If think it was channel 4 I was watching.....about the con that started a few years ago trying to people to get diesels..

They did tests on a woman's car and said it was high no2 emissions (or something like that, I was getting bored) and in general, diesels were about 5 timess higher in this than petrols....there was also a very brief talk about tax incentives for then ie cheap/er rd tax but nothing NOTHING comparing the low down torque a diesel has compared to petrols.

Now granted that might not bother people, but for me, that's the 3 main reasons for having one ie cheaper tax, low down and mid range torque and more mpg, mainly the tax and torque though.....

So why was the torque not discussed, not once!

Plus remapping diesels as we know gives immense results in power ect when done right

I think you'd find that a direct injection force charged petrol engine has a similar torque curve, similar fuel eco, without the particulates. The issue of the programme was that the cheaper tax element you like is the con; it should never have been, and the conclusion is that going forwards don't be surprised if the cost of owning a diesel increases to push the market back to using petrol engines. For the same size and configuration, a remapped petrol engine will almost always be faster than a remapped diesel (this has been debated in the octavia threads many times).

The so called 'con' being exposed was the fact that diesel was sold as a very clean, economical and safe alternative to petrol which at the time was not as clean as it is now and produces of course much more CO2 per mile than diesel. It still does but the gap is narrowing with the development of the super economy turbo petrol cars which are nearly matching diesel for torque, economy and power curves now. Indeed the latest Peugeot 130hp turbo 1.2 engine is about as close to a diesel as I've ever seen. My nephew dyno'ed one in the workshop just a few days ago and was impressed with it's output. Then of course the gov'mnt announced lower tax bands for diesels which lead everyone (not actually everyone you understand!) to switch to diesel. It's all turned out a bit wrong though hasn't it with health now being the major concern. And rightly so too. I've been a life long diesel fanatic but I no longer want to own one. Yet, one of the last projects I did before retiring this year was to work on the new generation of diesels which will be coming out in 2020 onwards. Now those will be interesting and way beyond anything petrol can match interms of power and economy and infinitely cleaner than anything else diesel on the road currently. Strange but true!

After the large diesel uptake and subsequent fuel cost rises it appears that the motoring public are not so keen on switching again ? There was no need for government incentives for diesel but LPG has low tax and electric cars get a subsidy.

 

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/electric-car-grant-extended-2017-thanks-new-funding

What channel/when was this on? Can't seem to find it on catch up

Channel 4 , dispatches

Don't waste your bandwidth, it was hardly the biggest journo expose of the century. Uninformed researchers and presenters.

What makes you say that Steve? Having worked in the industry for too long, I'd say they got it spot on in everyway. There is more to tell of course especially about the health side of it, but in half an hour it's a difficult one. Well worth the bandwidth in my view. 

 

Rover, it was last Monday 26th Jan at 8.30pm, channel 4, Dispatches if I remember correctly. Well worth a watch. 

Edited 1 February, 201511 yr by Estate Man

What channel/when was this on? Can't seem to find it on catch up

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/on-demand

Interesting program, I loved the 1.9TDI 150bhp engine as it was fast, fuel efficient and low tax but the 2.0 TDI PD 170bhp engine put me off diesel and while I realise that current diesels are better than the PD170 engine, the new emissions regulations add a lot of complexity particularly for a low mileage driver like myself.  Hence going for a simple petrol engine which is more to tax and less fuel efficient (although not as bad as I expected), most of my time is spent on the bike which is clearly the greener option anyway

 

John

How many threads on the same topic!!?

john, those 2.0 litre TDI engines were in fact CR engines not PD. 

john, those 2.0 litre TDI engines were in fact CR engines not PD. 

 

I'm not sure what you're referring to but the engine I was referring to was definitely a PD engine as it was a 56 plate VRS - the replacement 2.0 TDI CR engines didn't arrive until around 2008.

 

John