Clean Air Zone = ZTT going! What next?

[bl52krz]

Originally Posted by trikey

The simple answer is to avoid all the places that are charging us to use our cars, I’m sick of all the excuses re ‘clean air’ or ‘low emission’

Why don’t they target all the fossil fueled power stations across the globe?

(Easier to target the motorist for some more money for the coffers)

I agree. I will never go into Birmingham to shop after the punishment charge comes in.When all the city centre closes down for lack of business, and the council loses £ millions in business rates, they might realise the error of their stupid idiotic childish way of trying to steal more money off the motorist. And as an aside:- when the announcement of the petty charges for going into the city were put on the net, it gave you a link so you could check what the pollution was in certain areas. And guess what:- the figures that came up for areas around Birmingham, it was lower than what they had been quoting ,much lower, in fact it was ‘good’ in every area I looked. Somebody wants to get a grip on these thieves. They are just money mad and are destroying the economy of this country.How much longer before people power starts to get off its backside and does something about these weasels?

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

I agree. I will never go into Birmingham to shop after the punishment charge comes in.When all the city centre closes down for lack of business, and the council loses £ millions in business rates, they might realise the error of their stupid idiotic childish way of trying to steal more money off the motorist. And as an aside:- when the announcement of the petty charges for going into the city were put on the net, it gave you a link so you could check what the pollution was in certain areas. And guess what:- the figures that came up for areas around Birmingham, it was lower than what they had been quoting ,much lower, in fact it was ‘good’ in every area I looked. Somebody wants to get a grip on these thieves. They are just money mad and are destroying the economy of this country.How much longer before people power starts to get off its backside and does something about these weasels?

You can always e-mail Grant Shapps; he's got lovely non-committal reply to all subjects. Mention the cost of the albatross HS2.

Kev

[Lancpudn]

Originally Posted by torque2me

I don't know if any Skoda offerings have a Skoda engine as I don't take much notice of this type of thing nowadays. Skoda was/is a VAG partner and virtually exclusively used VAG engines (as I say, things might be different now). Thus your seemingly Euro 5 engine might easily turn out to be Euro 3 (the great VAG magic wand). The good news (bad news for me) is that the UK government(s) have not re-categorised any of the VAG "clean" engines to the correct "dirty".

Kev

I was reading about the millions of "dieselgate" cars still on UK roads the other week, Clientearth has issued a legal request asking six Type Approval Authorities in the EU & UK why these cars are still on the road & they have 60 days to reply before legal action. https://www.clientearth.org/press/di...-manipulation/

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by Lancpudn

I was reading about the millions of "dieselgate" cars still on UK roads the other week, Clientearth has issued a legal request asking six Type Approval Authorities in the EU & UK why these cars are still on the road & they have 60 days to reply before legal action. https://www.clientearth.org/press/di...-manipulation/

We must thank the Americans for bringing this cover-up to the full light of day and ask why Eton Cameron did not do the correct and moral action(s) needed to re-categorise and thus stop likely subterfuge in the future.

Thanks also should go to the people who are prepared to join class actions - I've seen the tv ad asking for buyers of diesel Mercs (certain date period) if they would like to join a class action. Mind you, if re-categorisation had happened there would have been a volcano of fury if diesel owners were asked to cough up another £100 - £200 in VED.

Kev

[bl52krz]

An update on the filthy pollution in Birmingham. 18.00 hours today. Over all condition= Good, yes GOOD. Readings are as follow so:- PM 2.5 Aqi 21 Good. PM10 Aqi 7 ( allowable range in brackets) (6-14) . 03 Aqi 19 (11-25). No2 Aqi 12 (3-18) .
What a con that is being perpetrated on the citizens of Birmingham and the surrounding area. Pity they don’t spend money on repairing the lousy roads in Birmingham instead of on this thieving pollution excuse. I will be checking these figures every day from now on.

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

cut
What a con that is being perpetrated on the citizens of Birmingham and the surrounding area. Pity they don’t spend money on repairing the lousy roads in Birmingham instead of on this thieving pollution excuse. I will be checking these figures every day from now on.

Yes, I remember that the original private partner jacked their hand in and had to pay (was it?) £330 million to Brummie council. Is there not some major athletics/sporting event in the very near future which the council wanted every road perfect before the event?

Kev

[steve-45]

Originally Posted by bikerdude666

I found a few on autotrader. Nissan Leaf, Citroen zero, peugeot ion, Renault fluenze, and for a little over £5000 there’s the Renault Zoe.

I did out of interest do a quick insurance quote though and the ones I tried were more expensive on insurance than the ZT!

Never realised that you could get a normal fully electric vehicle for under £5K.

The advertising for electric cars seems to gloss over higher insurance costs .

[Steamdrivenandy]

Originally Posted by steve-45

Never realised that you could get a normal fully electric vehicle for under £5K.

The advertising for electric cars seems to gloss over higher insurance costs .

Isn't the issue that they might be nearing the end of battery life and they'll be early models with very low battery range anyway. So a buyer might have to factor in buying a new battery, which is presumably a costly item.

As to pollution levels, the UK is a windy place and usually that keeps pollution levels low, but when there are periods of light or no wind (high pressure) then city pollution can build up very quickly to dangerous levels.

[Bogbrush82]

Where abouts in Birmingham do you live? I ask because the 82 bus stops right outside New Street.

[r44flyer]

Originally Posted by Bogbrush82

Where abouts in Birmingham do you live? I ask because the 82 bus stops right outside New Street.

Sutton. Buses not an option as I regularly start work before any meaningful bus timetable is up and running. Same for late at night when finishing on late shift.

Good idea on the tailored autotrader search! I will certainly do that.

Lexus/Toyota seemingly always at the top of used car reliability surveys, Mondeo not far behind with the benefit of cheap parts if it does go wrong. Skoda would be a bit dull if not a VRS but a sensible choice, and there's plenty of them now, maybe even a higher mileage mk3 car in budget or very nearly.

The search continues

As punitive as these charges seem to be towards car drivers I do believe it is a necessary step towards the inevitable cessation of the production of internal combustion engines. Slowly squeezing people out of more heavily polluting cars does go some way towards inproving air quality in towns and cities where they are more concentrated. Of course not every day produces high pollution numbers, it doesn't work like that. But when it's bad, it's bad. This is about encouraging people to take up electric vehicles which they will have to do anyway by 2040 or whenever it is. Slowly the prices of these cars will come down and the investment in their infrastructure will increase, and right now we are managing the tipping of the scales. All the recycling we will ever need will be solved by energy production, hopefully solar. If people would just stop burying it in the ground!