method wrote:So initially it would probably make problems worse with more people hanging on to old inefficent cars.
This may be dredging up an old thread, but this reply has been sitting in my head being mulled over for a while.
Method, you are right, in that initially it will make problems worse, people will keep cars longer.
But, as life goes on, older cars become more troublesome to maintain, and people will have to either upgrade to a newer car, or move to using public transport.
I don't think that there will be much upward change in the price of new cars. The demand will be higher yes, but there will also be a larger supply of them.
New car prices may actually have to come down to meet the changing market, as there will be greater demand for features that the newer imports will have, and that most entry level new cars don't(at this stage).
I'm not saying that this is the best change to make, far from it, but I understand where they are coming from with it.
The "Boy Racers"
Now this is where I see the biggest change.
This group of people I think will end up having to move towards the V8 crowd, simply because a Falcon or Commodore is dirt cheap for the power, and quite a bit of fun... and cheap/fast honda/Levin/Trueno/skyline/impreza/lancer/whatever wont be as readily available as they are today.
I don't think it is necessarily a "bad thing", but agree with the others that emmisions testing is probably a better way.