorries are driven off the ferries, and they are all diesel engined vehicles. If I was a failure I would decline to go to Norway.
That should read “haulier” , let’s also ban autocorrect. .
And the world’s shipping fleet is essentially diesel/heavy oil powered, as also many trains and almost all goods haulage and distribution vehicles. According to Diesel Car and Eco Car mag, wood-burning stoves and gas central heating boilers are worse emitters of nitrogen oxides than diesel cars.
It just proves the point, the motorist is ‘the easy touch’…so its up to everyone to show them how wrong they are. And they should be made to prove beyond doubt that any ideas or theories they have are supported by facts; not theories or opinions;, facts that so far they are manipulating or hiding just to their own ends.
The ban is 23 years away. That means I have 8 more cars to buy before I have to not buy any more diesel, considering I change cars every 3 years.
I will hope that they will have sorted out the electric infrastructure by then. Why worry now as my current car is Euro 6 it’s pretty clean anyway. And it’s cheap to run.
Car drivers are easy targets, no mention of lorries, trains, ships etc. What about the caravan industry? Clearly there’s no point manufacturing something that can’t be used. But then by that time we will have been taxed out of diesels!!
A question to ask Sadiq Khan from time to time. I hope is wise enough never to go into a meeting with taxi-drivers without an armed bodyguard.
It’s not publicity, it’s fact. Diesels are polluting our cities and making people ill. It’s the same publicity firms that tried to tell us that cigarettes aren’t bad for you that are being paid to promote petrol and diesel with false facts. Unfortunately I think PetrolPrices.com have become part of the same problem.
Humbug…tell that to cities like Southampton where the pollution levels skyrocket above published acceptable levels ONLY when the big ships pull into port and keep their engines running hour after hour !
Great headline but misleading. No-one has barricaded a street with diesel vehicles ; defiance here means the usual British inertia. Petrolprices.com will be telling us next that the government knows what it’s doing in the fiasco that is Brexit.
Oh come, come – that will never happen. But I look forward to the release of the relevant cabinet papers. They should be good for a good weep.
Let’s not forget it was THE GOVERNMENT that pushed us all towards diesel. Another case if this is good for you one day, and bad the next day! The usual knee jerk reaction to everything.
The government always seems to get everything wrong every time or is it the advisors they use “Experts ” in what ??
The definition of an “Expert”:- Ex is what has been and Sp(u)ert is a drip under pressure.
Been a diesel driver for 30 years, at that time it was very difficult to buy oil burners and most were European from countries that were and still do have more diesels than us. And they tend to keep them longer! Why are we being seen as the bad boys yet again? Every thing will take its course, but how did we prove that 40k deaths are being caused by Diesel engines?
They do not work on facts but rather on information coming from lots of hype! It’s all suppositions if the EU says so than it must be!
Also it’s about control!
yes you can trade in your old diesel car and benefit from one of the manufacturers’ scrappage schemes… to buy a new diesel car.
If you can afford a new diesel car,try it when your income is a pension.
Ok, in the year 2040 the oil companies will shut up shop, stop manufacturing fuels and close down. The government will lose the tax revenue from that. Pension providers will be unable to pay out due to a failed investment in fuels. We all starve because electric lorries are not viable….It isn’t going to happen, just a pipe dream….
Yes but gas powered lorries are viable, and are on the roads now, same with buses and some of these are all electric as well as some being Hybrid. All the new so called Boris buses in London are hybrid.
Yes all the Boris busses are meant to be hybrid but apparently they have a problem and cannot work in hybrid mode, so are therefore totally in diesel mode. A few years ago I saw a hydrogen bus near Waterloo station – now that really is the way forward
Hybrid vehicles are not being banned. They can get all their motive energy from fossil fuels.
The ban only applies to the purchase of new vehicles, not the fleet that is already on the road.
The current vision of the ban is meaningless.
People are ignoring Hydrogen powered vehicles A clean and plentiful fuel
The world record for an EV driving the longest distance on 1 charge is actually a bus, a Proterra Catalyst E2. Also, Tesla is building an electric truck which should be pretty good. In 23 years time I don’t think big vehicles will have a problem once the recharging networks are sorted out. I’m not worried about the capabilities of the vehicles themselves, but how the grid will supply all the energy required and what the government will do with taxes…
Thats simple, the power station at hinckly point that is going to be owned by the chinese is going to supply all the electric we need! Then they can charge us whatever they like with our government & all the profit will leave the country. The question is will they pay their taxes?
Starbucks, Costa & Amazon come to mind & im sure there are a few more that we dont know about that the government do sweet FA about to get it back, so we’ll end up so skint the chinese wont need to copy our stuff cos they’ll just buy the whole of GB, Cash! & we the public still wont see a penny of it.
No problem there – the government are buying a nuclear power station that doesn’t work – there isn’t one that works yet, just puts up it’s building prices so … no fear of paying for the electricity from it as there won’t be any.
Exactly! but the question is, is it a gas, diesel or petrol pipe 🙂
Ok we all go electric – there are leads criss-crossing the pavement to parked cars so we’re all tripping up. We switch on and our TVs and computers go off because by then Putin’s pulled supplies, China’s UK nuclear station have malfunctioned and the wind’s stopped blowing in the Solway. Look – let’s just sit in our own homes and watch Top Gear.
Sorry mate you cant watch tele ,there`s no electric, the grids gone down cause they have there cars plugged in LOL
I run two diesel cars, one new and one fifteen years old. Good luck to any idiot brave enough to try to take them from me.
Absolutely agree. I also run a fifteen year old diesel, purchased when the government told us that was the way to go. I purchased it with the intention of it being my final car, it has been looked after regardless of cost. At 72 years of age I could not even begin to afford a new car, even with the fake scrappage schemes of manufacturers wanting just to up their sales figures at any price. Most annoying is that I have to subsidise “clean” cars with their free or cheap VED. Even if you modify a car to be cleaner (it’s possible), the VED remains the same as when new, so there’s encouragement! A few years ago I came across a VERY large American tractor unit at Pickering Traction Engine Rally, the tax disc showed a rate half that of my car! Hey ho, just going to send the Government £280 for another year of 4000 miles.
I agree both the scrappage schemes and VED changes are daft. Surely those with the oldest, most polluting diesels only still have them because they can’t afford a new car. If the scrappage discount was against newer used cars as well as brand new, it would have more impact, and be more environmentally friendly. And the recent VED change hardly discourages larger, more polluting and less efficient engines, as the only penalty is, at most, a couple of hundred quid the first year, after which it’s the same for all engine sizes – ridiculous!
Next year the boffins will say OH we got it the wrong Deisel is better than Petrol. You can’t trust them.
I can understand the emissions concerns of using diesels in cities, but for long journeys out on the open road, diesel is still the best option. They are very fuel efficient and also produce less greenhouse gases than petrol.
I am now on my 5th diesel car out of a career of 10 cars so far including my most recent purchase having just purchased a 1.6 DCI Renault Kadjar and until something can be developed with the same economy and torque as a diesel I’ll be remaining oil burner plus until the government changes their mind which I hope they won’t as long as you buy a car registered before March 2017 which is what I did you can still get the cheap road tax as the road tax for my previous Megane coupe was free but the Kadjar is £30 though for the same car registered apres March 2017 is £160! I spotted this loophole a long time before it happened.
The one benefit of electric cars is that it will get caravans off the road, as there is only one electric car at the moment capable of towing a caravan and that is a model from Tesler.
The funny thing about this is electric cars are not very clean either.
Electricity Generation:- Manufacturing of wind turbines, the magnets specifically creates both toxic and radioactive waste. Solar panels are not much better the byproduct of manufacturing them is toxic waste. And what about when they come to end of line. Is their disposal any cleaner. Neither of the sources is reliable as both dependent on nature. As a consequence both are backed up by dirty diesel generators hidden in the country side.
Cars:- As for the cars, most today are powered by Lithium batteries, apart from the fire risk. Can we cleanly recycle the materials. I doubt it.
Availability:- On autotrader and similar publications try finding a medium to large car running on anything but diesel. I tried recently when I bought a 2011 Renault. 1 Petrol 23 Diesel. Says a lot. If they stop selling diesel cards in 2040 it will be another 10 years at least before these vehicles are no longer in use.
Who is going to give me the extra £20K+ on top of the Scrappage to buy a ‘clean’ car?
Even trading and keeping everyone happy but those of us who can’t afford to.. I don’t wish to trade my beautiful Audi for a lesser car and I don’t have enough for a new Audi.. anyone else in similar financial trade in issues? I would consider like for like but no one offers anything close…
Not sure why anyone buys a diesel car in the first place, noisy, smelly, under-powered, more polluting, horrible to drive, more expensive to buy, the list goes on and on, quite why the government ever promoted diesel passenger vehicles in the first place, no one knows. Biggest scam ever. Bring on the ban asap
I had the same thought and attitude towards diesels till l bought my first one about 8 years ago….and came to my senses ! All the points you make are wildly inaccurate and just go to show that you have never owned a modern diesel.
But it’s all bye-the-bye as your beloved petrol is also to be banned, so why not join everyone against this inane ban.
It`s obvious you have never driven a modern diesel car,they are fast clean & very economical, i get 55+ mpg on a run from my diesel car without really trying.
You have clearly never driven a diesel, let alone a modern clean one. Much better fuel consumption and more torque at low revs makes for a relaxing drive with plenty of power on tap when you need it, without having to over-rev the engine. True, my 10-year old is a bit smellier and noisier than it used to be (as would a petrol, just maybe not as much), but only at startup – on longer journeys, it’s fine. I’ll probably replace it with a smaller, cleaner and even more efficient diesel, but only when I’m ready.
Talking of electric powered cars to replace diesel and petrol. None of the car manufactures have stated our long the batteries will lasts. Just as your laptop or mobile phone they all will have to have their batteries changed. As they get older they will take less charge so in a car you will get a lot less mileage.
You are probably looking a three figure sum to replace them..
That three figure sum will be offset by the huge savings you’d make by not buying traditional fuel. If you do 10k miles a year in the same car for 10 years, how much does that cost JUST in fuel? Then there’s servicing, electrics cost far less to service, no oil changes needed, no fuel filters, air filters, ect. At a guess, I reckon the electric will come out a lot cheaper.
You should know that the majority of the fuel cost you mention is TAX! Where do you think the government is going to get their revenue from if petrol & diesel are banned? What makes you think they won’t tax electric cars to make up for the lost revenue?
Just changed my diesel Merc B Class for a Merc DIESEL CLA. Do not plan to change again until reasonably priced electric cars, with an acceptable mileage range, are available. Won’t be driving in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol etc. etc., so any bans won’t affect me. I suspect millions of other motorists feel the same. Anyway, I won’t be around in 2040!!!!
Newer diesels are as clean if not cleaner than petrol cars. Electric is still not practical with current charging times. Emission tax should be calculated at each MOT and not just on what it was meant to be when purchased, this will make peopl maintain their cars better, which will also help the environment
I have a BMW 530d and I intend to keep it, it’s a fantastic car.
I WILL NOT HE PUSHED INTO TAKING AND GETTING INTO DEPT FOR ANYBODY, PERIOD….
My wife loves her 12 year old Merc and won’t sell it. I have a 2 year old BMW and I won’t sell that. She has a 12 year old MX5 which she loves us to go out in on sunny days and we won’t sell that!!!
total clap trap if a the government want us to do something whats in it for them ? . i have had diesels for 25 years not changing now .
I hav been drving diesel for a long time as long has you look after them regularly have them servast
Nothing is clear – only a few years ago we were encouraged to buy diesel cars as they were better for the environment, now they are bad. China and India are doing nothing to help or join in on air quality/emissions and their global air fouling far outweighs anything the UK & Europe do. What about Russia? I’ve never heard anything about their stance on this. It’s all smoke & mirrors to get us to buy a newer, more expensive vehicle -. I suspect that hauliers will still use diesel, as will van drivers.
I had a diesel car I now have a petrol one but WILL be going back to diesel far better
How long before the government increases fuel tax on diesel in an effort to reduce car sales? And what will they do for all those who live in places they where they can’t have a plug in electric vehicle?
They’ll have to buy a diesel generator!
And how long before there is a new tax to replace the massive revenue the Government will lose due to the drop in the use of fuel oils ?
Oh yeah, increase the Road Tax for electric/hybrid vehicles (except public transport ones)..that’ll work, or a ‘charging tax’ for the electricity for your electric car, and while they’re doing that, add in a mileage charge as the batteries weigh so much the vehicles will damage the roads.
You just wait and see, if you’re still around by then.
At the moment I have a 04 discovery. Which I transport motorcycles around either on a rack.or tow a trailer.Its a great go anywhere vehicle .allways passes mot emission tests .doesn`t smoke .also tow a caravan. My wife owns 14 REG VOLVO V40 2 litre diesel .when this is serviced, the emission printout .Are all zeros and the nox is 0.0001 so I reckon this is as clean as you can get ,we travel to Sussex 4 times a month get 55mpg+ so I would hardly call this polluting. I don’t believe the figures about how many people are dying because of fumes. I would like the powers that be to do a test on all channel Ferries and the tunnel ,and see how many of there staff have died from fumes these guys and girls are working in it all day every day .
Diesel AND PETROL will both be banned. Diesel produces vastly less CO2 than petrol.
As for the scrappage schemes, if you buy a 2yr old car you’ll save £8k but they only offer £3k off a new car with scrappage.
Diesel is ideal for long distance mile crunching outside cities, add in a hybrid drive for city use, and you have ideal combination.
I recently bought a replacement diesel vehicle, it meets the Euro standards and I hope it gives me years of good service
Just sold my 7 yr old diesel privately with no trouble and bought a brand new diesel because I do a lot of miles so cheaper to run and I don’t drive in cities so a city ban doesn’t bother me. Who knows who is right but I will probably stop driving by the time they change over till then I carry on. Electric not an option.
Has the government taken the trouble to look at the exhaust gas figures for Euro 6 standard engines, diesels size for size give out substantially less Carbon monoxide than a petrol car and similar amounts of NOx to petrol cars so why all the anti towards diesels. With catalytic converters and particulate filters they can be cleaner than petrol cars. Older diesels are more polluting than those meeting the latest standard so concentrate on them.
The suggestion of electric cars for everybody is laughable one can see a sea of spaghetti cables crossing pavements to put all these vehicles on charge, can we supply enough electric power to cope?
Plan to stick with my diesel car,
I have owned & drive a diesel car & have done so for the past twenty years or so & i do not intend to change just because some smart ass says its bad for air quailty, no doubt the same people who said that diesel was GOOD for the air etc. What next, when we are all forced to drive electric cars they will no doubt find that the power industry can`t produce enough power to supply demand so we must change again, ha ha what a joke.
I will not be scrapping my diesel car I use an engine cleaner at every oil change and a fuel cleaner on every 4th fill up my car does not blow any smoke.
If kept clean diesels are cleaner than some other fuels including oil fired central heating systems.
I have heard that diesel emissions have accounted for 40000 deaths, pitch this against the past thoughts that petrol emissions are dissolving the ozone layer, resulting in the end of civilisation.
I honestly cant see why any of us are really bothered when downing street still run gas guzzling jags & mercs as the old saying goes, (not really gas as the yanks call it but petrol) & why should we really bother anyway when we have the yanks with their big engines & factories pumping out tons (oh! sorry, tonnes, one must be PC lol) of crap into the sky just to get blown all over the world & choke us anyway, because they take the attitude that they’re exempt because its all rubbish.
So pray tell me, why oh why are we wasting all this money in the first place?
Sorry to be a cynic fatherless person but you know im right!
As I use my 4×4 to tow either a twin axle trailer or a twin axle caravan for me their is no alternative to diesel towing with a 3.0 ltr diesel is a big improvement over the 4.2 & 4.6 v8 petrol engines that were in the Range Rovers of a few years ago & I am talking torque not just M.P.G its diesel for me regardless
By 2040 so much will have changed.
Nobody will own cars. When you need a car you call a driverless taxi that takes you from A to B. There will be zillions of them, cheap as chips to hire as no drivers salary.
All other public transport will be free at the point of use, paid for out of general taxation.
There will be no need to own a car, it might even be illegal to own one.
I have a 9 year old Ford focus which has just sailed through the MOT with totally acceptable emission figures. It’s completely reliable and does on average, 55 to 60 MPG depending on driving confitions. As for the proposed ban in cities like Glasgow, forinstance, it’s because these cities have blocked off so many streets and confined all vehicles to the on street that there is pollution – just another excuse to make money. As for electric vehicles, I’m sure that once the authorities realise that electricity is being used to propel a vehicle along a street, it too will be heavily taxed
When will somebody design /invent a simple retrofit ADblue system we can update our older diesels with.? I currently drive a Euro6 Blue motion (ADblue) VW Caddy works van that consumes 10 litres ADblue every 5000 miles but my own vehicle is a 2005 VW T5 transporter day camper which I have no plans of scrapping ever.
I think the fuel cell is the answer not rechargable batteries which will just over load the Electricity grid ,the technology is there perhaps if manufacturers pooled their resources then it would be a good option ,but as usual l think this is just part of the green industry
which just goes on about saving the planet l think the planet can save itself and does not need man to lend a hand?
totally confused as to which way to go, surely the newer diesels are getting more environmentally friendly or am I confused on that to.
when the tax goes up on diesel, bet it wont rise for richmans toys ie boat red diesel; if its good for them ,its good for us
it is a big diesel schwindel – somebody must have bribed government. politicians are lack of any honour and integrity and if this is the case they deserve a CAPITAL PUNISHMENT because we, the taxpayers are their EMPLOYERS1
why all railways are not electrified? the locos do burn worse diesel than cars and each loco is 3000…5000hp!!!
We have two cars, a diesel Clio and an SLK 280. We plan to run the Clio until it expires. If my wife will let me, I plan to replace the Mercedes with a 50 year old Chevrolet Corvette with a 5.7 litre engine. It’s lifetime emissions will probably be less polluting than the production of an electric car with the associated pollution from lithium mining, etc.
Their the government goes again,
First of all they push for the public to buy diesel cars,NOW the gov is against them,majority of diesels are cleaner than petrol car’s,
That’s why I have a hdi, I get more miles to the gallon than a petrol one, plus the difference between road tax,is extortion,
Mine costs £20 . For a years road tax.
Not many petrols can do that.
Why are car drivers being targeted? What is happening about lorries, buses, ships, commercial central heating, wind turbines and solar panels apparently put rubbish into the air (?).