Diesel vs Petrol 20 March 2004 at 4:47PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Motoring 336 replies 241.5K views

antonio_3

I've been driving diesels for the past ten years now and despite the slightly extra noise, would be very reluctant to go back to petrol, especially as I've now perfected the refinement process of recycling my old chip pan oil. Gordon eat your heart out!
Antonio.

Tony_H_3

My original posting has been questioned, I will say this:

I have not included anything other than fuel expenses eg the old 1.8 auto was costing £55.00 - £60.00 per week where as the diesel is a more stable £20.00.

As for running costs, I have just replaced the clutch (What's one of those!!) at a cost of £325.00 ...o0(ouch!!) & cambelt £107.00, but servicing cost's are about equal, certainly not substantially more than I was paying. I think the important thing to consider that most of my driving is done locally and I very rarely get onto faster roads.

scchin

has anyone tried the electric car? only does a max of 40 miles/hr but only costs 1p/mile! or so they claim. anyone had any experiences? we are thinking of getting one!

andy88_2

aNtoNio wrote:

I've been driving diesels for the past ten years now and despite the slightly extra noise, would be very reluctant to go back to petrol, especially as I've now perfected the refinement process of recycling my old chip pan oil. Gordon eat your heart out!
Antonio.

You still have to pay duty on home-made biodiesel at about 28 or 30p per litre, 20p less than normal diesel. But still, it's costing you about half-price.

moneymonkey_3

peterbaker wrote:

Where are you Andy? Sounds like you probably have some of the cheapest diesel around. I just drove from London to Norwich and back looking for the cheapest. I didn't buy any. The Unleaded/Diesel comparisons I spotted were: Asda East London 81.9/86.9, Tesco East London 81.9/85.9, Sainsburys East London 81.9/86.9, BP A14 Newmarket 87.9/90.9, Sainsburys Thetford 84.9/87.9, Texaco Thetford 85.9/88.9(northbound AND southbound same price today!), Sainsburys Norwich 81.9/85.9.

I can report these figures about once every two weeks. Does anyone else fancy reporting some figures regularly? Maybe we can start a cartel-busting thread!

We are witnessing a rip-off right now on two counts:
1. Holding the overall average petrol and diesel prices artificially high whilst there is still uncertainty in peoples' minds about what happened in the budget that may have affected the prices (does anyone know?), and
2. Holding a major differential between petrol and diesel for long enough for it possibly to stick so that the oil companies can capitalise on the huge turn to use of diesel in private cars which has no doubt has begun to reduce the overall volumes they sell per motorist.

I think what we are seeing is cartel behaviour and I completely fail to understand why it is tolerated.

Maybe if you make something expensive then people will use less of it? If petrol was really cheap like in the US then we'd still be driving huge great gas guzzling monsters like they do.

People are now turning to diesel to use less fuel, as the price continues to rise (and it will) we'll start to look further and there will be genuine momentum to find a new power source for cars.

So maybe it's a good thing in the long term?

breeze_2

There really is no debate. It is not Petrol vs Diesel, do yourselves a favour and buy LPG. I pay on average 38p a litre and get 40mpg on a journey. You people can do the maths. Some morrisons stores sell as low as 29p a litre (Bristol) and give 2p off a litre in store vouchers!! Beat that! :j

Tony_H_3

Everytime I have enquired about LPG I am told that it's 45% less effecient than petrol regards MPG. So I jump to the conclusion that the overall saving is only in the region of 5-10% and that before you've paid for the conversion. Have I been mis-informed?

andy88_2

tony_H wrote:

Everytime I have enquired about LPG I am told that it's 45% less effecient than petrol regards MPG. So I jump to the conclusion that the overall saving is only in the region of 5-10% and that before you've paid for the conversion. Have I been mis-informed?

Tony I think it is more efficient in cost not mpg than petrol. The cost comparison to diesel is more marginal, and I suspect that is the 5% you are remembering.

Also, gas conversions in this country are ludicrously overpriced, buoyed in most cases by misguided subsidies. A typical cost is £1600 I believe, which buys about £250 or £300 of hardware and a few hours work. Anyone thinking about this sort of job would do well to plan it into a trip abroad. A friend nearly had the old Audi converted in Lithuania; it would have been typically about £250, but there were technical complications for that particular model. I believe the price in Netherlands or Belgium might be £500 to £600, but I'm not up to date.

MarkyMarkD

LPG is only better value because of tax subsidies. All the data I've seen suggests that LPG vehicles have slightly worse performance and slightly worse MPG than the equivalent petrol fuelled car.

You also lose some space in your boot typically by having an LPG conversion - so an LPG car and a petrol/diesel equivalent are not strictly equivalent for several reasons.

Micky342

N9eav wrote:

One thing to consider.. Diesel cars need servicing every 5-6000 miles where petrol can be 10-12000. Petrol is 28p a gallon cheaper than diesel in some garages. Saying that The extra MPG with a diesel seems worth the effort.

Sorry to disagree. My Golf TDI 150 diesel was first serviced at 15000 miles. Modern oils increase service intervals. Next service came after a further 9000 miles.