Exhausting Arguments An investigation by Debbie Thrower
Considering a new car?
You will soon have to pay a lot more for it.
Stringent new pollution laws framed in Europe mean that from 1992 every new small car must have an expensive extra to combat exhaust fumes: a three-way catalytic converter.
Until recently, Britain favoured a cheaper approach - the lean-burn engine, designed to use less fuel and to pump out fewer noxious gases.
Then, a few weeks ago, the British government did a U-turn that will cost motorists an extra
El,000 million a year.
Debbie takes the wheel of a range of glossy cars to find out what went wrong and to ask:
Is this the most cost-effective way to clean up the environment?
Film editor KEITH RAVEN Executive producer DAVID PATERSON Series producer
KATHARINE EVERETT
Producer LAURIE JOHN