Petrol vs Diesel - advice please!

sarah1980

We're in the market for a family car to transport DD and all her kit about (buggy, travel cot etc.). Have around £3k to spend and looking at the Ford Mondeo estate. I can get a 2001 petrol model with around 55k on the clock or a diesel with 83k on the clock (also 2001 model).

What should I go for? In the long term is the diesel worth the extra outlay?

Any advice would be gratefully received (or if you can think of a better car for the same price with the same boot space please say so!).

Thank you :beer:

hewhoisnotintheknow

how many miles do you do, you usually have to do a lot to really need a diesel

diesels always cost a lot more than petrol, so you ha ve to work out how long you would need to keep it to make your money back

also when a diesel breaks it usually costs more than a petrol

sarah1980

Thanks for the quick answer. Day-to-day I don't do a lot of miles, but we have family in Bristol and Manchester (we live in Sussex) so we travel to both those places on average around 5-7 times a year (total, not each). I'd say we do in total around 15k per year.

OscarCharliEE

Diesel in general, but overall LPG is even more cost effective. Mind you it really depends on how long you want to keep the car and how many miles you forsee your self doing.
15000 miles since 1 bought my LPG Astra Estate and I worked it out that I saved myself £2000 against a petrol equivalent and £800 against diesel.

Hintza

On that budget and age I would say petrol. Much more to go wrong on modern diesels, which could outweigh any fuel savings.

bclark

The general rule of thumb is that if you do 12k miles or more per year then you should go for Diesel. Having said that it depends on the sort of journeys you make, lots of small journeys produce really poor fuel consumption in a Diesel.

Stephen_Leak

I am having to make the same choice, with my new (well, new to me) car. I currently have a 11-year-old Mondeo, which is beginning to finally show signs of its age. I need to downsize to a smaller one, an am increasingly being drawn towards one with a small turbo-diesel.

Fortunately, where I live in Bristol, the price differential between diesel and petrol is currently just a few pence per litre.

My old car still returns, on average 40mpg, actually more than the Parkers' mpg figure of 35mpg. I therefore have to no reason to doubt the Parkers' mpg figure for any new car. A small turbo-diesel should return 64mpg.

The killer is the car tax. My Mondeo costs me £190 this year and will cost me £205 from April next year. A sub-120g/Km of CO2 Band C diesel is £35 this year, £30 next.

Obviously, insurance on a newer smaller car should be less than my current Group 9.

I understand that a diesel engine may cost more to fix, if it goes wrong. The operative word is "if".

Even though I may not do over 15K miles per year, I still see a diesel as the overall more economical option.

My trip to work is only 8.9 miles, but it can take me up to an hour, nose to tail around the A4175 Ring Road car park.

The probablity is that, in the expectation of lower fuel costs per mile, I will more readily undertake longer journeys and end up spending the same or even more. I'm doing the same with my new cheaper mobile phone tariff.

angeltreats

The service intervals might be shorter for the diesel (not sure though so check). Not an issue if you're able to do it yourself though of course.

Rolandtheroadie

Penny a litre difference around here. Is a diesel not better for the small jumps around town? The difference being less for motorway/distance driving?

angeltreats

Also have you ever actually driven a diesel car before? I personally don't really like them as I find them a bit sluggish and don't think I'd want to own one (although I passed my test in a diesel and reckon it's easier to learn in one) but it's really matter of personal taste. My best friend refuses to even consider buying a petrol car.

If you're doing 15k miles a year, you'd want to make sure you actually like driving the car

vikingaero

You're borderline for a diesel. I would argue that the closer to 20,000 miles per annum is more realistic break even point for a diesel especially when you factor in dodgy dual mass flywheels on Mondeo diesels which can cost about £1k to fix.

I find diesels more relaxing to drive and they pull better when fully laden - sometimes it's worth buying a diesel on that basis alone.