emissions bollocks, is this aimed at us

[gordonbennet]

Don't normally listen to the radio news, but on me way down to Cardiff today happened to hear some bollocks about emissions testing of older cars being dropped around 2011 or summat, oh how dreadful Tarquin.

Its on the BBC website under 'business news' (WTF?), article titled UK Car Pollution Checks Dropped 5 Years Ago.

 

Am i being paranoid or is this another shot across our bows, i trust the sods about as far as i can throw 'em, they'd love to have us out of our old motors and into a nice new full VAT payable modern pile o' junk.

[dollywobbler]

Nowt to worry us. Was just random roadside checks to see if new-but-not-brand-new motors were still within tolerance.

[colino]

I'm not sure if this is just in Scotland, but for at least the past 10 years Local Authorities, obviously in the interest of cleaning the air, have had the right to apply to random check vehicle emissions in their area to check their emissions.  If you fail, it is a fixed penalty, waived if you pay for a garage to certify the car is, "clean" again within fourteen days.

Only the bigger cities have done it on a regular basis, but most now prefer to fleece by remote control with mad bus lane and parking restrictions.

[andrew e]

No. It's about no roadside emission checks being carried out for the last 5 years:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35844778-35844778

[DSdriver]

Erm... isn't this done at MOT time. I thought it was bollocks when I read the article on BBC website. 

[Tamworthbay]

Erm... isn't this done at MOT time. I thought it was bollocks when I read the article on BBC website.

 

Yes but they were doing spot checks as well, we had a minibus loads of guys turn up at work last week and check all the incoming buses, two were taken off the road there and then. I guess it's the same idea - just because it's good in the day doesn't mean it is all year.

[gordonbennet]

Ah righto, i'm being paranoid.

 

Thanks chaps.

[stephen01]

Yes but they were doing spot checks as well, we had a minibus loads of guys turn up at work last week and check all the incoming buses, two were taken off the road there and then. I guess it's the same idea - just because it's good in the day doesn't mean it is all year.

We're the buses taken off the road by the company or the tester?

 

Can you imagine going to work and then having your car takrn off you because it's over the limit at that time.

 

Don't get me wrong I'm all up for saving polar bears and some cars that are clearly fucked need taking off the road

[Tamworthbay]

We're the buses taken off the road by the company or the tester?

Can you imagine going to work and then having your car takrn off you because it's over the limit at that time.

Don't get me wrong I'm all up for saving polar bears and some cars that are clearly fucked need taking off the road

They were issued with prohibition notices or something like that, I have seen similar on motorway services but never known them turn up like that. Not sure if the boss knew they were coming or not, obviously the bus company didn't!

[mercrocker]

I remember being stopped in my W123 for a stick up the pipe from some Ministry wage wastrel about 10 years ago.   There were five of us, my Merc, a Mk2 Capri, a (proper) Mini and a couple of wagons (nothing particularly interesting otherwise I would have remembered them).    

 

We were lined up against the kerb like naughty school kids while this herbert (shadowed by a traffic cop) cocked about with his probe and pre-historic handheld.  I got the hump in the end and started gobbing off (politely, like) about having my time wasted and hindrance to the Queen's Highway traffic etc.  

 

As befits a 60,000 mile fully Bosch serviced M110 the 280E passed with flying colours.   The copper didn't say as much but I kind of got the impression he felt his time was being wasted by the whole shebang as well.   It all seemed like a great big circus act to justify some departmental existence.

[DSdriver]

Random tests like that is like trying to pick the lottery numbers so I am glad they knocked it on the head. Waste of money.

Tug the cars with no MOT by means of numberplate recognition technology and they might get a better return rate.

[Matt]

 If you fail, it is a fixed penalty

 

What a load of bollocks. Fair enough for bulbs and tyres etc as any idiot can (and should) check those but nobody is carrying a handy 12v emissions testing machine in their cars!

[sporty-shite]

A good 20 years or so ago, I got tugged in for a roadside emissions check in a Mk1 Escort I had at the time. It was a 1974 car, so visible smoke check only. It was running a 1740cc crossflow, big carb, usual stuff. Mr. Inspector gets out his probe and sticks it in (oo-err). I stand and watch him, smiling. It reads a bit high, and this dick looks like he's just won the lottery. It was a pity I had to explain the regs to him, and he was guttted when he realised I was right. 

 

Wanker. 

[HH-R]

As you may have read, the EU issued all sorts of targets and standards about how clean vehicles should be, the car manufacturers "met these targets" and air quality didn't improve.

 

Councils need to shoulder a hell of a lot of blame for this. Congestion causing chicanes, speed humps all over so you have to speed up and slow down 50 times in half a mile, traffic light timing designed to annoy slow you down, closure of roads in case they're used as rat runs, arbitrary closure of roads for buses and cyclists only, bus lanes that are empty 99% of the time, limits of car park spaces at workplaces to encourage public transport use so you have to drive round and round and round or sit idling to get parked... they then wonder why urban pollution is through the roof when it converts 0 people to public transport (which is next to useless).

[meggersdog]

Had a 13 plate Fiesta  1 litre ecoboost in for it's first MOT the other day.The CO content was 3.5% and the lambda reading was low at less than 0.9%.Whilst looking around the vehicle I noticed a "superchip" sticker on the back.I asked the lad who brought it in who had chipped the car.He'd done it himself with some hand held plug and play thing he'd got off ebay.Didn't have the instructions in the box so he came back a few days later for a retest with the car returned to standard.

Does make a mockery of emissions testing once a year when you know the lad will just plug his cheap remap thing in as soon as he gets home.(told him as much as I handed over the MOT)  

[Urko]

Speaking as a tinfoil hat loony I expect the EU to legislate older cars can only be used for limited mileage/occasions (as already in Belgium) and banned from cities (as already in Germany).