Paul Robbie reflects back on diesel before it became demonised

GW columnist and garage owner admits his love for diesel

Paul Robbie reflects back on diesel before it became demonised

OK I’m going to start with a confession – I love driving cars with a diesel engine.

I first started my foray into diesel motoring when I was nineteen after realising that “lorry fuel” at the time was half the price of petrol, so off I went and purchased a three cylinder Daihatsu Charade.

Sporty, it was not; sexy, it was not; comfortable, it was not.

All of this did not matter when it got me fifty plus miles on what we used to call a gallon of fuel.

Next on my diesel list was a Ford Escort turbo diesel after the Charade lunched itself after ingesting its own oil and ran away in a very impressive cloud of Duckhams finest.

The Escort was luxury in comparison to the Charade, although I suffered a drop in MPG due to that extra cylinder but yet still nearly doubled those of my petrol car owning mates.

During the last thirty years and umpteen steps up the diesel car ladder, I now find myself owning a lovely Mondeo with a 2.2Tdci engine with more ‘oooomph’ than I ever need, pulling in all six gears and still gaining over 50MPG.

However, there’s now a downside to running a diesel car.

The powers that be have decided that after years of telling us diesel is best, it’s actually now the fuel of the devil.

It really is not all that long ago that we were incentivised to own and run diesel cars.

It was actually financially beneficial to run a diesel compared to a petrol model.

Sadly this all changed when someone better educated than myself realised diesel engines were suddenly found to be bad for human life.

Or is it because they realised how much revenue the government were losing out on?

It will be interesting to see where diesel cars will be in the greater scheme of things in say ten years from now.

I am enjoying driving my diesel car no matter how demonised I am made to feel by the powers who be.

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