The Future Of Our Diesels

[Cyker]

Gah! Stop giving them ideas!!! 

[Anthony Poli]

Gah! Stop giving them ideas!!! 

 

 

Oops

 

 

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[Blue Canary]

On 4/4/2017 at 8:30 PM, frankie406 said:

Is this happening in any other country?  Or is it just the UK? 

Yes, I've read that Stuttgart will be banning pre Euro VI diesels from its city centre next year.

[Konrad C]

7 minutes ago, Blue Canary said:

Yes, I've read that Stuttgart will be banning pre Euro VI diesels from its city centre next year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-autos-diesel-idUSKBN16028H

With London, Oxford Street has bad pollution levels and cars were not main culprit! It was other vehicles - taxi, buses and some delivery vehicles. Most mini cabs are mainly Prius or other hybrids.    

[Cyker]

Ha! Yeah, I remember when they had a bus strike, the air quality there was the highest it had been all year!

 

[Anthony Poli]

On 30/03/2017 at 0:59 PM, fordulike said:

Well, you'll need to change the discs and pads anyway, coz if the pads are as bad as the picture, then the disc will have suffered badly too. Braking components, especially on the front, are not something you should be skimping on to save a few bucks.

 

On 08/04/2017 at 8:36 AM, Konrad C said:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-autos-diesel-idUSKBN16028H

With London, Oxford Street has bad pollution levels and cars were not main culprit! It was other vehicles - taxi, buses and some delivery vehicles. Most mini cabs are mainly Prius or other hybrids.    

So up north we are ahead of you then

They are replacing the buses with hybrid buses and so the pollution is patchy lol

[FROSTYBALLS]

25 minutes ago, Anthony Poli said:

They are replacing the buses with hybrid buses and so the pollution is patchy lol

London has been using hybrid buses since 2006 and approx 19% of the fleet are now hybrids

[Konrad C]

1 hour ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

London has been using hybrid buses since 2006 and approx 19% of the fleet are now hybrids

And one route has hydrogen fuel cells. They are single decker buses, and I see them when in central London. The route that go into central London tend to be hybrid, whilst outer London routes are standard.  

[fastbob72]

It's great...... now I can finally feel smug as hell for religiously remaining faithful to petrol engines and my total refusal to entertain a diesel engine in my car 😁😁😁😁

I tell you what annoys me is the amount of half decent second hand cars that went to the crusher because of the government's scrappage scheme when they wanted people to buy diesel.

I can't help wondering how many solid Cavaliers or Sierras for example were blythely crushed with the governments encouragement. I've been looking for a good Cav or Sierra Sapphire for ages and there not anywhere near as plentiful as once they were.

As for the government with their carrots and sticks, their department of 'nudges ' attempting to direct the publics attitude in the direction they decide we should be thinking about this entire diesel business demonstrates the obvious point that the executive/elected branch of government think short term despite the fact we all know that is the one proven way not to approach societal problems.

Whether with good intent or not they are incapable of distancing their policies from the 4 or 5 year general election cycle so basically they should stay the f**k out of our lives more than absolutely necessary and should not in any way try to direct the public consciousness with it's pseudo psychological games or by the good old fashioned tax reducing incentives.

The diesel U turn just demonstrates perfectly that they can't or are incapable of fully researching in depth the behavioura they want to promote.

Either way they aren't qualified to make these judgements clearly,nobody should be at all surprised by that 😁😁

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[Alan1234]

Hi all just some info regarding London taxis my company has one a contract to change London taxis from diesel to petrol . They have just completed the first transplant , I'm not sure which power plant they are using at the moment , but I can assure you they will be going petrol . 

[Cyker]

Really? What, hybrid or straight petrol? If it's straight petrol the fuel bill will be enormous! There is a reason why taxis traditionally run on diesel...!

I remember there was a hybrid taxi a while back but it saw very little takeup because it wasn't significantly cheaper to run than the normal diesel ones but was very very expensive to buy... That is the sort of thing the government should have set up a decent subsidy for cabbies if they really gave a crap


 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Subsidy for taxi owners to change to plug in hybrids will be up to £7,500 - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/1000-jobs-created-at-new-300-million-factory-for-electric-taxis

[Cyker]

Wow, they kept that quiet! Clearly we need you to sleuth out more of these sorts of things! :D

 

[fastbob72]

I'm not remotely qualified to opine on the taxi trade as I use a taxi about once a decade 😆😆

 

I've noticed several buses with signs emblazoned on their rumps stating that this particular moving obstruction is powered by electricity. Whether that means it has a fully electric engine,some form of hybrid engine or they're simply referring to the interior lights (obviously not lol) I really don't know;for some reason I've never been intrigued enough to actually find out but the implication from the way it is worded is fully electric. 

Where I feel both qualified and experienced enough to stick my oar in is on the subject of road haulage and the delivery trade.I am at this point anyway fully convinved that there is no practical alternative power plant other than diesel engines for larger trucks and probably heavy construction plant.

I can't remotely imagine a petrol engined motor that has the solid low down torque characteristics or durability to haul 26 tons of vehicle and load up the Berridale Braes or the many, many slow tortuous gradients that me and many and my fellow truck drivers of the Highlands have to contend with daily.

There are no doubt many other similar horrible roads to taclke in the UK..... north and west Wales,NW England and the Peak District spring to mind and must surely present similar trials for the national trucking fleet.

Petrol engines haven't got the natural torque delivery where it's actually needed to be a viable option but also the fact that diesels are a compression ignition internal combustion engine as opposed to spark therefore having at least doube or 2.5 times the compression ratio of a petrol engine means they're much more heavily constructed than the equivalent capacity petrol engine. 

The simple fact of a having 25:1 compression ratio requires a stronger and heavier bottom end than a 10:1 petrol motor if for no other reason than being able to withstand the increased internal pressures of compression ignition.

Add to this the heavier pistons require stronger conrods which then means a more solid crank,gudgeon pins,bigs end caps,main bearing caps, flywheel and so on and so on and.......... 

One of the benefits of all that heavier increased mass rotating (reciprocating, if you prefer)  beyond being the fundamental requirement of that type of engine is once it's in motion after overcoming it's initial inertia is greater torque and lower engine speeds most notably because the higher cylinder pressures and heavier crank,rods and pistons need a heavier flywheel to smooth out the cylinder pulses and keep under control all that rotating steel...remember inertia doesn’t just need to be overcome when a mass is at rest but also once it's motion,any change made to that motion i.e velocity, acceleration and direction mean there's an inertial effect to contend with (although direction isn't relevant here obviously). 

One of the traditional ways to improve your, typically,petrol engine's responsiveness and ability to rev higher is to lighten and balance the pistons,rods and crank.

One of the compromises you have to consider when it comes to how much you lighten them by.Anyone with any experience of engine modification knows it's all about compromises,the balancing of gains in one area againsts the losses in another.The lightening of the pistons to crank but even more so the flywheel is a loss of lower speed torque but also smoothness at lower engine speeds.Take off too much mass and it can become dangerously unstable low down.The flywheel is a very necessary component that's there primarily to balance and control the rotation of the engine internals.Even if an engine was  built with no intention of being fitted with in a car or to drive some form of transmission in would still require a flywheel despite no need for a clutch.

 

Anyway,before I went off on that whole preamble about lightening flywheels and freestanding  engines without a clutch the point was that diesel engines with their high compression ratio,greater cylinder pressures that need heavier built engine internals and a heavy flywheel make them incredibly suitable for large heavy vehicles that have to haul massive weight up and down the roads of this world. 

A bus or coach may well be able to move within the city with a full load of passengers powered by an electric motor but that's very different to moving heavy loads in the city, the motorways or narrow country and mountainous roads.

Of course,I may actually be talking entirely out of my rear and writing this entire post was therefore a monumental total waste of words and server space because I've never actually looked with any depth into the range or performance characteristics inherent in electric motors or for that matter the weight of a loaded bus * I know in terms of just width and length a typical city bus is roughly similar to a normal 18 tonner.A normal 18 tonner with a standard body/tail lift is generally around 10 tons fully fuelled but empty.

Is a bus/coach similar in weight when empty??

I'd assume they're not too disimilar, maybe the bus would slightly lighter not requiring the heavy chassis/frame of a truck that is designed to transport heavy loads but with perhap up to 40 people on board (something in the back of my mind suggests 40 is the most a single decker can take....... although I've a nagging idea it may really be 25 and 40 people for double deckers 😩😩) anyway the combined weight of, Americans aside who regularly average a quarter of a ton before breakfast lol, 40 Europeans doesn't often come to 10 tons.

Altogether, in today's world and the neat future I cannot imagine there being any practical alternative to the diesel to power the typical 7.5+ ton trucks that haul most of the wieght transported on our roads.

Not exclusively but typically the deliveries made between the large transport hubs and the main depots throughout the towns and cities are by artics and large rigids like I drive (18 to 26 tonners) and from there between other towns and to end users and customers by sometimes large truck 18s-26s but more usually 7.5 tonners and vans (3.5 to 5t).

I know everyone can point out that's crap becomes I've seen artics in the heart of wherever you live and that's true (different trades and companies will create many exception for sure)  but overall the large bulk of loads transported by road are done in the fashion I've laid out with the biggest trucks hauling between the cities and the smaller trucks and vans from there to the ultimate destinations. 

What I’m getting at it there is definitely scope for vehicles to be introduced with hybrid or electric engines to do the work of the 7.5s and van within cities and towns but even then these alternatives have to contend with the sheer workhorse reliability of the diesel and be proven to match it before you'd find them being a choice for city/urban road haulage work.

 

I'm sure there would be what initially seems like a huge interest at first.The thing is of the vans on the road there's a large portion that aren't out there specifically transporting loads all day long.There's many,many tradesman,businesses and even service sector companies that own and use vans but they aren't running then around fully loaded all day long. (we have 2 3.5 ton vans that can be loaded to capacity out delivering then back to reload 5 or 6 times a day...... that's before we get into the 26 tonner and 2 18 tonners plus the new 7.5 which we're expecting any day now, no wonder I'm hitting my 60 hour a week limit weekly 🙁🙁).

All those non-transportation businesses and self employed tradesman who aren't running their vans at full load all day everyday I could easily see being tempted away from diesel quite easily especially with some tantalising government tax rebates to do so and even that alone would make a noticeable difference in time to the pollution within the cities but I can't see companies like mine that shift easily 100 tons of stock in all directions every day so easily switching away from diesels at first.

 

Again the simplicity, practicality and sheer bombproof reliability of diesel engined vehicles are unmatched at this present time besides they are year on year becoming cleaner.

Things like AdBlue and DPF are improving them all the time.Even as recently as 5 years ago DPF equipped trucks were in many cases questionable if not downright unreliable to the point there were services springing up specifically to remove the DPF system while keeping the vehicle road legal.

 I can think remember an Isuzu 7.5 tonner I regularly had to use that had all kinds of issues with it's DPF system.As it turned out there were some simple additional steps you had to follow that mitigated the problems, the biggest being when the engine was performing a normal regeneration cycle NEVER,NEVER,NEVER switch the engine off til it's completed it' s regen even if you're outside the customer's premises.There would be no obvious problems if you did but when the driver came back off his 2 week holiday after the covering driver has been switching off with no regard to it's regen cycle the poor b*****d finds himself in Peterhead or Aberdeen at 8pm with a truck in hyper limp home mode only able to do 25mph and a 120 mile drive home in front of him😠😠😠. Nowadays though DPF is incredibly reliable and AdBlue is the same. 

Actually, I've never thought about it but do taxi's run extra emmisions systems like AdBlue and DPF the same as trucks do???

I've heard of AdBlue being used in some modern diesel cars but it doesn’t sound like it's used the same as what we use in trucks.We have to top up the Adblue regularly, I'd say approx 10 litres of AdBlue last for 2 or 3 tanks of diesel and I've not seen anyone having to add that kind of levels to their car or anyone actually adding AdBlue to a car at all. 

Anyway, I fully understand taxi drivers being sceptical or even reluctant to consider the change away from diesel engines,even just to petrol. 

When I said I'd never and nevet have entertained the idea of diesel engines in cars it's because I spend my working day driving diesels.When I get in my car I love the way it delivers it's power, it's what I've always known and for the way I drive it has to be a petrol engine.I've driven plenty of diesel cars over the years and some are so much better than others but very few truly match the same car with a petrol engine.Again,that's in terms of my own preference,I know fine there are plenty of people who think exactly the opposite and I get that.

Of course hydrogen powered engines would be the best alternative.I don't mean hydrogen celled electric/hybrids but internal combustion engines that used hydrogen instead of petrol.

It's burn characteristics are actually very similar to petrol.It's explosive nature makes it seem highly dangerous as a fuel but we've happily coped with petrol for over a century which isn't exactly known for being hard to ignite.

It wouldnt require any huge technological leap to make a car with a tank of hydrogen onboard safe, like i say there's a tankful of petrol in my car which isn't in imminent danger of exploding any time soon.

Fitting Nitrous to your car is also a pretty safe and a well understood practice.All the kit and knowledge that's required for that could be utilised for hydrogen instead.

Also the main emmisions by product of a hydrogen fuelled car would be water,obviously some minor contaminants may be produced if the engine burnt oil but an engine in good shape would give off water.

It would need to draw in from the atmosphere outside as the volume of pure hydrogen filling each cylinder if you didn't would require having a gas balloon on your roof like Cpl Jones van from Dad's Army lol just to drive to the shop lol.

So there are going to be other by products as well as water simply because air is only around 21% oxygen if I remember right, 70% odd nitrogen and various other gases but there wouldn't be any carbon to give off CO, CO2 or particulates either. 

The biggest drawback is producing hydrogen on a large enough scale and cheaply enough to be viable which is incredible and slightly ironic seing as it's by far the most common and the oldest element in the universe but it's nuclear makes up, i.e one single electron, make it an element that combines very easily with all sorts of other elements to form compounds which is the way it by far and away most commonly appears on earth but diesel and petrol aren't found naturally but have to go through a process of refining from crude.

The present infrastructure at petrol stations across the country wouldn't need major rebuilding to convert them to hydrogen stations.

All cars have and have had evaporative emmisions systems to stop any petrol vapours from leaking even when filling the tank.

Possibly it would be necessary to pressurise the tank to avoid the hydrogen exploding in the event of an accident but there's no need to invent new technology or science to make it safe for public use at all so it's an incredible shame and a huge missed opportunity that no one on a government level has ever persued it as a feasible alternative.

Electricity and hybrid power may be greener at the tailpipe but their carbon footprint is a lot less attractive when the extra constuction processes are taken into account. The costs are born at the power stations producing the electricity that charges their batteries instead of out the exhaust pipe. Hybrids the use of lithium in their construction which is in a very finite supply on this planet so that may not be a practical resource for very long.

Mind you,in 50 years maximum the car as we know it and car/vehicle ownership  in general will be be fading into old history anyway.

 

The rise of the autonomous vehicle and the increasing complexity and cost of new vehicles will change the car as we know it.

Car leasing as opposed to private ownership will become the way most people will 'own' cars in future.Their compexity will mean that people will know less and less about how their car works with the bonnet only being opened during servicing.

The time will come soon when you won't do anything but fuel the vehicle, you won't own it the dealership or lease company will. You won't be allowed,even  legally possibly  to touch anything to do with how it works.

Like most of our technology these days it will be only highly trained specialists who understand how it works or how to. fix it.

Fine you may say but when our entire world and so much of our lives are becoming so dependent on technology and is only going to become more so it seems to me asking for trouble to sign over almost exclusively the understanding and control of all that vital technology to someone else or to companies. 

I suspect we'll look back on the days when you could tinker with your old Cortina, do it up with odds n sods from Halfords and fix it with parts from the scrapyard with genuine fondness not to say longing.

Damn, what am I saying I already do 😤😤😤 

[fastbob72]

BTW, thanks for liking my previous post Yossarian247. 

No joke, earlier on this afternoon I was having one of those raking ny brains 'tip of the tongue' moments as I was unable to recall the thing that had momentarily slipped my mind. 

I was trying harder n harder because it was something that normally I knew as well as I know almost anything else, like the capital of France or something  and I just could not believe I couldn't bring it to mind but the harder you reach out to grab that name or word the further you just push it away. 

The name of the main character from Catch 22.

.......... something aryan, akarian, aghhhhh f**k what is it, I know this how can I possibly not remember !!!!!!!! 

So again, thank you 😆😆😆😆

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by fastbob72
a missing word that though not critical it's absence disrupted the flow. lol

[FROSTYBALLS]

Perhaps the future of both petrol and diesel engines is something like the Mazda Skyactiv engines - where the petrol Skyactiv G and the diesel Skyactiv D share the same compression ratio of 14.0:1 ....

http://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/technology/skyactiv/skyactiv-g/

[alan333]

8 hours ago, fastbob72 said:

I've heard of AdBlue being used in some modern diesel cars but it doesn’t sound like it's used the same as what we use in trucks.We have to top up the Adblue regularly, I'd say approx 10 litres of AdBlue last for 2 or 3 tanks of diesel and I've not seen anyone having to add that kind of levels to their car or anyone actually adding AdBlue to a car at all.

My Sis-in-law had to have AdBlue added to her new Audi Q3, I'd guess it would have been maybe 6 months old at the time.  Apparently it was to get done by Audi so they could 'reset something'.

Also, as a side note...what about LPG in petrol engines?  AFAIK that doesn't give off the nasty gases.  Why not force everybody to run on that?  Or maybe it's cos we'd use more so it would run out quicker??

[alan333]

8 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Perhaps the future of both petrol and diesel engines is something like the Mazda Skyactiv engines - where the petrol Skyactiv G and the diesel Skyactiv D share the same compression ratio of 14.0:1 ....

We currently own two Mazdas with Skyactiv engines: a 2.0 petrol 3 and a 2.2 diesel CX-5.  Both have exceptional low down torque and are a pleasure to drive.  They're both autos and under normal driving it's rare to see the revs above about 2.5 or 3k, even in the petrol.  The diesels aren't without their share of problems tho - one of the issues is that unburnt diesel from failed DPF re-gens gets dumped into the sump thus diluting (and overfilling) the oil.

[yossarian247]

10 hours ago, fastbob72 said:

BTW, thanks for liking my previous post Yossarian247. 

No joke, earlier on this afternoon I was having one of those raking ny brains 'tip of the tongue' moments as I was unable to recall the thing that had momentarily slipped my mind. 

I was trying harder n harder because it was something that normally I knew as well as I know almost anything else, like the capital of France or something  and I just could not believe I couldn't bring it to mind but the harder you reach out to grab that name or word the further you just push it away. 

The name of the main character from Catch 22.

.......... something aryan, akarian, aghhhhh f**k what is it, I know this how can I possibly not remember !!!!!!!! 

So again, thank you 😆😆😆😆

 

 

 

Lol, don't mention it! 

Actually, the government giving everyone tax incentives to buy diesels, then a decade later giving everyone tax incentives to scrap the same diesels they were once encouraging them to buy is really something that could have come straight out of the book 'Catch 22'!

Its a while since I read it, but wasn't there a chapter in Catch 22 where the government, in the midst of war, decide that they are spending far too much money on aviation fuel and ammo, and calculate it would be cheaper just to pay the enemy to bomb themselves instead? So they negotiate a deal where each side in the war just takes off in planes, bombs their own air bases in their own country, then land again and send an invoice for the fuel and ammunition used to the opposing side?! I could really see some politicians going for that. Just think of the reduction in CO2 emissions during wars if we only bombed ourselves instead of flying all the way to foreign countries......

[Cyker]

On Thursday April 27, 2017 at 0:16 AM, FROSTYBALLS said:

Perhaps the future of both petrol and diesel engines is something like the Mazda Skyactiv engines - where the petrol Skyactiv G and the diesel Skyactiv D share the same compression ratio of 14.0:1 ....

http://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/technology/skyactiv/skyactiv-g/

Yeah, the SkyActiv D stuff is quite curious; Diesel has been following a trend of lowering compression ratios for a while now - It was commonly 20+:1 but my Yaris's 1.4 is 17:1 and I think the 2.0 D4D is even lower - But not this low; I didn't think diesel would burn at such low compression ratios!

The lowering of the compression ratio should make the efficiency worse, but Mazda found they could use petrol components in the drive train, and run the revs up higher to maintain similar HP. It's this lightness of the drivetrain that keeps the efficiency up, but I suspect the low-end torque (Like, 800-1200rpm) would be worse (Above that you can tweak the turbo - Diesels can get on-boost at stupidly low RPM thanks to variable turbos!)

I do wonder how hard these things would be to start in a cold winter tho' - Low compression in a diesel means the air is not heated up anywhere near as much which would make igniting the fuel harder... (Although that lower heat also means less NOx gets produced! All in all quite clever!). They would need some beefy glow plugs!


 

[Heidfirst]

2 hours ago, Cyker said:

Yeah, the SkyActiv D stuff is quite curious; Diesel has been following a trend of lowering compression ratios for a while now - It was commonly 20+:1 but my Yaris's 1.4 is 17:1 and I think the 2.0 D4D is even lower
 

the AD series is/was 15.7 for the 2.0l, 15.8 for the 2.2.

[Kevin Hart]

Look at your post, you are worried about your car and the laws that you have to follow. And you are making fun of the third world countries who don't give a damn about pollution. Look how serious you are with your environment and pollution by thinking about you and your car, amazing. Try

Take a look here https://motorway.co.uk/guides/diesel-car-toxin-tax

Try thinking about the pollution besides the law.

[Konrad C]

For those who live or use their cars in London congestion charge zone whilst it is in operation, the T- Charge comes into operation from Monday 23rd October. The T-Charge will operate at the same time during the Congestion Charge - 07:00 - 18:00.

Here are the information including the vehicle checker - 

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/emissions-surcharge

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/emissions-surcharge/emission-standards-and-the-t-charge-zone?intcmp=49129

It seems that for now it has been 'relaxed' compared to what was proposed or mentioned by the press. A lot of TfL black taxis operate in the congestion charge zone, and with the original proposals, a lot would not meet the EURO-6 and the reduction of NO2. The T-Charge is only the beginning and gives time for the Black Taxi industry to change to the new hybrids. The private hire industry is ahead, as most are using Prius and other hybrids.

I did a check on cars in my family from a '54 plate Nissan Micra 1.4, 57 plate Renault Grand Scenic 2ltr diesel and my Avensis '58 plate Valvematic Tourer. They all are exempted from the extra, T-Charge because they meet the EURO-4 standard.

Toyota are on the right track for now as Hybrid is the way to go and EV infrastructure has to be improved a great deal (unless you own a Tesla).

Here are some questions - How do you use your car. Do you drive into London T-Charge, How long do you intend to keep your car. Will you change your car, before any of the new proposals are made into reality. Will you buy your next car based on future emission laws?

For me I have use my old car twice in the congestion charge and none for my current car - parking is too expensive, and I cycle or use public transport. Diesel does not fit my usage - 8000 miles a year of mixed driving. I will keep the car for a while, and change it for age reasons. My next car may be a hybrid - Auris TS.

Sam and other diesel owners should not worry unless they live in an area with proposed emission zones in the next 5+ years, and your vehicle usage affected.    

[Cyker]

Well if they extend the zone past Central London I will be affected so am rather against that!

I just really dislike the way the whole thing has been handled; The primary reason I even considered a diesel car was because of government encouragement, but they take no responsibility for that and just shaft us more!

I've never known a car to be as reliable and trouble-free as this Yaris and had intended to use it until someone makes a Mk1 Yaris/Aygo-sized EV (Or possibly hybrid) that isn't garbage; I'm not one who budgets for replacing their car every 3 years which, in itself, is just as bad for the environment.

If I am forced to change, I'm not going to have any faith in them not pulling another arbitrary U-turn in the life-time of the car, so I'm not going to invest money in anything new which means buying an old higher CO2 and tax car. (At this point I wouldn't be surprised if, in 5-10 years or something, they flip again and start encouraging diesel cars and penalizing petrol cars above 1L because we start running out of oil or the reduced CO2 from the tax incentives is undone by everyone going back to petrol and shoots up again or something!).

I'd love an EV but there hasn't been a single one made yet that fulfil my requirements of a car. I don't really get how they expect EV cars to be the dominant car type anyway! Unless you have a house with a driveway or work somewhere with a carpark with charge points, you'd need to budget a significant chunk of your day to go out of your way to charge them. Given the local councils war on cars around here in favour of public transport and the conservatives cutting all their funding, I can't see them installing anywhere close to the needed amount infrastructure, which leaves it to private companies who will screw us like they screwed us on the Dartford crossing!

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

12 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I'm not one who budgets for replacing their car every 3 years which, in itself, is just as bad for the environment.

Those who do change their cars regularly, whether that is at three years or a different interval, are at least keeping up with the latest emissions controls, which means their cars pollute less. If there weren't some owners who regularly change their cars, there would be a smaller used car market, and less choice.