16th May 2007

It has already been argued by me via this weekly column that brand new unleaded-powered cars are increasingly redundant. I have also confessed, in the Daily Telegraph, that I now consider myself a dieselhead rather than petrolhead. With that in mind, ABC News asked me recently to present an item on primetime US TV, spelling out to the American public the advantages of diesel power.

	The current crop of oil-burners from the top diesel car makers is so good that I would not care if I never drove a petrol model again

True, some cars - Ferraris, for example - will probably only ever run on petrol. Fair enough. But Audi has already proven that oil-burners can be exciting models on the road and world-beaters on the track. Surely it won't be long before other prestige firms such as Porsche, Bentley and Rolls-Royce start offering diesel options which will, I'm certain, be popular with busy owners who have better things to do than stop at unleaded pumps every few hours.

The first derv-powered car - the Mercedes 260D - has just celebrated its 70th birthday. One in four models currently sold in Britain is an oil-burner. I've never met anybody who's switched from petrol to diesel and regretted it. So it's really surprising to hear that, according to industry intelligence, diesel car registrations are predicted to peak next year, just as they were about to overtake sales of petrol models.

How come? I've just driven the new Bluemotion versions of the Volkswagen Passat and Polo in Berlin, and they are both quite brilliant, returning an official average of nearly 60 mpg and over 70 mpg respectively. What's more, the Polo - now the world's most fuel-efficient mainstream car - embarrasses Japanese petrol-electric hybrids by making them look comparatively thirsty, filthy and expensive. All the while that proven diesel experts such as Audi, VW, Skoda, SEAT, BMW, Mercedes, Peugeot, Citroen, Land Rover and Nissan continue to produce some of the finest diesel cars in the world, motorists will buy them. At least they will if they've got any sense...

Really, they're so damn good that I wouldn't care if I never drove a petrol-powered hatchback, saloon, estate, MPV or 4x4 ever again. The rise and rise of the diesel must continue - because they are the cheapest vehicles to run and among the least polluting. And that brings me on to another bugbear - so-called global warming.

Give or take, spring runs from 1 March to 31 May. Which means summer is only days away, right? Yet as I write this on a laptop in my garden during the afternoon I'm wearing a roll neck fleece and thick jacket, and I'm still shivering. There's such a nip in the air that my cuppa has gone from steaming hot to stone cold in a few minutes. Inside, the central heating is on. Just as well because the official warning is that temperatures in parts of Britain will drop to as low as one degree centigrade this late-spring night. So be my guest, jump on the green bandwagon and fall for the environmental industry's line that we're self-destructing, melting away, burning up and committing suicide courtesy of global warming caused by car exhaust emissions.

Alternatively, look at the facts and remind yourself that on several days leading up to the start of summer '07, parts of Britain felt autumn, if not winter, like. And the thermometers proved it. We need to know more about this phenomenon that I call global cooling. But we probably won't as it's not such a headline grabber...

Mike Rutherford writes for the Times, Daily Telegraph and Independent, presents ITV's Pulling Power and is founder member of the Motorists' Association

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