We hear about diesel being bad, but can someone point me to a person that has died from diesel fumes – and I mean has actually died from diesel fumes, and not ‘diesel fumes may have contributed to the death of this person’? Can you kill yourself with diesel fumes? Yes, but it would take a while. Can you kill yourself with petrol fumes? Yes, in minutes. So which is the most dangerous: one that may harm you or one that will kill you?
We have direct-injection petrol vehicles that are said to be clean, but it seems that these produce even smaller particulates than diesels. These direct injection petrols are said to achieve MPG figures close to diesel engines, but can you tell us which models these are? The Ford Ecoboost in the Fiesta and Focus are getting around 38mpg in real life Cornwall, but a 1.2 tdi Polo gets around 65mpg.
Petrol vehicles have catalytic converters fitted, but unless the engine is warm and the car is being driven steadily are a lot less efficient than the powers that be and popular media would have you believe.
There are lots of questions that I’d like answers to. For example, why are we allowed to fit parts not homologated to the vehicle when it was new (and had to pass homologation)? Also why no Petrolgate? As we all hear stories of manufactures switching off systems with updates, as in the real world these systems do not work correctly or give bad driving experiences. It would be cynical, but I could suggest that those in power are making little attempt to speak up for diesel, as the fuel tax revenue from the more efficient motors is far smaller than that which is generated from petrol.
18 to 20 percent of the pollution in cities is caused by vehicles. Should we not be more concerned with the cause of the other 80-82 percent?
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