Banning Old Cars

[Hazir]

In case you're not aware (Hazir should be since he lives within the EU) - every car within the EU must undergo inspections either annual [in the UK] or at the maximum biennial [every 2 years is the EU maximum]. Exception only for brand new cars which have a 4 year grace before it needs doing (three in the UK). These inspections involve a large number of safety checks to insure that beaten down old death traps aren't on the road to kill us all with - but they also require emissions testing. Some old cars are exempted from the emissions testing.

This isn't a case of testing a car when it was manufactured, its about testing it in the here and now. As it is - warts and all. A three year old car if badly looked after could fail the test. A well-maintained 17 year old car could pass it.

However because 15 year old cars were exempted from the requirement of the emissions testing part of the tests [because the standards weren't in place when they were manufactured], now apparently they should all be forced off the roads altogether. What I'm saying is that when they next have their routine test, implement the emissions standards. The standards are there already and it'll be based on what the car is measured to pump out today in a test - not what some test upon manufacture before it drove tens of thousands of miles, had parts replaced, had services or not supposedly emits.

You are describing the system the Germans introduced almost 5 years ago. They decided to fail all cars with a registration from before 1997. A year that coincides with the introduction of much stricter emission rules all over the EU and probably changes in the designs of cars. If there is one thing I suspect the Germans of being very good at it is this type of testing; they set the standard. If Tüv makes a claim you can be certain that they have the data to back it up. If they decided fail all old cars in 2008 they will have done so on good grounds. In Germany the move proposed now by Delanoe caused no public uproar.