Clobbered for £2500 to £4000 to make van comply with the new Low Emission Zone!!?? Any advice or ways round for making it compliant?

Hi,

I have received a letter saying that my Mercedes van will not be allowed inside London (i.e. within the M25 motorway) as of July 2008.

This is because of the introduction of the new Londonwide 'Low Emission Zone', which affects most vehicles over 2.5 tonnes.

That's annoying since I live in London.

As my vehicle is (I think) classified a 'Euro 1' vehicle for emissions, it'll need a full DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) fitted in order to comply with new standards.

Transport for London's info document (link below) suggests this will cost 'between 2500 and =A34000, which is quite a sting.

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I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience of making such a modification and could advise me on the cheapest options on how to make this vehicle compliant?

1) I have heard talk of cheap versions of the filters,

2) I was also wondering if there is any other way round this, such as converting the vehicle to run on bio - diesel or some such.

Thanks very much if you can provide any info, experience or useful advice related to this

Tenby

(My vehicle details: 1996 Mercedes 609D converted to motorhome, 4 litre diesel engine, 4.5 tonnes overall weight I think, 'Euro

Reply to
tenby
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No you haven't. Inside the congestion charging zone is where it's taking effect.

John

Reply to
John Greystrong

What John said, but should you need to get your vehicle made to comply with the new regulations, once you've got the compliance certificate (or is reduced emissions cert - whatever they call it!), at present, there is no further check to see if the vehicle is still compliant. Which leaves a nice loop hole for a DPF to be fitted for the compliance check, and then removed.

I can remember my brother-in-law on about what he bus companies were doing, and that was one of the issues that had been raised.

Reply to
moray

Frayed knot, old chap!

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Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

[...]

ITYF you will be allowed to use your vehicle inside the LEZ unmodified, but you will be subjected to a daily charge.

All the information is here:

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My sympathies, BTW. I really feel that motorhomes should have been exempt.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

John Greystrong (johnny snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Nope, all the GLA area, apart from a couple of stretches of M-way.

Reply to
Adrian

not according to the leaflet theyve sent me John, it says " The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) covers most of Greater London, following the Greater London Authority boundary ... All roads, including certain motoways, within the LEZ boundary are included The M25 motorway is not included in the LEZ even where it passes within the boundary".

As the accompanying map shows, the Greater London boundary includes

*most* (admittedly NOT all) of the area within the M25 (though in fact it even goes outside the M25 in one place). Though as it says, the M25 motorway itself is not included.

Thats a much, much bigger area than the currently covered by the congestion charging zone.

It looks to me from the map that maybe 70 percent of the land area within the M25 is covered, and far more than 70 percent of the road mileage within that area. I suppose saying "inside the M25" is a sort of shorthand for the reality!

Reply to
tenby

I hadn't heard of this, so I looked it up.

It actually covers the vast majority of 'inside the M25' and a few tiny bits outside it... far more than just the congestion zone.

As for the OP, you could possibly consider parking it outside the LEZ somewhere, for the amount that motorhomes typically get used... (I'm sure some people with plenty of space could be tempted, especially if you'd let them borrow it a couple of weeks a year...)

Since any modifications have to be accredited and tested, I suspect you'll find there aren't any 'cheap' solutions - the market will allow everybody to charge through the nose.

Depending how often you use it, it might even work out cheaper and simpler to just pay the £100/£200 a day charge for the few days when you actually drive it in the zone over the rest of the lifetime of the vehicle..

Reply to
PC Paul

tenby ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Yes, you will.

All pre-Euro3 diesel commercial vehicles over 1,200kg ULW.

Hiho. It's not as if this has come out the blue. They've been running consultations for a year or more.

Sell it and buy a Euro3 newer van.

Or just pay the daily ticket when you use it in London. It's only £200/day for a van of that size...

Or just store it outside London?

Reply to
Adrian

er....the daily charge is =A3100 !!!!! That's a ban. [Thanks for the sympathy by the way : ) ]

Reply to
tenby

Man, if you KNEW the love and attention (and money) I had invested in this vehicle!!!

Incidentally, is there any truth in a rumour I heard that a vehicle causes more greenhouse gases to be emitted during its creation than through a lifetime of use (an urban myth, or is there something in that?). Even if this is half-true (i.e. emissions through manufacture are very substantial component of all emissions) then I doubt that the casual suggestion (which they do indeed make in the TfL leaflet) that I go and buy a new van is really a green option when you look at the big picture. Sure, I know that the issue of particulate pollution is not exactly the same issue as that of greenhouse gas emission, but I kind of doubt they have created a genuinely co-ordinated green policy here. Far better I think just to improve manufacturing standards and allow improvement through natural replacement, which would happen fairly quickly anyway since the commercial vehicles which are responsible for most of this do high mileage in any case.

Reply to
tenby

tenby ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Hate to break this to you, but that's only for vans under 3.5t MAM... Yours is over that, so it's £200.

Reply to
Adrian

tenby ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

So store it somewhere outside London.

ITYF that there's not so many car factories in London Boroughs these days.

It's Ken. What did you expect? Apparently, vehicles with lower emissions take up less road space than those with higher emissions, too.

Reply to
Adrian

I have received a letter saying that my Mercedes van will not be allowed inside London (i.e. within the M25 motorway) as of July 2008.

This is because of the introduction of the new Londonwide 'Low Emission Zone', which affects most vehicles over 2.5 tonnes.

That's annoying since I live in London.

As my vehicle is (I think) classified a 'Euro 1' vehicle for emissions, it'll need a full DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) fitted in order to comply with new standards.

Transport for London's info document (link below) suggests this will cost 'between 2500 and £4000, which is quite a sting.

formatting link
I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience of making such a modification and could advise me on the cheapest options on how to make this vehicle compliant?

1) I have heard talk of cheap versions of the filters,

2) I was also wondering if there is any other way round this, such as converting the vehicle to run on bio - diesel or some such.

Thanks very much if you can provide any info, experience or useful advice related to this

Tenby

(My vehicle details: 1996 Mercedes 609D converted to motorhome, 4 litre diesel engine, 4.5 tonnes overall weight I think, 'Euro

I wrote and complained at the very quiet consultation stage, but no joy, I suggested that motorhomes should be exempt too.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Well bugger me backwards, what a bag of s**te.

John

Reply to
John Greystrong

Buses are exempt.

Reply to
Rob Farrell

I have received a letter saying that my Mercedes van will not be allowed inside London (i.e. within the M25 motorway) as of July 2008.

This is because of the introduction of the new Londonwide 'Low Emission Zone', which affects most vehicles over 2.5 tonnes.

That's annoying since I live in London.

As my vehicle is (I think) classified a 'Euro 1' vehicle for emissions, it'll need a full DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) fitted in order to comply with new standards.

Transport for London's info document (link below) suggests this will cost 'between 2500 and £4000, which is quite a sting.

formatting link
I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience of making such a modification and could advise me on the cheapest options on how to make this vehicle compliant?

1) I have heard talk of cheap versions of the filters,

2) I was also wondering if there is any other way round this, such as converting the vehicle to run on bio - diesel or some such.

Thanks very much if you can provide any info, experience or useful advice related to this

Tenby

(My vehicle details: 1996 Mercedes 609D converted to motorhome, 4 litre diesel engine, 4.5 tonnes overall weight I think, 'Euro

I assume you have actually checked your vehicle status on the lez website?

Reply to
Mrcheerful

I have received a letter saying that my Mercedes van will not be allowed inside London (i.e. within the M25 motorway) as of July 2008.

This is because of the introduction of the new Londonwide 'Low Emission Zone', which affects most vehicles over 2.5 tonnes.

That's annoying since I live in London.

As my vehicle is (I think) classified a 'Euro 1' vehicle for emissions, it'll need a full DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) fitted in order to comply with new standards.

Transport for London's info document (link below) suggests this will cost 'between 2500 and £4000, which is quite a sting.

formatting link
I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience of making such a modification and could advise me on the cheapest options on how to make this vehicle compliant?

1) I have heard talk of cheap versions of the filters,

2) I was also wondering if there is any other way round this, such as converting the vehicle to run on bio - diesel or some such.

Thanks very much if you can provide any info, experience or useful advice related to this

Tenby

(My vehicle details: 1996 Mercedes 609D converted to motorhome, 4 litre diesel engine, 4.5 tonnes overall weight I think, 'Euro

In addition, if you can get your emissions low enough (0.8) you can get a certificate to let your vehicle through. the peugeot I got tested yesterday managed 0.76 straight away, so it may be possible to get any non smokey diesel through WITHOUT adding filters

Reply to
Mrcheerful

No, most vehicles create more emissions during their working life. It depends on total milage of course. ISTR that the average car incurs about a quarter to a third of it's total energy budget during manufacture; significant certainly.

The concern is clearly air quality, not CO2 emissions which, given the state of the inside of my nose after every visit to London, I can well believe!

Manufacturing standards have already improved; perhaps the belief was that commercial vehicles might stick around far longer than non-commercial ones unless forced off the roads?

Phil

Reply to
Phil Armstrong

Is an LPG conversion an option with this engine?

If so, maybe less than a couple of grand to convert it. I'm currently paying

37p/Litre for LPG, running my Daihatsu, so this should help ease the pain.

Also, my van is exempt from the congestion charge.

Just a thought...

tox

Reply to
The Legend

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