Diesel vs Petrol

shona_2

Lots of interesting stuff on her... I wonder if anyone could give me some advice.

I used to have a Honda CRV 2.0 SE 2002. I traded it in after a while as we were doing a high mileage in it and getting about 30 mpg and constantly in the garage as the tank isn't too big.

I bought an Audi A4 Avant tdi 130 bhp 2002, which everyone thinks is a briliant car, but mine seems like a bit of a lemon, and needs about £1500 repairs - climate control, rusty stone chips, you name it.

Meanwhile my mileage has gone down to about 15,000 per year, and I am tempted to get another CRV.

My dilemma is....

Jan 04 petrol Executive model (ie leather, nice level of trim) at £9995 (or sport at £8995)
or
2005 cdti (diesel) model, Sport (medium) trim level at £13500

I'm getting about £8k with a bit of haggling for the Audi.

I am tempted to 'save' cash by getting a petrol one - as the difference would buy a lot of petrol - ie several years motoring's worth of petrol before I use up the difference in cost.

My reckoning suggests that 2 years fuel in the petrol one would cost £4041, or £2786 in the diesel, and realistically I would want to change it around then anyway.

Do you think I am getting this right?

Which one would you get???

nrishiraj

I'm thinkin of getting a mazda 3 1.6, just deciding whether to get a diesel or petrol, my average annual mileage is around 6,000.

Is it not worth getting a deisel and just stick to a petrol car?

shona_2

Sounds like too low a mileage to make it worthwhile... unless you have a real bargain of it (ie similar price to a petrol) it's probably not worth paying extra for the car (and a little extra for diesel fuel over petrol) for that sort of mileage...
Shona

walkritenow

There are ways of making your own Bio diesel from vegetable oil, that you can research, these seem to almost ammount to setting up your own refinery and then they recommend modifying the fuel pump and installing in line or fuel tank heaters etc.
But the easiest way is to get a bog standard older diesel (not common rail type). Get a load of the cheapest vegetable oil you can find - e.g. catering supplies, typically less than £1 a gallon. Put it straight in the tank when it is half full of diesel for a 50/50 mix. Mine runs fine - I have tried it at 80% with no problems. I have even used filtered oil from the chippy. It tends to leave a smell of fried food everywhere I go but so what.

gigglewiggle

Does anyone know on a like-for-like car at what point does Diesel become less cost effective? What does the price per litre difference have to be?

thescouselander

IvanOpinion wrote: »

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

On the other hand, since a diesel engine redlines at such a low RPM I always find I'm rattling round the gearbox to stay within the narrow RPM range available.

The idea that diesel engines reduce the need to change gear is flawed - personally I find I have to change gear more in a diesel car.

IvanOpinion

thescouselander wrote: »

On the other hand, since a diesel engine redlines at such a low RPM I always find I'm rattling round the gearbox to stay within the narrow RPM range available.

The idea that diesel engines reduce the need to change gear is flawed - personally I find I have to change gear more in a diesel car.

That surprises me ... I am now on my 4th diesel and the one thing I have always liked is that I find them more relaxing to drive .. simply because I do not have to change gear so often. The one exception may have been the Rover which suffered terrible turbo lag low down in the revs (although this can be alleviated a bit by disconnecting something on the air intake).

What diesel are you thinking about?

Ivan

AdrianHi

gigglewiggle wrote: »

Does anyone know on a like-for-like car at what point does Diesel become less cost effective? What does the price per litre difference have to be?

The answer is, somewhere between diesel costing somewhere between 20% and 35% more depending on which cars you are comparing and a load of other variables including what your personal financial circumstances are - for example - if a diesel requires you to tie up an extra £1000 of your cash in a car, what does that cost you? 6% mortgage interest rate because it is another £1000 not paying off your mortgage or 3% saving rate. That would be at todays fuel prices, if diesel gets more expensive relative to petrol, possibly during the time you have a particular car, the % could change. You need a crystal ball to be 100% certain. Can only do the calculation using todays prices.
If you can tell me what cars you are considering we can try and work it out to a reasonable degree of certainty if you like.

thescouselander

IvanOpinion wrote: »

That surprises me ... I am now on my 4th diesel and the one thing I have always liked is that I find them more relaxing to drive .. simply because I do not have to change gear so often. The one exception may have been the Rover which suffered terrible turbo lag low down in the revs (although this can be alleviated a bit by disconnecting something on the air intake).

What diesel are you thinking about?

Ivan

I drive a lot of different cars due to work but mostly my experiance is with Ford TDCI diesels (Focuses and Mondeos). Usually the Turbo doesn't get going until over 2000 RPM and then you have to change around 4000 RPM because the power starts dropping off again - lots of gear changes required on country roads!

Having said that the equivelant petrol variants are total bobbins so if you compare the two diesel would win - unfortunately a lot of modern petrol engines dont seem to have any torque. My own car is petrol driven and has masses of torque so pulls effortlessly in any gear and has a large rev range to play with compared with a diesel.

The best Diesel I have driven was a VW Jetta with an automatic box - seemed to be a good combination.

AdrianHi

thescouselander wrote: »

I drive a lot of different cars due to work but mostly my experiance is with Ford TDCI diesels (Focuses and Mondeos). Usually the Turbo doesn't get going until over 2000 RPM and then you have to change around 4000 RPM because the power starts dropping off again - lots of gear changes required on country roads!

Having said that the equivelant petrol variants are total bobbins so if you compare the two diesel would win - unfortunately a lot of modern petrol engines dont seem to have any torque. My own car is petrol driven and has masses of torque so pulls effortlessly in any gear and has a large rev range to play with compared with a diesel.

The best Diesel I have driven was a VW Jetta with an automatic box - seemed to be a good combination.

I'm in my first diesel and have come to the conclusion the best way to do diesel is with a good combination of auto box and a diesel engine with some decent pull available from 1500rpm.
The now rather old VW 2.5 TDI engine is pretty hopeless as an auto, nothing then it suddenly lets rip on acceleration.
They give you a diesel with a narrow 1500/1800 to 4200 useful rev range... and then give you a 6 speed manual gearbox too. Hard work at times especially as you need 55mph+ to hold 6th and you cannot always maintain that speed on A roads.