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Should I be terrified of buying a new diesel California?

C

CampingMist

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19
Location
West Yorkshire
Vehicle
Looking to buy
Evening all,

I've been chatting with my family this evening about my plans to put my order in for a Cali in the next few days and the first thing that everyone is shocked about is that I'm considering to buy a diesel vehicle.

I'm struggle to see the case for buying the TSI as it's very thirsty, the emissions are high and from what I've been reading it has more moving parts.

I'm planning ownership for 6-8 years and I'd love to have some value left in it after that but my family have all been firing news reports of second hand diesel vehicles losing x amount of value this year. I'm sure the fossil fuel ban in the future will effect the value of my Cali, but is this fear over sold?

Any kind words or a slap would be much appreciated.
 
Sorry, maybe I didn't explain myself fully. I've discounted the idea of going for a TSI based on the reasons in my first post. I'm specifically looking for opinions of the future ownership of diesel Californias.
 
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Sorry, maybe I didn't explain myself fully. I've discounted the idea of going for a TSI based on the reasons in my first post. I'm specifically looking for opinions of the future ownership of diesel Californias.

I'm sure that we will still be driving diesel cars in 8 years time. Production has been heralded to stop by 2040 but there will still be millions rolling around on roads by then.

My next Cali will be a diesel.
 
Petrol isn't the answer either, here in Sweden VW are testing HVO100 at Circle K which is vegetable based fuel for diesel, so people are looking into mitigation options.

The crux is diesel is good for heavy vehicles so you make your own justifications.

Go for an older one if you're worried about depreciation, that's what we did, cash sale, no worries about the precious new paint etc..
 
By the time anything drastic happens to diesels there will be some kind of new technology to convert them to a new power source, reason being is where the hell will they dispose of the millions of diesel vehicles, I am not just taking about cars but trucks, buses, trains etc..
 
VED is a joke, just tax at the pump then the biggest polluters pay, people will then decide what type of environmental impact they want to make.

VED scares me, I've priced it into the cost of ownership but I didn't put any price rises into that (which will almost certainly happen).

What happens when everyone is driving electric? Will they have to decide which electric cars are worse than other electric cars?
 
VED scares me, I've priced it into the cost of ownership but I didn't put any price rises into that (which will almost certainly happen).

What happens when everyone is driving electric? Will they have to decide which electric cars are worse than other electric cars?

In Sweden the Cali is eye watering, while some piece of s##t 15 yo Pug is a thousand SEK per year, it scares me right now.
 
The hysteria created by the press and taken up by politicians is out of control. We do not and probably never will produce enough electricity for even half of all vehicles to run on electricity (unless we built several nuclear power stations). Some will argue but reality is diesel is here for many years to come and probably will be here long after we are all gone. If you are so concerned don't buy just rent. For myself I look at my carbon footprint, reduce it by restricting flights and growing more trees in my garden - 6 mature trees at present:D
 
There has just been an article here, that stated the carbon footprint when building a Tesla battery was equal to driving a diesel family car for 8 years! I did not read the article. But the argumentation goes back and forth and there is a lot of political movement in it. So I guess it gets quite accelerated now and then.

I am certain we will move from fossils, but I also think it is a longer process than one might think - just imagine how we should cope with all the cars that are no longer to be used. It will take time.

Like @RodCouncil points out, I agree there will be many stepstones on that path. The Diesel is a mighty good engine - especially for heavier cars.

I stick with @GrannyJen here. My next is also a Diesel.
 
Evening all,

I've been chatting with my family this evening about my plans to put my order in for a Cali in the next few days and the first thing that everyone is shocked about is that I'm considering to buy a diesel vehicle.

I'm struggle to see the case for buying the TSI as it's very thirsty, the emissions are high and from what I've been reading it has more moving parts.

I'm planning ownership for 6-8 years and I'd love to have some value left in it after that but my family have all been firing news reports of second hand diesel vehicles losing x amount of value this year. I'm sure the fossil fuel ban in the future will effect the value of my Cali, but is this fear over sold?

Any kind words or a slap would be much appreciated.
I suppose the first question one must ask, if diesel is becoming a concern, what are the alternatives. Petrol or electric or combination thereof. What is the amperage requirement of the vehicle and more to the point how many amps is delivered to your home? Current electric cars are running from 40 amps and above. If only 30 amps is delivered to your home, you have concern. If 50 amps are delivered, you still have blow outs. If the new electric cars are going to run at 25 amps and like most families you'll have two cars, be prepared for battles on l-o-n-g hookups. They are working on 5G here in the UK, wouldn't it be nice to have all of the UK on a stable 3G? Councils found it hard to supply simple Fire Alarms - are you getting my drift? Wind power is for those in the know, old boy back slapping and conned taxpayers.
Here’s a quiz; no conferring. To the nearest whole number, what percentage of the world’s energy consumption was supplied by wind power in 2014, the last year for which there are reliable figures? Was it 20 per cent, 10 per cent or 5 per cent? None of the above: it was 0 per cent. That is to say, to the nearest whole number, there is still no wind power on Earth. From the International Energy Agency’s 2016 Key Renewables Trends, we can see that wind provided 0.46 per cent of global energy consumption in 2014, and solar and tide combined provided 0.35 per cent. Remember this is total energy, not just electricity, which is less than a fifth of all final energy, the rest being the solid, gaseous, and liquid fuels that do the heavy lifting for heat, transport and industry. Sweden has elected to be the first to try it out sometime in 2020? - let's wait and see how it works, how the taxpayer feels about it etc. I think long driven hplus as are going to be difficult!
 
I have recently convinced my Wife that she should part with her Diesel VW EOS as it was part of the VW diesel fiasco and with all the current anti diesel media I thought that it would be hard to sell.
Put on the 'Tootle' trade action site and it sold in 5 minutes for £1200 more than trade in price against the new petrol car.

I'm in the dog house as she won't have a car for a month until the new one is delivered.

Once the old pre Euro 4 diesels are taken off the road or banned from cities the pollution figures will change and there will be a refocus on which vehicles to 'blame'. Petrol again?
 
TfL announced this week that Euro 6 Diesel will not be charged for the ULEZ when it comes in.

Super clean Diesel being used in Norway, let’s have that here.

Not all doom & gloom
 
Buy your diesel Cali' and enjoy it! They are the best out there by far. It wasn't too many year ago when the powers that be were encouraging us to buy diesel vehicles so we could get rid of those nasty petrol engines! No doubt they will change their "plans" again at some point!
Yours cynically Jim
 
When the time comes to replace our Cali, I will be buying another gloriously torquey and economical diesel because thats the kind of guy I am! :)

If you are talking about buying a brand new Cali, I too am far from being convinced that the petrol version would make you any more environmentally friendly. It might make your decision feel more socially acceptable but that in itself isn't a good reason to buy a petrol car. There would need to be much more clarity on all sorts of issues before I would consider buying a petrol California.

I wouldn't worry about future residuals. If you want a Cali then buy one and enjoy it. These vehicles will always hold their value well regardless of what engine they have.
 
I have recently convinced my Wife that she should part with her Diesel VW EOS as it was part of the VW diesel fiasco and with all the current anti diesel media I thought that it would be hard to sell.
Put on the 'Tootle' trade action site and it sold in 5 minutes for £1200 more than trade in price against the new petrol car.

I'm in the dog house as she won't have a car for a month until the new one is delivered.

Once the old pre Euro 4 diesels are taken off the road or banned from cities the pollution figures will change and there will be a refocus on which vehicles to 'blame'. Petrol again?
Nothing will change; in 25 yrs the population will have increased thereby so will pollution. They go hand-in-hand.
 
Depends what you consider to be environmentally friendly.
Petrol puts out far more CO2 than diesel which is why we were pushed to buy diesel s.
Diesel put out more particulates apparently so there is no winner.
Seems a choice between polar bears and people.
Manufacturers will keep making diesels until forced to stop as currently it's the only way they can get near their emission targets.
The only problem I can see it that more and more cities will use the diesel argument as an excuse to either van diesels or charge heavily to take them in.
The French Critair system is an example.
For a few euros who is not going to pay up and continue going into the cities concerned. Just a moneymaking excercise.
 
According to the Anti-Diesel Lobby + Friends, in the UK Diesel pollution accounts for 50, 000 premature deaths. What the stats actually say is that the Life expectancy of 50,000 people is reduced by 3-6 months.

With my cynical hat on.

Do you want to spend an extra 3 months in a nursing home drooling into your porridge.
If we pop off earlier then pensions will not have to last so long, in fact we should be able to get better annuity rates.
The day that the powers to be actually show their commitment to Climate Change and Pollution is the day I will take them seriously.
Local school has 36 street lamps illuminating car park all night long when the barriers are down and school closed. Welsh Assembly/ Westminster illuminated all night long and nobody there.
Government/Welsh Assembly and Council vehicles ALL big engined diesels/petrol.
Dead city centres and massive Shopping complexes on the outskirts.

etc etc.

Diesel will be with us for a very long time.

Rant over. Normal service resumed shortly.:Iamsorry
 
I think these days it makes sense to switch to petrol in a normal car, but not in a Cali.

First of all, a torquey diesel makes more sense in such a vehicle, and is much more economical than the TSI. Secondly the Cali is just souped up VW T6. I don't think diesel trucks and commercial vehicles will be obsolete anytime soon nor will they all switch to petrol.

Also, who knows how the situation will be in 8 years time? Maybe the diesel will be worthless but the same could go for petrol. There's no way to predict the future so go for what makes sense now, and that's Diesel.
 
The TSI is pure marketing and a reaction to money grabbing government schemes like we have in France and Sweden, I have no idea why a Cali is three times the price in VED over here than an equivalent engined car or Van, it just goes to show it's got nothing to do with cleaning the air.

If policy makers want to improve air quality then make dirtier commercial vehicles enter cities during the evening and wee hours, most supply chain operations understand this model so retail can adapt.

Those that chose to drive more are simply taxed at the pump.

As posted above, make the choice on what you know now because fickle governments change their rhetoric based on nothing more than revenues.

As for C02 which is much more dangerous to our planet and longevity, sadly Industry and our insatiable appetite for one use plastic is what's going to see the end of wonderful planet.
 
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The whole green thing is nonsense from the start. the orbit of the plant as moved and along with it the trade winds. over population is a factor. but nothing can be done about the formal and nothing is being done about the latter. governments are just interested in rising taxes not improvements to our life's at all. a good example is the money being wasted on the HST, so far this runs into the billions and yet not one piece of track as been laid. But who can afford to use the train. On my little trip to Scotland it would of cost me over £500 to use the train from Bristol to Edinburgh one way. EasyJet came in at £70 pounds. so who needs the HST.
Yes there are far to many cars on the road but if public transport remains at the current low standards nothing will get better.
as to electric cars taking over. well the current power stations will not do the job, there is know investment in charging points and battery memory will kill off the whole idea within years, unless further billions is invested in the technology. and that's not as easy thanks to country's setting their monetary values on the cost of oil and not their gold reserves.
We have seen how the car manufactures have been unable to keep up with the demands of the greens and this will lead to just more dead end ideas and madness. maybe its time to think of a horse and cart. as to diesel it will run and run for many years yet. F
 
While you can get an easyJet flight on the day for 70 quid but it does not cost 500 to travel tomorrow BTM to EDB but agree the rail prices are criminal and air travel way too cheap and polluting.

It's a shame the UK rail network is so badly franchised and run because it's one of the most comprehensive networks in Europe. It could be digitised much easier than wasting the money on HS2 but would require having the whole lot owned and controlled by one competent operation, not sure the state has proven to be that.

But hey, if you want modern capitalism and no accountibilty then the UK is the place to be, the only thing being modernised is access to private jets and escaping taxes, who again can afford that?
 
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What shouldn't be forgotten here is that the fantastic residuals on the Cali mean we (Cali owners) could be impacted far more than those plumping for a £60k posh Audi or BMW diesel. Their owners know they will be worth next to nothing in 10 years anyway, but a 10 year old Cali is still fetching over 2/3rds of it's original purchase price (ish, not scientific calc).

The £60k BMWs depreciate like a stone because folk who want to run a 10 year old car can't afford the running costs of such high spec vehicles, so if dieselgate halves their 10 residual value, so what?

If dieselgate halves the 10 year residual of a Cali, then we all have some new maths to do for our finances....
 
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