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I filled up at Carrefour yesterday, I don't normally look at the price of fuel as I have always assumed that Carrefour is amongst the cheapest.

Carrefour has now installed incredibly annoying TV screens next to each pump belting out non-stop adverts. As a form of distraction I glanced at the price and was fairly astonished to see that diesel is now 1.38€ a litre, the last time I looked it was about 1.12€.

I have read that the government was adjusting the tax balance between diesel and petrol which may explain some of the increase.

This got me thinking, in Britain, sales of diesel cars have plummeted, partly due to the UK government's pronouncement that they got it wrong and diesel drivers are now social outcasts. Of course the VW fiddled emission figures hasn't helped. I read a letter in the Sunday Times where the writer commented that second-hand diesel cars weren't worth much more than the fuel in the tank.

Has something similar happened in France? Historically french drivers seemed to prefer diesel but is the move now to petrol engines.

I have a new car on order for August delivery with a diesel engine and I am now wondering if I have made a mistake and will I get next to nothing for my current diesel car?

I heard on the radio today that over the last year petrol prices have gone up 6% and diesel 12%. Under pressure from the ecologists, the government's aim is indeed to align the prices and, if it wouldn't cause such uproar from transport companies etc, would prefer to make diesel more expensive than petrol, to 'compensate' for the pollution caused and yes, to discourage people from buying diesel cars.

However, many French people still swear by diesel so I don't know if the price of second hand cars is affected. You could go onto the site of the 'Argus', which is the bible for French car values. You put in the details of your car and it tells you how much it is worth

There are plans to phase out diesel cars so expect higher prices for fuel and perhaps more taxes on them. I would not buy another diesel.

And yet the biggest certain threat facing the world in the future is global warming and diesel cars still emit less C02 than the petrol equivalent.

Russell

I wonder about any real 'joined up' thinking by the powers that be.

• CO2 pollution is massively contributed to by cows farting and ships and lorries moving stuff around the world.
  
  NOX emissions are most deadly in Cities
  
  by a date in the near future most cars will be electric or hybrids.
  etc

So the short term demonising of Diesel seems like gesture stuff to me.

So often on this forum I find that for every easily-made comment there is a wretched pedant who seems to want to get their name in lights by correcting an assumption.

This is embarrassing, but today I am that pedant. Cows do not produce carbon dioxide, they produce another harmful greenhouse gas called methane. And most of that methane is produced as burps whilst they chew the cud, rather than as farts.

Otherwise, you are spot on with your analysis! By genuine coincidence, today I have been looking at the choice of new hybrid cars.

Half an hour after posting I realised that Cows produce Methane not CO2, but as the consequence is the same I didn't correct it. Soz.