Diesel sales down 21.7%

Depends who you believe. This chap reckons the QE2 did about 45 miles per gallon per passenger at cruising speed. If I got the sums right (and that's a big if), Concorde did about 8 miles per gallon per passenger.

Any other offers? I'm no expert.

Dave

With regard to turbocharged diesel engines in cars and trucks, (and many other machines) foe many years, the fuel injection pumps, and now the ECU programs) have boost controls which are adjusted to hold fuel delivery just below the point where smoke is emitted. A smoking diesel is either old or desperately in need of attention.

(Unless you are tractor pulling, where it seems that as long as the driver can see where he's going, it is acceptable!)

For the rest of us, much of the hysteria is generated by the press, for maximum effect, (and minimum understanding of what really happens inside an engine), supported by sections of the political field who look to gain something from it for themselves.

Who else would expect an industry to reduce emissions by a factor of ten within a timescale less than it takes to develop an engine? And to the industry's credit it was achieved!

Although that only encourages politicians to use their ignorance to make even more stupid demands.

Howard

Just a thought......

Those of you interested in statistics may want to consider that September 2016 was a record-breaking month for car sales in the UK. I would politely suggest that it is not in fact a good comparison month.

You may care to scroll down to the bar-chart on this page which gives a good visual representation of total vehicle sales, of all power-types, this century and the overall trend in that period. Over the longer time-period it appears that all is not as it would seem from the screaming headline reports comparing only the two years 2016 & 2017. Total vehicle sales in 2017 were above those of ten years ago, even though they were exceeded by the years 2015 & 2016.

Those of you actually interested in the raw data can access sales numbers by type of vehicle. petrol, diesel, other, over the longer period by searching.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics eh?

Regards, & happy comparing,

Phil

Edited By Weary on 09/10/2017 20:12:35

Apologies to the statistically minded, and others too - of course!

Annual new car registration bar-chart here.

Shows the cyclical nature of market and trend since turn of century nicely.

(Had too many statistics pages open earlier so confused my links, and too late to edit posting)

Phil

Interesting article here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/how_toxic_is_your_car_exhaust

Worth scrolling to the end of a rather long page to see the conclusion.