London Low Emmission Zone

[Brian Considine]

Those of us who travel in the LEZ (roughly within the M25) will (or should be) aware of the Low Emmission Zone. This will effect all Transporters & larger from October 2010. If you have a euro III engine you will not be effected until February 2012 when you will need to have a euro IV engine.

There are options ;
1) Change the vehicle.
2) Change the engine (to petrol ) or to a euro IV unit.
3) Modify the existing engine or submit the vehicle to a smoke test at a VOSA Testing Facility.
4) Pay Mr Livingtone (or his successor) £100 per day.

To be honest, I would rather keep my T4 but I cannot as yet find anyone who could possibly supply & fit a later euro IV engine (if, indeed it is possible) or modify the existing one I may have to bite the bullet & buy a new T5.

Again VOSA have advised me that I can submit the vehicle for a smoke test & if it passes I can be issued with a "certificate of low emmissions" but they require the data from VW to see if it has "a chance of complying". VW themselves have apparently not made this information available to VOSA - anyway of obtaining this please ? anyone ?

Generally, information is scarce - anything further would be most appreciated - before we know it time will be very tight.

[JAY_1]

how can I tell if my engine is euro 3 or 4?

[Brian Considine]

how can I tell if my engine is euro 3 or 4?

AFAIK all Transporters from approx' 2002 are euro III & all T5's are euro IV.

Your local dealer will be able to tell you if you quote the engine number.

Hope this helps.

[JAY_1]

Thanks for that, mine is actually an lt35, I should have mentioned this.

Whilst I was browsing the LEZ site I read about the euro 4 engine standard that will be in place in 2012. From what I read I understand that only vehicles OVER 3.5 tons will be affected. I certainly hope so as I am in the process of buying a 52 plate lt35 specifically so that I won't incur the 2010 charge, I'd hate to have to sell and change again so soon.

My advice to anyone thinking of upgrading to be compliant is to try and do so now otherwise you may find yourself having to travel miles away to sell your non compliant van as more and more people become aware and also hike the prices on compliant vans!

[Brian Considine]

The vehicle weight is progressive & from October 2010 will include all goods vehicles of 1200kg unladen weight. AFAIK it will eventually include even vans like the Caddy.

If you phone their helpline they will clarify any details & you can always email them for confirmation.

I was pleasantly surprised by their helpfulness & knowledge.

Unfortunatly, it is a bit of a minefield & a lot of information simply is not available.

[DavidBWatt]

So now they are planning to introduce the charge in 2012. It still seems very difficult to find information on filters or other options to make our van complient.
If anyone has any more infromation or suggestions I would be interested to hear them.

[rayl]

if you go to the LEZ (london congestion zone) site and navigate to where it says compliance check click that and put your reg number in there and it will tell you if your vehicle complies, this is also very useful if your thinking of buying another van as you put the reg in and it tells you straight away, then you make your choice wheather to buy or not. ray