End to high-performance cars on streets of London?
This will cover cars registered:
a) pre-March 2001, with engines above 3000cc.
b) March 2001 onwards, with CO2 emissions above 225g/km.
Good-bye all V8s, SUVs, petrol prestige cars, (private) limos, hypercars, beautiful classics, all Ferraris, Porsche 911s etc etc (unless the owners are *extremely* wealthy).
The mayor hates 4x4/SUV drivers and wants to remove them from our roads.
Cars with emissions of 120g/km or below will be free of charge.
How have we got to this ridiculous position?
- The Congestion Charge was inititally introduced as such - a congestion charge. This has now become nothing of the sort - it is now an "emissions" charge. Owners of affected large cars will simply buy a small car with low emissions, and evade the charge, adding to congestion.
- This will decimate the value on the used market of high-emissions cars.
- There are massive inconsistencies and anomalies - a 2000 2.5TD Range Rover will escape the penalty, a 2005 Ford Mondeo Automatic will be clobbered.
- This charge penalises against large families (hence people carriers or 7 seaters), or people with elderly vehicles.
This will mean far fewer nice vehicles on the streets of The City, West End, Kensington & Chelsea very soon. No residents 90% discount. There will be uproar!
Ironically, the 4x4s will survive - the new BMW X5 35td engine has emissions of 216g/km - much to the annoyance of Red Ken! But the 911 may be banished for a few years until a "cleaner" version is available.
My beloved Porsche Boxster S was sold last month in anticipation of this announcement. :-(
New "clean" BMW turbo diesel coupe on order...
I wonder if Ken will be re-elected in the summer election?
We can only hope not ...
DISCUSS