Booking the trade in at a lower value than that offered in negotiation has been standard process for years.

I always thought this 'standard practice' had certain VAT advantages?

This may be VW taking advantage of slower sales to clear stocks?

After all, we've all be thrown into confusion about whether our next car should be diesel or petrol and HJ's advice to people asking the question is to change to petrol. Having enjoyed two diesel cars of my own, and in a company diesel car now, I am thinking of returning to petrol when I retire in 2 years time, even though it will cost me more..

In the meantime the car industry is facing a dilemma for which no one in Government is offering any form of guidance. We've T charges on the way for London, some councils are discriminating and charging diesel cars more to park, and I suspect other big cities will soon follow in a bid to improve air pollution. That's fine but what about the vans and buses that will still serve these cities, and the diesel trains? No initiative there.

Another dilemma for the industry is what to do when buyers do begin to switch to petrol cars?

As an exercise, I looked at three types of popular car for sale on Autotrader:

BMW 3 series post 2013: 418 petrol models, 4336 diesel models

Audi A3, post 2013: 132 petrol, 1338 diesel

Ford Mondeo post 2013: 140 petrol, 1725 diesel

Ok so it's ballpark, but the 10% of petrol cars to 90% of diesel would suggest to me that unless that dealers seriously risk being left with forecourts of diesel cars they cannot sell if there is a shift in emphasis, which HJ is predicting. Some will smile and say 'what a shame for the dealers', but with a new repore due next week on the effects of directly injected petrol engines (www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/75633/what-is-th...s-) the motor industry has got itself in a very big mess. It's not even woken up to the fact that diesel may be dumped in a few years.

Talk about confused.com......

However, as a counterpoint ...

You're assuming that the general public actually take of those news articles, and pay attention to them.

If so, then diesel would have been far less popular in recent years - HJ and others have been preaching the problems of DPFs, DMFs et al for ages. Yet people still buy them - I know of one elderly gentleman who bought (after, allegedly, lots of research) a new diesel Focus 2 years ago. He paid list (so no research went on there), and he does about 3k miles a year. Unsurprisingly, he had a blocked DPF a couple of months ago.

Same for any DSG-equipped car : I dread to think the number of people who STILL come on here having bought one a few years old, and then having major problems a few months down the line. The latest ones might be fine (I suppose we'll only find out in 2-3 years time), but for me to have one of the earlier ones you'd have to give me the car.

The fact is that most of us on here are in a tiny minority. We are 'petrolheads' who have an interest. Most of the public still belive the old VW slogan, and there's plenty out there who'd be horrified to find out that their posh Audi is mechanically identical to a Skoda, or their Lexus is a Toyota, or their nice Volvo is largely Ford running gear.

The public do read and they take note - but they are reading road tests and car reviews. Take a look at HJs top tens. They are full of VW group cars. Look at the full reports of any make. You will see diesel engines recommended as the best choice over and over again. So HJ may be highlighting VW or diesel issues in his weekly columns or these forums but he ignores them in his road tests/reviews.

Of course the readership of this web site is a tiny proportion of car buyers but the same story is repeated with all road tests in the main car magazines and the popular press. No wonder that car buyers are confused and slow to wean off VW or diesel.

I wouldn't worry, if 'Spreadsheet Phil' has his way you'll all be out of business thanks to NI contributions anyway... So we'll all have knackered boilers and crumbling plaster and naff old carpets, it'll be like the blitz all over again.