Ford Focus C-Max - Petrol or Diesel

opus_pen

Hi,

We will soon be returning to the UK after a 3 year absence in Brunei (where petrol is 18p a litre!) and will need to buy a car more or less straight away. We have settled on a second hand Ford Focus C-max as our car of choice, but we cannot decide whether to go for a petrol or diesel version. Obviously the diesel version offers better MPG, is better for the environment and will be cheaper for road tax, however, they are generally more expensive to buy and maintain. We will mainly be using the car for a short daily commute and trips to the shops (now don't get me started on the price of food!!), as well as the occasional long distance visit to family and friends. With the significant difference in the cost of diesel and petrol, is it false economy to buy the diesel version considering our driving profile? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Hintza

Depends on how many miles you will do.

But in the UK the price of diesel is also a fair bit more expensive than petrol currently. The debate is whether this price differential will increase in the future (it has been recently).

Adrian will come along later but these days I think it comes down to personal choice and a quick run through a spread sheet. No clear cut winner anymore.

You might find this website useful:-

http://www.petrolprices.com/

AdrianHi

Hintza wrote: »

Adrian will come along later but these days I think it comes down to personal choice and a quick run through a spread sheet.

You know me too well :rotfl:

Ran some figures on my spreadsheet recently for a brand new Ford Mondeo and 10,000 miles a year was the break even point between petrol and diesel on an otherwise identical car. Increase the mileage to 15,000 and it swings in favour of the diesel by only £15 a month which on a circa £600 a month all in costs car for the first 36 months of it's life is peanuts. I'd say pick the engine you prefer driving in this case.

Your driving profile says petrol, diesels need moderate load, constant rpm - in other words motorway / open road driving, to get the best from them. Driven around town all the time you have a much higher risk of problems with a diesel compared to petrol as modern diesels are so complex and really need correct operating temperature to stay reliable long term. On a short trip (under 6-10 miles) they never get to warm up properly.
In the used market diesels hold there value much better than they should. When a car retains say 30% of it's value in 5 years you find that the diesel "option" (i.e. difference between diesel and petrol versions when new) has retained 70% of it's value, it's just not sane.
So I'd say buy a good example of a petrol version and if you keep it long enough you won't have to worry about resale and you can be more confident of avoiding a £2000 repair bill which is the sort of bill a badly used diesel can throw at you when 5+ years (or less) old.
Cost of fuelling a diesel is still lower but not by enough in many cases and sales of diesel cars vs. petrol's is forecast to increase further next year which means diesel prices will rise faster than petrol.
petrolprices.com for period 1st Jan to 21st May 2008 reported 10% rise in unleaded and 17% rise in diesel price.

JonathanA

Hi

We've owned a CMAX from new for the last 4 and a half years. They are excellent cars and we would have no hesitation in recommending one. BUT: early cars (2003/04) had quite a few niggles with electrical issues and diesels certainly had early problems, so go for as new a version as you can and make sure it has had all software updates etc etc before you buy. We have the 2.0TDCi which is an excellent car. Round town driving returns approx 38mpg and longer runs push that up to approx 48mpg. We don't particularly have an economical driving style (but we're not boy racers either) so you could better those figures I suspect. Friends have the 1.8 petrol which does about 27mpg round town.

There are loads of CMAX out there secondhand, so you can afford to be choosy about which one you purchase and prices are pretty reasonable. (We wouldn't buy another new one given the level of depreciation on them).

Would we buy another? Even with the electrical gremlins we had when the car was new, the answer is a definite yes, it is one of the best driving cars we've had (and there have been a lot!) Ordinarily, we changed our cars every 2 years - it is a bit of a hobby for me to be honest and I get bored of cars quite quicky. This is the longest we have owned a car and have no immediate plans to change it, it is that good.

jeannieblue

Agree with Jonathan A - get a later model - say 55 reg onwards and you should be ok. Petrol/diesel - both expensive to buy - I'd stay where you are if i were you. Not nice in the UK these days. Too many 'can'ts'. New rules in the papers each day advising what you can and can't do. Ice cream vans can't play their tunes - noise pollution....

But if you have to come back, can't really see a benefit for either petrol or diesel - get the one that suits your pocket. And the environment will continue to change as it has done for billions of years. Blame the cows for anything different.. not the V12 that you are driving :rotfl: :rotfl:

greenman7

But if you have to come back, can't really see a benefit for either petrol or diesel - get the one that suits your pocket

There is an interesting article about the Ford Galaxy here:
http://www.cleangreencars.co.uk/jsp/cgcmain.jsp?lnk=401&featureid=816&pageid=-1
As an example of Ford Product sustainability it states: For a Galaxy 2.0 petrol, a typical lifetime (12 years and 95,000 miles) would emit 35 tonnes of CO2, while 9 tonnes of CO2 would be emitted during the manufacturing phase. For the diesel version, the corresponding figures would be 30.5 tonnes during usage and 10 tonnes during manufacture, due to the fact that a diesel engine is more complex to make. While the figure for the petrol engine is in line with the industry rule-of-thumb that 15% - 20% of total pollution comes from the manufacturing phase, the figure of almost 25% for the diesel version seemed surprising.
So during the lifetime of the vehicle a diesel version would emit 4.5 tonnes less CO2 - so there is some difference. Not sure how much this would apply to the Focus C-max but it seems Ford are looking at the Product Sustainability index of all new vehicles.

opus_pen

Thanks for all the advice so far. Budget wise, we were looking at getting a '54' or '05' plate with about 20,000 - 30,000 miles on the clock. Are these earlier models really that bad? We can stretch our budget if we need to, but have lots of other things that we could spend the money on. Thanks once again.

JonathanA

To be honest, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The 2.0TDCI seemed to have quite a few issues, including the Diesel Particulate Filter I seem to recall. I don't know of many problems with the petrol engined cars. The early cars (53/04/some 54) did have problems that software updates cured. Having said that, our 04 reg 2.0TDCi, once the software updates had been done, has run like a dream (probably just jinxed it now!!) and has been the best car we've ever owned. We'd have another one without any hesitation. There are forums you can look at - focusowners - that give more detail on problems. Like any car, try and find one that has been well looked after and I guess the more basic they are, the less there is to go wrong. Unfortunately, I like cars with lots of toys, which means potentially more gremlins. The Ghia has an electronic parking brake, which can wear the rear brake pads more than ones without the electronic brake.

As with any used car, there is an element of gamble, but be assured it is a fabulous car to drive and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

AdrianHi

I'd go with a late '55 or '06 plate so that you have 6 to 12 months warranty on the car.
In the long run it will not cost you significantly more despite needing more cash to purchase as depreciation is not much different per month between a '06 plate and an '05 plate (or even as young as a '57 plate for that matter, the big hit is in year 1).