Diesel vs Petrol

Murphy_The_Cat

I've not owned a petrol powered car for 7 years and not missed it for a minute.

MTC

CMcc_4

Alot of people like diesels, not only because they provide (be it what ever way, tax or fuel) a saving of some sort, but due to the torque they produce it 'feels' like you are going fast.

One thing that makes me laugh though is when you get someone in a 2 litre turbo diesel arguing that their car is quicker than say... a BMW 325i because 'its a turbo' and because of how the torque makes you feel inside the car

It all boils down to individual preference. Those who do more than 30,000 miles a year will no doubt see some kind of significant saving due to the sheer amount of money their putting away into their fuel tank, petrol or diesel.

Those doing 12,000 or less though, the gains will be much smaller.

Me, i prefer petrol cars even though i have a small saxo diesel run about at the moment, i will be buying another german petrol car soon :>

Murphy_The_Cat

CMcc wrote:

It all boils down to individual preference. Those who do more than 30,000 miles a year will no doubt see some kind of significant saving due to the sheer amount of money their putting away into their fuel tank, petrol or diesel.

Those doing 12,000 or less though, the gains will be much smaller.

just a small (but important) point. If you do your research before buying and find a manufacturer who sells his diesel cars for the same price (or very similar) to a petrol car, you are likely to gain 3 times over.

Much better consumption.
Cheaper servicing.
Much better trade in value.

Of the 3, the last one would/could be the biggest winner of all.

MTC

Murphy_The_Cat

CMcc wrote:

It all boils down to individual preference. Those who do more than 30,000 miles a year will no doubt see some kind of significant saving due to the sheer amount of money their putting away into their fuel tank, petrol or diesel.

Those doing 12,000 or less though, the gains will be much smaller.

just a small (but important) point. If you do your research before buying and find a manufacturer who sells his diesel cars for the same price (or very similar) to a petrol car, you are likely to gain 3 times over.

Much better consumption.
Cheaper servicing.
Much better trade in value.

Of the 3, the last one would/could be the biggest winner of all.

MTC

AMO

I went for a diesel this time around and I have no regrets (Citroen C4 2.0L Coupe).

I paid an extra £2K for the diesel version and worked out that you need to make around £2Ks worth of savings to offset the cost of a diesel. This will depend on the make and model you buy I guess.

Certainly I think that the diesel is worth it.

Most people have mentioned:
1) Cost if you do high mileage.
2) Servicing (I do 20K miles or more per year. Many petrols have a 10K-14K servicing interval, my diesel has a 20K interval meaning I only have to go about once per year).
3) Higher resell value. I agree with this to an extent. This can be argued with point 2). Diesels do not rev as high as petrols and therefore have lasted longer than their petrol counterparts. Therefore this forms part of the reason why diesels maintain their value. The other reason is supply and demand. Relatively few diesels are available for the second hand market, primarily because diesel owners take longer before selling their car on as they have to make the initial investment back but also because they know the car will last longer. But if this changes in the future, e.g. company cars being released such that more diesels are available, the additional value that diesels bring might change in the future.

But one big reason why I went for a diesel is that with a petrol I have to fillup at the petrol station on average once every 4 working days. With a diesel, that goes up to once every 6 working days. For some reason, I hate filling up - its just too much hassle.

But also, there's the cost efficiency of the fuel when using other facilities in the car such as incar demisting and air conditioning. You get better value through diesels.

One thing to look out for for the next 20 years as tax gradually moves from petrol and car tax to distance-based taxing where the benefits are not so great.

Someone also mentioned duel-fuel with LPG. This is all very good so long as you can fill up in enough places. The other thing is the extra weight and the space used by the second tank making the cost of the journey more than you think.

Other countries seem to be going towards what Brazil used to use - sugar-case alcohol:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4581955.stm

But supposedly thats not feasible in the U.K.

Anyway, I think that a diesel is well worth the investment, especially if you are buying a top of the range new car!

AMO

IvanOpinion

Maybe already mentioned but to add another reason to Mutphys list
4) driving experience

Since a od diesel engine has so much torque there is none of this rattling aorund the gear box looking for a suitable gear like you have in a petrol engine. I drive a lowly 1500cc 95HP diesel engine that is a dream on the motorways ... up into 5th and it doesn't matter if you are doing 45 or 70mph you only need to squeeze the throttle and off she goes ... similarly in town there is no need to play with the gearbox in traffic.

Ivan

tomstickland

Personally I prefer to work the gearbox and rev the engine and prefer petrol for its ability to rev. I'd consider a diesel enging; I don't have any particular problem with them.

Regarding servicing costs, I do all my own so don't care what garages bother to charge. There's very little servicing to do to a basic petrol engine; oil and filter changes and new plugs every now and then.

stefingos

Of course you can have the best of both worlds a BMW 330d - buckets of torque, 43mpg, a great driving experience and with the straight six engine it hardly sounds like a diesel!

With all the other benefits mentioned above this has to be one of the best all-round cars on the road!

tomstickland

Even the 320D is pretty good.
The torque thing is overemphasised though. Whilst it makes for a flexible driving experience, it's the power spread that governs the acceleration performance of a car. Power to weight alone is a very good predictor of acceleration times, regardless of whether the engine make 300lb-ft or 20 lb-ft.

Murphy_The_Cat

stefingos wrote:

Of course you can have the best of both worlds a BMW 330d - buckets of torque, 43mpg, a great driving experience and with the straight six engine it hardly sounds like a diesel!

With all the other benefits mentioned above this has to be one of the best all-round cars on the road!

Horses for course and all that, but thats an awful lot of money for a (IMO) small car.

MTC