GW columnist, Caroline Lake asks if diesel is really dead

The rise and fall of the diesel engine and what it could mean for the future of independent garages

GW columnist, Caroline Lake asks if diesel is really dead
Garage Wire Columnist, Caroline Lake.

Writing in the latest issue of GW Views, GW columnist and founder of Norwich-based Caroline’s Cars, Caroline Lake asks if diesel is really dead.

When Rudolph Diesel patented his first engine in 1895, little did he know that in the 21st century, it would end up powering almost half of the cars on our roads.

Recently though, diesel has taken a real battering and is now demonised by many on a scale similar to that of asbestos.

So, is diesel really dead?

As a child growing up in the 1970’s my memories of cars are mostly fond ones.

This was an era where the engine management system consisted of a choke and your right foot, for a lot of families a non-starting car was almost normal and diesel cars just weren’t on the radar…

This article first featured in GW Views, click here to continue reading as Caroline looks back at the rise and fall of the diesel engine…

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Home Page Forums GW columnist, Caroline Lake asks if diesel is really dead

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  • #150453 Reply
    Leon Thomas
    Moderator

    Writing in the latest issue of GW Views, GW columnist and founder of Norwich-based Caroline’s Cars, Caroline Lake asks if diesel is really dead. [See the full post at: GW columnist, Caroline Lake asks if diesel is really dead]

    #150454 Reply
    David
    Guest

    To be honest in my experience, I don’t believe what I read in the press, nor do I believe what is advertised on the TV or put forwards on the news. There are reasons I have in mind, one is, I left school at 16 and served 7 years in a HGV garage repairing diesel trucks, no CATS or DPF’s in those days, then I moved into the light vehicle trade and have spent 25 years on the shop floor servicing, repairing petrol and diesel engined vehicles, and back in those early days the vehicles did not have cats and DPF’s. I have also been testing light vehicles for the last 22 years, diesels and petrols, can you begin to imagine how much of the fumes from diesels I have inhaled and tasted over those years in a Statutory approved Test Bay! The government have changed their name three times in my lifetime from Department for Transport, to Vehicle Inspectorate, to the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, and now to Drivers Vehicle Standards Agency, never have any government said that any Test Station legally had to have installed and use extraction equipment for diesel and petrol fumes extraction, and the rest of the government down south change as often as the weather nowadays, you can’t believe anything they say. If anyone is old enough to go back far enough in time we have had climate change, we have had ozone holes, we have global warming, we’ve water shortages, we have fuel shortages back in the early 1990’s etc. I could go on and on, but I am in very good health and I have spent my whole life smelling every pollution from brake linings and clutches made of asbestos to every other poison that has ever been used in the motor car, now soon ready for retirement in the next few years I have worked in the trade a lifetime with no health issues, yet I am supposed to believe that the human race around me are all dying of cancer and other related illnesses because they are all getting old and its all because of a diesel engine, sorry I don’t buy it, do they all work in a garage as well, or do they breath different air than me!
    This all comes across to me like big players wanting to make more profitable money, and because the product life cycle of the present technology is probably not making them enough profit, they want the human race to scrap all their cars and buy the latest gadget, the unreliable electric charged car. As far as I’m concerned it is and always has been about money, even if the general public are completely frightened off from buying a diesel vehicle, the HGV trade will still very much need diesel trucks for the long term reliability as there is nothing reliable enough to take its place to date. I believe we will see diesels for around the next 50 to 70 years.

    I wonder then why the news each week is not telling us about the pollution the military create or the aircraft industry dropping billions of tonnes of expelled pollution into the atmosphere over our heads each day, or the cruise liners that sale the seas every year provided with power from their ship engines, Oh yes, sorry I almost forgot, they are diesel powered as well art they!

    #150599 Reply

    The new Euro 6 diesels are much cleaner, or so the vehicle manufactures claim. It will be interesting to see where it goes, that’s for certain. Thanks for another great read Caroline!

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