[hank jr]

Ok so i am aware of diesels getting a bad wrap lately, and i just want to know if im possibly buying a diesel van at the worst possible time?

[AuRavelling79]

Ok so i am aware of diesels getting a bad wrap lately, and i just want to know if im possibly buying a diesel van at the worst possible time?

There are no other kind of vans are there?  Practically speaking, anyway.

[hank jr]

Ok so i am aware of diesels getting a bad wrap lately, and i just want to know if im possibly buying a diesel van at the worst possible time?

There are no other kind of vans are there?  Practically speaking, anyway.

that's what i thought ! Ive just been told by my father in law not to buy it?? The government or whoever are going to be fining diesel owners up to £20 per day? This is crazy stuff im hearing

[Don Kee]

Is it new?

If so, your first years tax will be higher but then subsequent years will then be on a standard rate

Depending on where you live depends on charges
London for example, has its emissions zone and if you have a euro5 engine or older then you'll get stung.
Some bigger city's are potentially adding lower emission zones (the actual name eludes me) where you'll get charged for diesels full stop

On the whole though, you'll be fine

I live in between Bath & Bristol for example, euro5 engine and don't get any charges apart from the normal (car tax etc...) but I don't really venture into either (Bristol is apparently coming up with a lower emission zone at some point but it wont make any odds to me as I don't work in the middle of Bristol)

[AuRavelling79]

Where do you live Hank?

Unless you are in London which is "special" how on earth are you going to carry half a tonne of water or more in a petrol/hybrid runabout?

It's a work vehicle, not a car.

[Spruce]

Ok so i am aware of diesels getting a bad wrap lately, and i just want to know if im possibly buying a diesel van at the worst possible time?

Its got to depend on where you are. But as Granville says, what else is there?

If you are outside these 'hot spots' then I wouldn't worry too much now. I would go ahead and buy your diesel van provided it a recent model with a common rail diesel engine.

As far as London is concerned I don't know how I would be feeling now if I lived and worked there. They haven't differentiated between old diesels and the latest generation ones that are much more environmentally friendly.
What I see is this pollution tax destroying the economy of London center by making services much more expensive.

I personally would have to take a leaf out of the teams decision makers in Formula 1. In changeable conditions they sometimes need to put tyres on that are applicable for that time. I've seen them have to call the car back in a few laps later to change onto a different set of tyres as the weather changed so quickly.
You can't forecast what's going to happen so you can only do what's right for you now. If its wrong in 6 months time its going to be wrong for millions of other motorists as well.

The hatred for diesels is all about tax. If the Government persuades the majority to go back to petrol then we are going to have a new set of issues to contend with. What they have been rather quiet about is petrol emissions especially when they overfuel the engine when cold to try to warm up the catalytic converter more quickly.  Every petrol car will be pouring excess pollution into the
atmosphere during the winter because of overfueling. Again its a win situation for them as they are gaining tax on all that waste fuel.  Petrol has added Benzene to increase octane rating. Benzene is a know carcinogenic chemical. In other words, its a known for causing cancer.

Someone pointed out that the previous mayor of London, BJ, invested in changing road lanes into bicycle routes restricting cars from entering London even more. So longer journey times = more stop start traffic, more idling engines and more pollution. What about the planes coming in and out of the London airports?
What about the fumes caused by gas heating?

Car drivers account for a small portion of the pollution issue but they are the easy targets for taxation.

And once it catches on this pollution tax will be introduced into every city they possible can as a sure way of replacing the reduced funding lost to central governments cost cutting exercises.

At the moment local Govt has invested in heavily in battery and battery recharging points. They need to recover this and taxing is the only guaranteed way. What they don't seem to grasp is that in time they will just end up killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Whilst electric vehicles have their place I don't believe it will take off like government hopes it will. I also doubt that its a solution for heavily laden vans and limited distance is also a negative.

How many of us can afford Teslas?
 

[hank jr]

I'm in the posh end of the country - over the water from Liverpool, otherwise known as Cheshire 

The van is a 2008 Citroen Dispatch.

[The Jester of Wibbly]

Maybe this is your answer 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122253507040

[hank jr]

Maybe this is your answer 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122253507040

  ha ha yeah that would be awesome.

[Cookie]

Maybe this is your answer 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122253507040

I used to drive one of those when I worked for Unigate. Great fun!

On a more serious note however it would probably work if you had a nice, compact round.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

I would be more worried about the turbo dropping its guts all over the floor then what the goverments going to do too diesels

[hank jr]

I would be more worried about the turbo dropping its guts all over the floor then what the goverments going to do too diesels

what do you mean?

[windowswashed]

The government encouraged us to get electric vehicles as road tax was free....not any more. They encouraged us to go solar for big savings ....not any more. There is a pattern emerging. They encouraged us to go diesel, now everyone has diesel they want us to go petrol. Commercial world relies on diesel and electric vans won't have the torque to pull the weight carried or be practical or economical in the long term as battery vehicles are fine initially but as the batteries deplete and recharge over time so they lose a lot of charge and to replace some vehicle batteries is almost as much as the vehicle is worth second hand. I had a honda cibvic hybrid that returned 81mpg driving it like an old grandad or 51mpg with normal use, within a year that normal figure dropped to 31mpg which was total rubbish. Cost of replacement hybrid battery new £5k, sold my car after a year for a good price and bought a diesel with 1.6 engine giving 51mpg with 90ps. Got bored of it and bought a BMW new version with 227ps and get 56mpg driving like a teenager a lot of the time. Bigger the engine, the less strain on it and the more power 

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

I would be more worried about the turbo dropping its guts all over the floor then what the goverments going to do too diesels

what do you mean?

if its the 1.6 then don't buy it loads of turbo problems with them too do with the oil feed pipe the 20lt ones seem a lot better I would be asking you garge where its going to get looked after what they would buy

[EandM]

The worst part of this debacle is the Governments lack of clarity. Philip Hammond suggested pre-Budget that punitive measure would be introduced to get rid of older diesels. The City Toxin Tax isn't an issue where I live and nor would it be but raising the VED of older diesels to £500 would be. There was supposed to be announcement after the Budget laying out the plans but it never happened. Yesterday should have seen another announcement but Hammond has defied the Legal Process and decided that any new plans won't be revealed until after the General Election. All they've managed to do is to cause confusion in the second hand market and leave the self employed in limbo with uncertain current and future values.

[hank jr]

So should I leave buying a 1.6 engine ??

[windowswashed]

They'll offer an incentive scrappage scheme to  replace older diesels for new ones and claw back the tax on initial road tax and VAT  so the government don't lose out as too many of the public use diesel.

[Spruce]

So should I leave buying a 1.6 engine ??

You need to make your own decision on that. I wouldn't but saying that, there are many examples of 1.6hdi engines that have mega miles on the clock with no issue at all. But I wouldn't be happy taking the chance.

I threw caution to the wind a couple of years ago and bought a Fiat Scudo 1.6jtd (same engine as 1.6hdi) for son to use. Before we left home to collect it the owner advised that the turbo had just gone and were we still interested. (2008 with 63k on the clock). I said no. The van was in lovely condition, not a mark on it, but nevertheless, I dodged a bullet there.

.

[Spruce]

The worst part of this debacle is the Governments lack of clarity. Philip Hammond suggested pre-Budget that punitive measure would be introduced to get rid of older diesels. The City Toxin Tax isn't an issue where I live and nor would it be but raising the VED of older diesels to £500 would be. There was supposed to be announcement after the Budget laying out the plans but it never happened. Yesterday should have seen another announcement but Hammond has defied the Legal Process and decided that any new plans won't be revealed until after the General Election. All they've managed to do is to cause confusion in the second hand market and leave the self employed in limbo with uncertain current and future values.

I think they are going to have an issue on their hands to be honest. Hammond has been overruled 2 and possibly 3 times on decisions he has made so has zero credibility. He should have resigned or been replaced before now but there is no one better to take his place.  So in African speak he's just a puppet on a string.

The scrappage scheme worked last time because people got sucked into it. But many then realised that the new car had to be paid for. The joy of a money they received for their old scrapper was soon forgotten.

Hammond initially threw out the diesel scrappage scheme as it was going to cost the treasury too much money. (It was not what the scheme was going to cost the treasury because that was nothing, but rather what he wasn't going to receive on each sale. So it wasn't going to cost him £2bn from tax payers money.)

So the new thought is to compensate via a scrappage scheme vehicles within the emission zones, ie certain post codes. But the majority of people working in the service industry live outside those zones so won't be able to 'benefit' from the scheme. It has been suggested that it would only apply to certain vehicles and not all diesels. If all you can afford is a 1995 1.8 non turbo Ford Escort van, are you going to replace it with a 2017 diesel? I doubt it.

ATM TM needs a full majority to do what she wants without having to worry about the opposition. Once she gets that then they can do what they like with regard to taxing. ATM people think that this snap general election in June is another chance to stop Brexit, but that's a smoke screen. Its all to do with gaining that majority.
Just by announcing an election she has rattled the feathers of the hopes of Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland.

So what would I do if the VED on my van is raised from £245 to £500. I would pay that rather than the extra cost per year on financing a new van that they are still going to penalise because its diesel. So the first action would be a price increase to cover additional running costs to provide that service and stay with the old (04 plate) Hdi diesel van I've already got.

[hank jr]

The worst part of this debacle is the Governments lack of clarity. Philip Hammond suggested pre-Budget that punitive measure would be introduced to get rid of older diesels. The City Toxin Tax isn't an issue where I live and nor would it be but raising the VED of older diesels to £500 would be. There was supposed to be announcement after the Budget laying out the plans but it never happened. Yesterday should have seen another announcement but Hammond has defied the Legal Process and decided that any new plans won't be revealed until after the General Election. All they've managed to do is to cause confusion in the second hand market and leave the self employed in limbo with uncertain current and future values.

I think they are going to have an issue on their hands to be honest. Hammond has been overruled 2 and possibly 3 times on decisions he has made so has zero credibility. He should have resigned or been replaced before now but there is no one better to take his place.  So in African speak he's just a puppet on a string.

The scrappage scheme worked last time because people got sucked into it. But many then realised that the new car had to be paid for. The joy of a money they received for their old scrapper was soon forgotten.

Hammond initially threw out the diesel scrappage scheme as it was going to cost the treasury too much money. (It was not what the scheme was going to cost the treasury because that was nothing, but rather what he wasn't going to receive on each sale. So it wasn't going to cost him £2bn from tax payers money.)

So the new thought is to compensate via a scrappage scheme vehicles within the emission zones, ie certain post codes. But the majority of people working in the service industry live outside those zones so won't be able to 'benefit' from the scheme. It has been suggested that it would only apply to certain vehicles and not all diesels. If all you can afford is a 1995 1.8 non turbo Ford Escort van, are you going to replace it with a 2017 diesel? I doubt it.

ATM TM needs a full majority to do what she wants without having to worry about the opposition. Once she gets that then they can do what they like with regard to taxing. ATM people think that this snap general election in June is another chance to stop Brexit, but its more to do with gaining that majority.
Just by announcing an election she has rattled the feathers of the hopes of Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland.

So what would I do if the VED on my van is raised from £245 to £500. I would pay that rather than the extra cost per year on financing a new van that they are still going to penalise because its diesel. So the first action would be a price increase to cover additional running costs to provide that service and stay with the old (04 plate) Hdi diesel van I've already got.

Very good explanation....thanks for sharing