ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

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Pete Boole
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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Pete Boole »

Off-topic alert! I've just been quoted by Mercedes for a replacement petrol tank for the virtually terminally rusty old one. £3,020!! :shock: :shock: :shock: The car is only worth £3,020!! :roll:. It's a perfectly good car but if I weren't able to do the work myself it would now be scrap. Ridiculous.

Rant over :D

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by rbgosling »

Pete Boole wrote:
Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:33
Off-topic alert! I've just been quoted by Mercedes for a replacement petrol tank for the virtually terminally rusty old one. £3,020!! :shock: :shock: :shock: The car is only worth £3,020!! :roll:. It's a perfectly good car but if I weren't able to do the work myself it would now be scrap. Ridiculous.

Rant over :D

Pete
There might be a few Mercedes fuel tanks lying around at work here, and they are good for E10 too! You can't fill 'em as fast as you used to, though.

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Alan_M »

Pete Boole wrote:
Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:33
Off-topic alert! I've just been quoted by Mercedes for a replacement petrol tank for the virtually terminally rusty old one. £3,020!! :shock: :shock: :shock: The car is only worth £3,020!! :roll:. It's a perfectly good car but if I weren't able to do the work myself it would now be scrap. Ridiculous.

Rant over :D

Pete
I know that feeling.
The V6 cdi has an oil/water heat exchanger buried in the V under lots of other stuff. It has two fig 8 seals that end up leaking - replacement seals about £20. Reported cost to replace at Merc dealer 6-10k consisting of -
14 hours labour
Swirl flaps always worn so they will replace both entire inlet manifolds - about £700 a side
Swirl flap actuation motor and all the other bits they can find to replace

I did it all for about £300.

Pete Boole
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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Pete Boole »

And people think Lotus are loads of trouble!! :roll: :lol:

And that £3020 was just to supply the tank :(. I've had one custom-built for the Elite for 10% of that!

Pete

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Alan_M »

Pete Boole wrote:
Tue Jun 21, 2022 21:47
And people think Lotus are loads of trouble!! :roll: :lol:

And that £3020 was just to supply the tank :(. I've had one custom-built for the Elite for 10% of that!

Pete
That is one stupidly expensive petrol tank - does it refine its own fuel :lol:

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Pete Boole »

Effectively a car that cost £80,000 16 years ago is scrapped by a 2" patch of rust!

Pete

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Alan_M »

Pete Boole wrote:
Wed Jun 22, 2022 09:45
Effectively a car that cost £80,000 16 years ago is scrapped by a 2" patch of rust!

Pete
I had a BMW 750 where the tank rusted along the seam between top and bottom and a few pinholes in bottom - I had mine brazed by a local radiator repair place for about £60 - that was about 10 years ago though.

Have you tried Dronsfields to see if they have a non rusty one?

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Pete Boole »

They rarely come up second hand and if they do they are still £800. I'm going to get it welded locally. The main problem is that it's a bit like the wiper motor on the Excel - it's the first bit they fitted to the car! I've got to remove the exhaust, diff, propshaft, subframe and all the rear suspension just to take it out! I'm well on the way though.

Cheers

Pete

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by rbgosling »

Pete Boole wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 07:26
They rarely come up second hand and if they do they are still £800. I'm going to get it welded locally. The main problem is that it's a bit like the wiper motor on the Excel - it's the first bit they fitted to the car! I've got to remove the exhaust, diff, propshaft, subframe and all the rear suspension just to take it out! I'm well on the way though.

Cheers

Pete
Wow!! That's a chore.
"Farmer" Richard

1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith)
2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...)
2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by Alan_M »

Pete Boole wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 07:26
They rarely come up second hand and if they do they are still £800. I'm going to get it welded locally. The main problem is that it's a bit like the wiper motor on the Excel - it's the first bit they fitted to the car! I've got to remove the exhaust, diff, propshaft, subframe and all the rear suspension just to take it out! I'm well on the way though.

Cheers

Pete
Yep, they often seem to just design cars for ease of manufacture and packaging with no concern for repair.

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by laikathedog »

In response to failing to deny the ULEZ expansion I sold two Lotus I could no longer justify paying to drive them “round the block”

I am appalled that the claim of 9 in 10 cars are compliant has been accepted

I am equally appallled that the ULEZ compliance is based upon the manufacturers stated emissions, some of whom have had to confess to providing fictional rates… which remain the rates the DVLA provide to judge the emissions of your ULEZ check… so it is based on nonsense figures allowing diesel SUV to remain compliant.

What falls me the most is that battery cars are not eco friendly in thier manufacture, they skew the facts to promote sales and profits over the environment.

What the government should promote is long life over new. The older the car the more allowance should be provided, I know that that means a v12 Jaguar would then become cheaper to run and 12 cylinders pollutes more than 3, but…. The owner chooses to pay for 18mpg for a car that has at least met it’s carbon footprint or passed it’s carbon manufacturing and running threshold years ago !

The carbon cost for a new electric MG from China will takes 100k miles , but as we now live in a culture of disposable cars, a small percentage will reach 100,000 in thier entire lifetime let alone in the duration of a 3 year loan.

The UK are sitting on a problem yet to be realised (just as the government did when it promoted desil “economy” over petrol), what are we going to do in a Couple of years to “recycle” all these 2 ton electric trucks when thier software updates start to cost 2k a year…. At that point the government will start to penalise electric trucks/SUV as they are “manufacturing polluters”

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by rbgosling »

Taken at face value, environmentally ULEZ is specifically about local air quality. While battery cars may be environmentally damaging in any number of ways, they don't pollute the air that they are sitting in, so it makes sense they don't pay for ULEZ.

The problem is that, in the drive to be "eco friendly", there are myriad different ways to damage the environment, and some people think some of these are more important than others. Maybe we need an overall "eco score", that weighs up the different damage done by different forms of pollution, but no-one would ever agree what the weighting should be. Local pollution, pollution where the energy is created, pollution during manufacture, carbon dioxide, particulates, ozone, nitrates, mining, refining metals and manufacturing processes, using electricity generated remotely and how it is generated, transport of manufactured goods on ships, energy used in manufacture...

I totally agree about continuing to use an existing product as long as possible. I intend to keep my electric MG for as long as I can (it's owned, not leased), I'm curious to see how long that will turn out to be. Feel free to resurrect this thread in a decade and ask me! But I accept that's not what most people do - and the car manufacturers strongly encourage short-term lease deals and constant upgrades and replacements, because that sells them more cars. At least there does seem to be a bit of a move towards using recycled materials in car manufacture now, but it's seems very tokenistic at the moment, and still re-use is far better that recycling.
"Farmer" Richard

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by bash »

Its nowt to do with emissions its all about money, Mr Khan has wasted so much he has either run out or has got his hand out for more cash. The same goes for any other scheme of a similar nature.
On another note, why dont satnavs help to steer people away from these areas like any other toll road.
Ultimately its a toll that rich people aren't worried about, its the new poll tax.

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by rbgosling »

Hence the "Taken at face value" I prefaced my comments with!!

Besides, rich people don't pay the price, because they can afford compliant cars. At least the poll tax was paid the same by all; this one falls only on poor people who cannot afford a newer car. Not really a traditional "Labour" value, but the voters Khan wants are probably more of the champagne socialist variety than real working class.

Yes, an "avoid ULEZ" would be a handy sat-nav option, but probably of limited use - only helpful if your journey starts outside ULEZ, finishes outside ULEZ, but a potentially viable route dips in and out of ULEZ on the way.
"Farmer" Richard

1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith)
2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...)
2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)

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Re: ULEZ expansion 2023 have your say

Post by ChrisJ »

I've created an account so that if I get caught in my Excel I'll know about it (hopefully the day I miss a new camera), and it will automatically pay for it - so I shouldn't receive a fine. I think I have worked out a couple of routes to avoid the cameras to a location just inside the ULEZ that I travel to 4+ times a week. Funnily enough the page header states "London Road User Charging account" - so once the income from ULEZ etc. runs out, just right for pay per mile.

I have also registered my Esprit as Historic, and I get three different answers as to if it is exempt. On my account page there is a LEZ/ULEZ services link, where I can "Check if you need to pay the LEZ or ULEZ change for a vehicle.", And this leads to another page where ther are two more links.

- ULEZ/LEZ vehicle checker.
- Register your vehicle with us.

The first link states that my Esprit is not exempt from ULEZ and I need to pay £12.50 a day. :(
The second link states "You don't have to register this vehicle ..... You don't have to pay the ULEZ or LEZ charge for this vehicle. There is no need to register it - we know it already meets the emissions standards for ULEZ and LEZ, has no charge due or is exempt from the schemes." :D

When I add my Esprit to my account, "My Vehicles" now states that the Esprit is exempt from ULEZ but that LEZ should be paid. :?

And for my Excel - LEZ is not mentioned.

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