[sandeepmohan]

Stumbled upon this interesting article on the BBC. It compares a 23 year old petrol VW Golf to a 2009 Skoda Octavia Tdi for emissions. I won't ruin it by saying who won. Should be an easy guess. The findings are very interesting though.

The other side to this story is the methodology that even developed nations use for testing emission on new cars. It is flawed and there is little being done about it. The results are shocking.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/...ur_car_exhaust

[SS-Traveller]

The emissions results between a 8-y-o diesel and a 23-y-o petrol are quite astounding.

Moot question would now be, whether the standard test to be applied for vehicle emissions should be entirely different from the EU Standard Test or the RDE, i.e. should a stringent PEMS test (based on the West Virginia University or Emissions Analytics methodologies) be the gold standard in testing all vehicles in future?

Incidentally, a 23-y-o vehicle in the UK is still legal to drive, while India seeks to scrap (without adequate testing or eveidence) all vehicles over 15 years of age, irrespective of the actual emission figures. That is even more shocking.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Incidentally, a 23-y-o vehicle in the UK is still legal to drive, while India seeks to scrap (without adequate testing or eveidence) all vehicles over 15 years of age, irrespective of the actual emission figures. That is even more shocking.

There are to my knowledge no age restrictions on cars anywhere in Europe. However, more and more countries are enforcing environmental zones in which certain cars, be it petrol or diesel, simply are not allowed.

Which means you can legally own any car, you pay the full amount for road tax, but it is becoming more and more restricted where you can take your car.

Rotterdam introduced such an environmental zone for its city centre and apart from diesels truck and cars, also banned petrol cars from before 1998.
A group of vintage/old car enthusiast (including me) took the council to court as we felt there was not a thread of evidence that these cars had a noticeable, even measureable effect on the environment. The court has agreed with us twice so far. So I can still drive my Mercedes and Alfa into Rotterdam. But for instance Germany has been at this for probably a decade or so. And a very strict enforcement is in place. Old cars of a certain age simply are not allowed into most of the city centres.

What I also found remarkable on the Indian situation how these sort of measures are more or less taken over night. In Europe these measures are announced several years before they take affect. Usually there is some sort of transition regime, so everybody has a reasonable chance to adjust to it.


I sort of recall the odd country that has a blanket age restriction on cars, but cant think of any specific countries. In certain countries it 'does become hugely expensive to own an old (and supposedly environmental unfriendly cars) as they might lefy additional tax, require more inspection etc.

[Doge]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I sort of recall the odd country that has a blanket age restriction on cars, but cant think of any specific countries. In certain countries it 'does become hugely expensive to own an old (and supposedly environmental unfriendly cars) as they might lefy additional tax, require more inspection etc.

Singapore?
One of the worst country to be a petrol head in!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Doge

Singapore?

One of the worst country to be a petrol head in!

That's what I thought. Very expensive to own a car from day 1, hugely expensive after year 10. But I'm not sure if they have an actual age limit after which you can't legally drive the car.

Jeroen