Edinburgh LEZ

Your vehicle is judged by its Euro standard, meaning the pollution limit it was built to. Petrol cars and vans must meet Euro 4, which most petrol cars first registered from 2006 do, and many from 2001 as well. Diesel cars and vans must meet Euro 6, which most diesel cars put on the road from September 2015 onwards do. That makes an older diesel the most likely vehicle to be caught.

Electric cars always pass, and motorbikes are not covered by the scheme entirely. Hybrids are judged by their engine, so a petrol hybrid passes under the petrol rules, and a diesel hybrid must meet Euro 6 like any diesel. Lorries and buses work under the same penalty-only arrangement, with larger amounts for repeat entries, according to the City of Edinburgh Council.

A fast answer comes from the date the vehicle was first registered, meaning the day it first went on the road. For a diesel car, most years give a clear result, though 2015 is a changeover year where some vehicles pass and others fail. For a petrol car, the changeover years are 2001 to 2005, and from 2006 on it normally passes.

If your car comes from a changeover year, check the logbook, the V5C document supplied with the car. On newer vehicles, section D.2 of the V5C sometimes lists the Euro standard. For a definite answer, the Scottish government's own checker on mygov.scot pulls up your vehicle's record, so it's worth a look there before setting off.

The zone takes in the city centre, ringed by Tollcross and a series of well-known streets: Palmerston Place, Queen Street, Picardy Place, Abbeyhill, Holyrood Road and the Pleasance. The whole area inside that ring is enforced all day and all night, Christmas Day included, since Scottish zones never pause.

If your route only brushes the centre, it's worth studying the council's zone map at street level, because the moment a failing vehicle crosses the boundary the penalty applies. There's no grace period, and no option to pay afterwards and have it cancelled.

The starting penalty is £60, dropping to £30 if you settle it inside a fortnight. Every repeat entry by the same vehicle into the same zone inside a 90-day window doubles the next penalty, capped at £480 for cars and small vans, and £960 for buses and heavy lorries, per mygov.scot.

Five centre trips in three months with a failing diesel would come to £1380 at full price, which is why sorting out your answer before that first trip beats finding out afterwards.

Without the logbook, your plate gives a clue to the age. From September 2001 onwards, the pair of digits after the first two letters gives the year. A March plate takes the year itself, so 26 stands for March 2026; plates issued in September shift the number up by 50, which is why 76 points to September 2026, as set out in the DVLA's plate guide. If your diesel wears a 15 plate, it was registered in March 2015, before Euro 6 was required for every new car from September 2015, which puts it in the uncertain category.