You can't drive a Mercedes in Stuttgart?
 

In Germany’s Car Capital, the Unthinkable: The Right to Ban Cars

https://nyti.ms/2F7AOnN

tl;dr: German court allows ban on diesel cars in city.

Obviously, the German court people have been "...drinking from the California Kool-Aide punch bowls."

Did someone mention driving Army trucks?! No? Why not?!

I drove a Load Handling System to Stuttgart. It may have emitted excessively. Arguably it created less of a problem than the M915 driving 15 MPH on the Autobahn, but still, a 40,000-pound truck when empty with a 15.L engine, which is probably exempt from emission laws, would not help.

You probably could not drive the Xtra-Large One, either, despite undoubtedly having low emissions.

Why unthinkable? Some people might think that it's better to breathe cleaner air.

IIRC it's still enforced only against older vehicles classified within less stringent emission rules, but it still doesn't seem to be a great idea at all. Pouring some vegetable oil in the tank of an old Diesel jalopy with indirect injection is a far more sensible option than wasting otherwise good cars while spending an awful amount of energy (usually not from the cleanest source) to make a replacement which would be not just more expensive but also less suitable to some alternate fuels.

I used public transportation in Germany, but I could not tell you how good it is. This page says:
https://www.german-way.com/travel-an...rt-in-germany/

It seems backward to me to try to reduce cars if there is room for improvement for public transportation.

Even though I believe the Japanese approach could lead to some good results to decrease congestions and improve traffic flow for a further reduction in emissions related to idling the engines in the middle of a traffic jam, making some oversized vehicles liable to a higher annual tax, I am not any optimistic for the pathway that European Union is following...

Nation-states doing what nation-states do

duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoon&q=countrys+ban+cryptocurrencies

I did an extended bicycle tour in Europe in 1990. Within the first 2 days I was sick of the smell of diesel fumes. That has lasted until the present. I'd ban the damned things just because of the stink they make!

Even though old-school IDI engines were still the rule for Diesel cars and light-duty commercial vehicles by then, I never got actually bothered by the smell of old Diesel cars not even during the summer in Florianópolis when lots of Argentinians and Uruguayans went there mostly in Diesel-powered vehicles. The problem was mostly the Paraguayans and Bolivians who neglected the maintenance. But anyway, I still believe some different approaches could be taken instead of simply forbidding older Diesels, such as retrofitting more accurate emission controls when the engine is due to an overhaul, or even some devices usually more popular among the high-performance folks such as water injection (which not just allows an even leaner burn in order to save fuel and decrease the particulate matter emission, but also decrease the NOx levels which are now under a higher scrutiny than ever).

Well, considering other aspects, an outright ban on older Diesels may not be the most eco-conscious solution at all...

workaround ideas to discuss among friends: Why is it pointless to ban older Diesel cars like it's been proposed in Germany?

The alternative to taking out the big stick, is offering a carrot.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_for_Clunkers

Similar shortcomings of course:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_for_Clunkers#Exotic_cars_crushed_under_the_pr ogram

Sure some financial incentives for people to get rid of their old irons could be somewhat effective, but I still consider somewhat pointless to simply take them out of the road and scrap them. Well, many Diesel engines that remain quite popular in Europe, such as Renault's 1.5dCi, have much parts commonality with older naturally-aspirated and mechanically-governed IDI versions. Had it been only about pollution mitigation instead of a plain "greenwashing" propaganda stunt, I believe it would've been so much more effective to support retrofits into the "outdated" cars when they get due to an engine overhaul. Well, let's consider an Alfa Romeo 146 with a 1.9L turbodiesel, its engine is a variation of the same Pratola Serra modular engine series that originated the 1.6L and 2.0L Multijet engines currently fitted to the Jeep Renegade.

In the US, engine "overhauls" practically never happen, at least with mainstream consumer vehicles. A vast majority of the time, the engine outlasts the rest of the car. In the north, the body rusts to pieces. In the south, the paint peels off and the transmission fails, and the cost to repair usually exceeds the cost of a used car with 100,000 fewer miles on the clock.

I imagine the same is true in Germany.

So, we could just wait until they all fall to pieces?

Was this law specifically designed to hurt poor people? Sure, some people in poverty purchase new cars. I never understand how they make that happen, but whatever. I came home from Germany with a whole five thousand dollars to purchase a car! That was way more than I ever had before!

I ended up with my Subaru.

Hilarity did not ensue, but a lawsuit did!

Smashing an old and unreliable full-size vehicle and purchasing a new, small, reliable, and efficient car makes some sense, not that I advocate purchasing new, but how many people traded in reliable and efficient cars for full-sized ones that turned out to be unreliable?

Perhaps my memory goes back further than yours, but I don't recall most cars (Honda & Toyota excepted) of the "clunker" era as being particularly reliable.

If the "clunker" in question was reliable and efficient, like for instance my '88 Toyota pickup, why would people trade it in? My local Craigslist is showing similar ones at around $4-5K, which is as much or more than you'd have gotten from the Cash for Clunkers program.

I have only owned Japanese cars, so I do not have first-hand knowledge of anything else, but how many people trade in cars before they pay them off? Are these cars already problematic while they are still making payments?

Why do people trade in cars when they could receive much more selling themselves? Why do people purchase used cars from dealerships when they cannot take them to their friendly neighborhood mechanic for inspection, and when they always cost more?

Why don't Pop Tarts taste like soda?

It seems to have been, another way to keep them under strict control. Quite a dictatorial move...


Well, there are always those willing to show off and pretend they're in a more comfortable situation than their neighbors...

The only thing worse for the classic cars of the 1950s was the demolition derby. Here's a bullet-nose Studebaker being T-boned by a Pontiac ambulance:

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-co...age/147842.jpghttp://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/comment-image/147842.jpg

In lower frame is a 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser! Easily $50-80K today.

The last time I went to a demolition derby I was thoroughly revolted. Everybody ganged up on the 1954 Studebaker 4-door.

I think (again, I have no firsthand knowledge, since it's been close to 30 years since I made a car payment) that most people who trade in cars do so not because there's anything wrong with the car they have, but because they want a newer model. "Clunkers" tend to be driven until they break down.

As for people buying used cars from dealers, sometimes it's just convenience: as with the few I've bought from dealers, they have a car you want and there's nothing comparable in the private market. But I think it's more often because they can put little or nothing down and make payments, something that's hard to do when you're buying from a private party.

"A record 107 million Americans have auto loan debt. [...] That's about 43% of the entire adult population in the US." A record 107 million Americans have car loans - May. 19, 2017

That is not even a majority! So, the majority is smart enough to not have payments?!

Demolition derby is absolutely pointless. Even though most of the cars that had this fate would be dismantled anyway, maybe some parts could've been retrieved to keep similars in a better shape to remain in operating conditions.

BTW in countries like Uruguay there is a lot of old cars, and some not so old at all as this Fiat Uno, and the age of the cars doesn't seem to be an actual problem.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ztb-En3F1...%2Beuropeu.jpg
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IjzLWcWB5...2Btraseira.jpg