There’s now an expiry date on new cars into which we have to pump diesel or petrol. It was 2040, got brought forward to 2035 and now seems to be just 12 years away.
The good news, if there actually is any, is that at the moment used cars remain legal currency for infinity. That means we can and should go out and buy what we damn well please.
I still adore a diesel, and there are a lot of very interesting ones in circulation. Some are perfectly suited to their roles, such as a Mercedes-Benz E-Class Convertible. How does £7795 sound? What you will get is an E220 CDI BlueEfficiency SE Edition from 2011 – a dealer car with 98k miles that will do an easy 50mpg. It looked like a fairly mint, year’s MOT dealer car, but what a beauty at that price. There’s room for the family in the back, too.
If you want to take just that one special friend with you, then get the same engine in the SLK shape. I spied a 2012 example with 100k miles and an AMG Sport logo on it for just £7900. There was nothing wrong with it as far as I could tell, although maybe a solid roof might be better.
The BMW 6 Series is such a huge lump of coupé and, as tempted as I’ve been to bag a V8, there is the 3.0d to enjoy. So a 635d Sport from 2007-09 is £5000 as an entry point. It’s likely to have done around 140k miles and could be saving up some big suspension and brake bills at the very least, provided the engine doesn’t need any work. You can expect it to have all the toys as well, such as outdated sat-nav and worn-in leather.
The main reasons for going diesel are to lap up miles and to shift stuff. To do that in a classy way, you can sign up for an Audi A6 Avant. There are some colossal-mileage examples around, and that just proves the point that they can take it. I came across a 2007 2.0 TDI SE with a reasonable 104k miles and a full MOT. It was on a very ordinary dealer lot with a price to match, at a fraction over £2k. For the same money and still at a boggo dealer, I spotted a rather more complicated 2005 A6 3.0 TDI quattro with an extra 45k miles on the clock.
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The dutch have it sussed
So I've moved over to Holland. I have a random fleet of cars that I am importing. The Dutch car tax (VED) rate is much higher than the UK, and exponentially rises for diesels and heavy weight vehicles.
As a result almost no one drives a daft diesel monster SUV unless they are a farmer, or able to stump up the £2500 per year VED. Even modest diesel cars disappear from the roads after a couple of years, once their first (high-mileage company-car) owner has finished with them- albeit usually to Poland or Romania. Smaller, lightweight petrols are massively preferred as run-arounds.
Honda Civic Type R- UK £260, NL £400Smart ForTwo- UK £30, NL £150
Astra tourer diesel UK-£30, NL £1400!!
Porsche 914 (from 1974) UK-£0, NL-£0
NB also the proposed further VED amendments in Budget notes
Not yet reported in Autocar but, as drafted, these would have a major effect on both new and post-April 17 registered used cars (petrol and diesel).
Govt seems intent on creating redundancies in UK car factories, already struggling with events beyond their control.
Ruppert's article
He is merely reporting the values of used diesels and dared to add a personal opinion.
Ruppert is well aware of emissions I'm sure. 2035 is still a way off and between now and then there are diesel and petrol used cars available to buy.
Maybe have a pop at the manufacturers instead of the messenger.
Just Saying.
“the messenger”
"The messenger" wasn't asked by anybody to praise dlesel engined cars. He chose to do it himself. He is not, therefore, a messenger. If people wish to buy and drive something which is bad for people's health, they don't need a journalist to encourage them to do so.
Governments around the world are phasing out the sale of diesel engined vehicles. Why? Because it is very harmful to public health and the environment in general. Don't believe me? Read up on those nasty little particulates in diesel and what they are doing to your lungs. Older diesels, especially, are even worse than newer ones when it comes to pollutants. To encourage their purchase and continued use on our roads is noting short of incredibly irresponsible