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trabitom99
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Post by trabitom99 » 02 Apr 2008 09:58 am

hatch360 wrote:hehehe reading from ther top of this post I thought the infamous AMR had returned
Heaven forbid ;-)
petefarrell360 wrote:So..... how can they ban cars of a certain age from entering cities, or requiring a cat?
Easy - the traffic wardens are enforcing it. Don't you just love 'em ;-)
petefarrell360 wrote:Tom, how does this new rule affect foreign visitors, i.e. if I took my UK MOT'd 360 without cat over there and drove into the city? It doesn't need one in this country, (currently) but does there.
Yesterday on the radio, they were following a traffic warden around Cologne. One of the cars they nabbed was a car registered in France. AFAIK the "points on your licence" scheme isn't universal in the EU, but fines are, so you'd be sent a bill. Since those stickers aren't available abroad, the same rule applies as to those cars without stickers. If you can prove you're theoretically within the emission limits, you're let off the hook, if not, you're fined.
petefarrell360 wrote:As with all these things, it either affects the person who chooses to use an older car and is denied that right of freedom of choice, or hits the people worst off, who have no choice but to drive older cars that cost less in the first place.

I'll now climb down off of my soapbox, but soon you won't be able to drive anywhere, own, use, look at, appreciate, save, restore or buy a car over 10 years old! How are classics and historic vehicles that are part of history ever going to be preserved and saved, but also used. Not everyone wants to put them in a museum unused!

Pete
There are exemptions. If your car is an historic vehicle (an "H" in the licence plate, over 30 years old, in good condition) you can drive into these zones without a sticker. Although there are annoying sides to this too, commercial vehicles for example, can't get an "H" plate, and for some cars (like my Trabant) you wouldn't want one of these plates anyway as they're twice the cost of a regular registration, due to the tiny engine size.

For diesel cars, these new rules really are restrictive. A red sticker (Euro 2 level diesels, like the mid-nineties VW TDIs) are only allowed in the OUTSKIRTS of Cologne. If you want to get into the centre of the city with your diesel, you need a green sticker, which is only given out to the most modern diesels with a particle filter. And there aren't many of those about yet ...

I agree with some parts of that new law. I've been stuck behind relatively modern TDIs before, belching out clouds of smoke. But it's not really fair on the petrol cars, which barely emit any particulates at all. The amount of petrol cars without cats these days are so few anyway, that it barely makes a difference in the greater scheme of things.

Tom
Last edited by trabitom99 on 17 Jun 2008 03:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
343 GL Touring B14.1E CVT (155) 98000kms 1980 (sold)
343 L Junior B14.3E MT4 (155) 229000kms 1981 (scrapped)
343 DLS B19A MT4 (155) 167900kms 1982
360 GL Injection B200F MT5 (231) 348598kms 1988 (scrapped)
360 GLT B200F MT5 (302) 230000kms 1988

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MJ
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Post by MJ » 02 Apr 2008 10:29 am

Just a thought, this wasn't an April fools was it? It sounds like it, but then the things governments do usually do sound like a joke :?

Are the traffic wardens going to have access to a central computer? Probably, but if not, just get a custom number plate with no age identifier, and most traffic wardens would have no idea what a cat looked liked either.
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trabitom99
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Post by trabitom99 » 02 Apr 2008 10:59 am

MJ wrote:Just a thought, this wasn't an April fools was it? It sounds like it, but then the things governments do usually do sound like a joke :?
'fraid not:

http://www.umwelt-plakette.de/int_england.php

I suppose it wouldn't be a hard thing to do - linking up the traffic wardens' PDA with a central computer connecting the licence plate number to the make/model of the car ...

... and I thought you couldn't get much more "big brother" than average speed cameras ...

Tom
343 GL Touring B14.1E CVT (155) 98000kms 1980 (sold)
343 L Junior B14.3E MT4 (155) 229000kms 1981 (scrapped)
343 DLS B19A MT4 (155) 167900kms 1982
360 GL Injection B200F MT5 (231) 348598kms 1988 (scrapped)
360 GLT B200F MT5 (302) 230000kms 1988

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Chris_C
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Post by Chris_C » 02 Apr 2008 01:30 pm

Pete... new record dude., I just got the ruler out, and that is 18 screen inches... ;)

I'm in agreeance with Foggy to a point here, make the cars more efficient. Problem with that is you practically kill the carb... though it's doable, there are plenty of post 92 carbs in this country that already hit tighter regs.

Emmisions controls in the UK are already pretty damn tight, and a rolling 10year thing serves no one. Making the emmisions laws harder to pass? Ok, 90% of people will bin their car, as they won't want hte hassle, but it makes sense, with an "if"

*IF* they allow me to retest what car I want, and not run a rolling ban. With work, any of us could get any car through an emmissions check, no matter what the engine, and in a way that wouldnt have to be adjusted on the road. But why would they do that? One blanket rule is a lot less hassle, so they won't.

Surely the solution to this is to just get the goverment culteral history officials involved? Most places love to boast about their heritage and culture, nothing like shoving a gathering of 500 10year old+ beemers on the entraces to the city, and asking what they will put in their musuems for the period of 1990 onwards ;)
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'89(F) 340 GL F7R (ex B172k) - Fake -> SBKV 300 Runner Up 08, 12; '91(H) 340 GL B14.4E - Kar; '88(F) 360 GLT B200E - Jet -> BKV 300 Runner Up 09; '89(G) 360 GLT B200E - Beast

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filthyjohn
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Post by filthyjohn » 02 Apr 2008 01:32 pm

It'd be easy for them to check the plates were genuine with some sort of PDA. Even the monkeys who enforce metro fares up here have gadgets that check your name against the electoral register, meaning you now have to give a false address which corresponds to your chosen false name :wink:
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