Diesel cars may still be the fuel of choice for many drivers on Britain’s roads what with their class leading fuel economy and ability to eat up miles. However many of the lading car manufacturers are failing to comply with European emissions regulations when driven in real world situations.

The study was conducted by the  campaign group ‘Transport & Environment’. Some of the cars tested were found to have been over 15 times the limit imposed by the European commission! This comes about as new cars are required to pass real-world driving conditions to pass their emissions test before the 1st of September 2017.

The new system will be able to test the cars for N0x levels and other pollutants. this is the replace the current method which does the same test albeit in laboratory conditions. The lowest polluting car tested was the VW Polo 1.4 TDI which was double what the the current regulations allow, whereas the Fiat 500X was five times the regulatory limit. Quite a chasm between them and pretty damning evidence to show against diesel cars. With the rise if hybrid and full electricity cars now, many have deemed the polluting diesels to be a thing of the past. It’s not hard to see why with the bad press and emissions scandals that have rocked the automotive industry over the past year.

Once the dust has settled it will be interesting to see if an affected diesel car will demand a higher car insurance premium over a similarly newly tested one under the new real world emissions test. Time will tell, but in the mean time there is always a petrol powered car..