nicholastanguma
Los Angeles, San Francisco
I tried this in Fireside Chat, so now I'm asking in Mods.
Even a cursory search in Google for anything along the lines of "is diesel dead in 2018" or "how long will we have diesel engines" or something similar will show that despite the VW et al woes of the past few years diesel engines are being put into more vehicles than ever, especially here in North America. In Europe of course politicians and social justice pundits get points for shouting about legislating diesel passenger vehicles out of existence by 2020 or 2030 or whenever; even in Mexico City they're supposedly going to become illegal, and supposedly in India, too, as a way of combating the huge pollution problems in those places. Mind you, in Mexico this is only being proposed for Mexico City and certainly not for the country of Mex as a whole. Diesel is still king of trucks in the markets of Australia and Central/South America, and clearly it never really lost steam in the truck segment here in North America. And quite obviously no one in the third world markets of Asia or Africa ever had any such notion about gaining political points by suggesting the outlawing of diesel.
This apparent reversal of the recent anti-diesel passenger vehicle trend started me thinking: if Europe does indeed ban diesel passenger vehicles in the future will it really affect the overlanding community there? It seems to me that 4x4 enthusiasts generally buy diesel trucks (or perform diesel engine conversions) for the purposes of torque and fuel economy and not so much for daily commuting; further, one doesn't find off-pavement fun in an urban environment, so how many "real" 4x4 trucks are being garaged in urban centers as grocery getters anyway?
Basically, if European cities were indeed to outlaw diesel vehicles within city limits then would European 4x4 enthusiasts really be affected? I'm theorizing that European diesel truck purchases (probably of the increasingly vintage mechanical variety, I guess) and diesel engine conversions would still be a staple of the 4x4 community there.
Even a cursory search in Google for anything along the lines of "is diesel dead in 2018" or "how long will we have diesel engines" or something similar will show that despite the VW et al woes of the past few years diesel engines are being put into more vehicles than ever, especially here in North America. In Europe of course politicians and social justice pundits get points for shouting about legislating diesel passenger vehicles out of existence by 2020 or 2030 or whenever; even in Mexico City they're supposedly going to become illegal, and supposedly in India, too, as a way of combating the huge pollution problems in those places. Mind you, in Mexico this is only being proposed for Mexico City and certainly not for the country of Mex as a whole. Diesel is still king of trucks in the markets of Australia and Central/South America, and clearly it never really lost steam in the truck segment here in North America. And quite obviously no one in the third world markets of Asia or Africa ever had any such notion about gaining political points by suggesting the outlawing of diesel.
This apparent reversal of the recent anti-diesel passenger vehicle trend started me thinking: if Europe does indeed ban diesel passenger vehicles in the future will it really affect the overlanding community there? It seems to me that 4x4 enthusiasts generally buy diesel trucks (or perform diesel engine conversions) for the purposes of torque and fuel economy and not so much for daily commuting; further, one doesn't find off-pavement fun in an urban environment, so how many "real" 4x4 trucks are being garaged in urban centers as grocery getters anyway?
Basically, if European cities were indeed to outlaw diesel vehicles within city limits then would European 4x4 enthusiasts really be affected? I'm theorizing that European diesel truck purchases (probably of the increasingly vintage mechanical variety, I guess) and diesel engine conversions would still be a staple of the 4x4 community there.
