what a load of pish

I did find some figures a while ago and they showed that NO2 levels were down about 28% since 2010 and 43% since 2000.

The survivors might.

But we were all survivors.

Now prohibited in motor spirit.

I am aware that some used to cite it as a reason for observed low IQ among inner city children.

Ee... it were all that "polio" when I were a lad (I do remember a class mate who'd had it).

And Diphtheria. And Tuberculosis.

Of course, there was always Scarlet Fever, Chickenpox and Measles.

It's really odd, because until only a handful of years ago, the government was doing all it could to encourage buyers to buy diesel.

You mean bribing them with zero or V low car tax, which was the *only* reason people bought diesel cars. Anyone with a brain would have known that any reduction on CO2 would be massively outweighed by an huge increase in NO2 and diesel smoke.

I don't agree. I bought my first diesel motor car in 1986. There was then no Road Tax advantage, but compared with the petrol-engined version, there was a noticeable improvement in mpg and at that time, diesel was cheaper than four star.

I haven't heard of any diesel cars with £0 Road Tax, but the RT on mine is £20 a year.

That's the sort of thing which should be known to the government, surely?

Oh yes. Laura. Walked on crutches with leg braces and had the most painful pinch of any 8 year old

Had all those. And worse. Whooping cough. F***ed my lungs permanently.

Of course not. its only really an issue in uber lean burn eco engines.

No,m the older clinker are fine. Its the eco clunkers that cause the crap

Of course. the manufacturers wanted to sell new cars so diesel was lobbied for. Then when everyone had one, they legislated to not have them!

Simples!

Nothing to do with pollution. Everything to do with profit.

Only ArtStudents? Of course engineers would have known completely different.

By using turbocharging and lean burn technology plus catalysts you get rid of the particulates smoke and smell.

What you are left with - especially at low throttle cruise - is nitrogen oxides, which AdBlue is supposed to absorb.

Nothing is known to a government, and by the looks of things you and 'Andrew', either.

Yes. From those in government who don't want to know about different types of pollution. A diesel generally produces less CO2 than the equivalent petrol, but more NOx and of course particulates.

my 5yo Mazda is exempt from the London pollution charge. I went to diesel (early 1990s) since doing around 20,000 miles per year, it was cheaper to run than a petrol beast.

The big snag as regards damaging to the body pollutants from diesels is millions of cars with Bosch engine management were it is fiddled to pass the Euro 6 tests in a lab, but fails miserably in use. It's gone pretty quiet about that in the meja recently.

"Gordon Brown" was the chap's name.

Nope, some chose them for the better fuel economy and what they regarded as better drivability.

Few car buyers knew anything about NO2.

Known to their scientific advisers one would have thought, but no.