We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Diesel vs Petrol
Options
Comments
-
Yes, the newer the car the more likely it is to be a problem.
If he's only done 9k then even if he has been abusing it with little short trips, it's not going to be clogged up... yet.
If some other poor sod buys that car and continues to use it for short trips, they're the ones going to be shelling out Mercedes prices for a new DPF. You say you only do 7k so, unless that includes a small number of big motorway trips done regularly, I would advise you to avoid a diesel in any case, and especially that one!
thanks, the person i know is doing low mileage in general, just more motorway driving than i'd be doing.
every 3 months or so we should be doing a round trip of about 800 miles (half of it motorway), that wouldn't be sufficiently regular enough to regenerate the DPF?
i wasn't expecting the info that this would be worse the newer the car would be, shouldn't things be improving the more modern the engine?0 -
Unfortunately, the newer the engine the more emissions legislation it has to comply with and so the more fancy stuff it has fitted in order to do so. Long gone are the days of diesel engines being simple, reliable, bulletproof lumps of iron.
As for whether that journey would be enough to regenerate the DPF. Not sure, probably best to ask a Mercedes engineer. Maybe go to a dealership, speak to the service department and ask for quotes for a service on both diesel and petrol versions so they think you're a prospective customer, then slip the question in at an appropriate time.0 -
If you can find a well maintained mid 90s diesel with a low mileage, Id buy it and keep it for 40 years
The old fave was the 205 diesel - my mate had one with about 400k on the clock still running fine0 -
Unfortunately, the newer the engine the more emissions legislation it has to comply with and so the more fancy stuff it has fitted in order to do so. Long gone are the days of diesel engines being simple, reliable, bulletproof lumps of iron.
Ah, makes a lot of sense, thanks.
we've purchased a new works van recently so i know a little about the euro 5 compliance on emissions (which actually worked in our favour as dealers were getting rid of older stock towards the end of 2011 & it meant that a new van was only a little bit more than something up to a year old, so great timing for us!), but when i was speaking to the mercedes sales guy last week he mentioned about this new directive that comes in in about 8 years (i think). there are small changes inbetween now & then but the biggest change will be in 2020. manufacturers have got to average a certain low level of emissions across their range so that's why you've got the likes of aston martin doing a diddy little efficiency car, to bring their average down.
the mercedes model i'm looking at only came out 2 years ago but has had least 1, possibly 2, revisions to it already & emissions/mpg have improved on the latest models. seems good on the surface, but it's obviously causing a few issues.As for whether that journey would be enough to regenerate the DPF. Not sure, probably best to ask a Mercedes engineer. Maybe go to a dealership, speak to the service department and ask for quotes for a service on both diesel and petrol versions so they think you're a prospective customer, then slip the question in at an appropriate time.
great idea :T, thanks
this AA article (29.11.11) was linked to on another forum & it makes interesting reading.
so glad i spent some time looking into this as i had no idea of any of these possible problems, all i knew was that a diesel usually costs more & is your mileage worth it to cover the cost etc. i really don't want to have to think about 'have i driven for long enough at the right rev's this week' !
i'm not ruling a diesel out completely at the moment, but it's looking less likely.
many thanks for the info(sorry for rambling on a bit
)
0 -
cybermatuk wrote: »If you can find a well maintained mid 90s diesel with a low mileage, Id buy it and keep it for 40 years
The old fave was the 205 diesel - my mate had one with about 400k on the clock still running fine. 200k miles on free old vegetable oil, hate to think how much that would have cost me in diesel.
With the old diesel engines it tends to be the rust that kills the car rather than the engine. Luckily with the amount of miles I do some dozy sod normally rear ends me at least once a year, rustiest part of the car acts as a nice crumple zone and gets repaired on insurance... happy days.
0 -
Golf Diesel is another winner - I could get one of those tomorrow and be driving it when I retire in 35 years.
Certain cars just last forever apart from the obvious fight against rust, but heck if Moggie Minors are still on the roads (saw one this morning) then there is hope for us yet as they stopped doing them in 1970.0 -
so.... is it still more cost effective to buy a diesel car than a petrol car considering the price difference at the pump?
At what point does it become not cost effective? (as in if the price of diesel is XX p more per litre than petrol)0 -
dewitts - it's not as simple as cost of diesel per litre vs cost of petrol per litre. Firstly, you have to buy a car, what's the cost difference petrol vs diesel there? Then you have to factor in your mileage and driving pattern. As a general rule, and I'm being conservative, under 10k miles per year is unsuitable for diesels, and so is lots of short (under 10 miles) journeys. This is bad for catalytic converters (petrol and most diesels I think) and also bad for Diesel Particulate Filters in diesels - these things collect the soot you used to see coming out of diesels, then, like a cat, when they're warm enough, burn it off at a really high temperature. If you do only short journeys, they'll never get warm enough, and could clog.0
-
I'm looking at getting a 2nd hand VW Passat Estate and the price difference seems marginal (around £100) so I've ruled that out.
Most of my mileage is taking my daughter to her mothers 2 or 3 times a week around 14 miles away across country lanes.
I probably only do around 8000 miles a year.
I manage to get 38.7 mpg out of my 99 BMW 523i SE Petrol (manual says 31 mpg extra urban) so I think i'm doing pretty good!
I drive to wales at least 5 or 6 times a year (500+ miles round trip) so ulitimately to me it does come down to whether it's more cost effective based on the price at the pump.0 -
In the case of that specific car, if you've some special reason to buy it (or to change at all!), you'll probably struggle to find many petrols anyway, so I'm not sure whether you'll get a choice! 8,000 miles a year would mean that you'd take a long time to get your money back from any extra purchase/insurance/ fuel price cost. I'd rather stuck with the Beemer - you're getting very good MPG out of it!0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 351K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.9K Life & Family
- 257.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards