Petrol v Deisel over 15k miles

Lithian

Perfect car for this is a mk3 mondeo 2.0… petrol

A real world 40mpg should be do-able and you should be able to get a decent trim level for your budget (cos everyone wants diesels )

Really the diesel would be a candidate but unfortunately its a bit of a disaster, yes its reasonably refined, yes it'll get 50mpg but with the dual mass flywheel and injector issues is not cheap to run, especially if you don't have a mate who'll fit the parts in exchange for a crate of beer :beer:

lets say 40mpg petrol @£1.35/l will be about £2300/year to fuel. 50mpg diesel @1.40/l will be about £1900/year to fuel over 15000 miles, you save £400 but you are gambling that you don't have to replace DMF/turbo/injectors (£600-1000 each) which the petrol simply doesn't have to go wrong. Plus the hassle of having arrange fixing of course.

If you must go diesel then possibly the accord? Think they are meant to be fairly solid if looked after but I've not driven one, will be a bit tight getting the 2004-2008 model in budget as well

grizzly1911

I have driven all sorts and currently have two turbo diesels a 2.0 large family and a 1.3 small hatch.

A good reason for having a larger car on the motorway would be safety in the event of a high speed shunt.

The 1.3 diesel beats a standard 1.2/1.4 petrol basic hatch hands down on ease of driving(less gear changing, less revving), performance in day to day driving and to some degree economy 55/60mpg. It would easily do 50/60 miles per day but wouldn't be as relaxed as a big family saloon/hatch (and probably not much more economical) at motorway speeds.

I have had diesels since 96 and driven many petrol ones since as well. I wouldn't go back out of choice, unless I wanted something exotic. As for maintenance costs IME they have been the same or cheaper.

Another benefit of diesels is that the road tax is usually less for a given size.

jamesp31

I have a similar dilemma. I have a 55 plate 1.6 petrol focus, and am driving around 20,000 miles a year. It currently has 122000 miles on the clock. I am getting around 35mpg but seem to be spending a fortune on petrol each week. Would I be better off looking at getting a diesel? I would only have about 3k to spend and have seen a peugeot 307 55 plate hdi 1.6 diesel for sale. Is this a good buy?

Kilty_2

jamesp31 wrote: »

I have a similar dilemma. I have a 55 plate 1.6 petrol focus, and am driving around 20,000 miles a year. It currently has 122000 miles on the clock. I am getting around 35mpg but seem to be spending a fortune on petrol each week. Would I be better off looking at getting a diesel? I would only have about 3k to spend and have seen a peugeot 307 55 plate hdi 1.6 diesel for sale. Is this a good buy?

Diesel would have a benefit however I'd drive the Focus until it dies or needs serious work because spending £3000 + negligible value of Focus to save money isn't a good idea.

smitchy73

I used to have a Toyota Aygo, 1.1l petrol and it ate up 20k miles per annum for two and a half years. It was reasonably comfy and had loads of leg room, headroom, and the stereo(radio) was alright, I commute about 65 miles round trip from home to Glasgow Monday - Friday, then football in Glasgow every other Saturday/Sunday and whatever trips we decided to take. I used to get high 50mpg from that car.

I now drive a VW Golf Bluemotion 1.6tdi and I get 76mpg each day.

WobblyDog

I've got a 2011 petrol Fiesta 1.25, and my average fuel consumption so far is 50.6mpg. I do drive quite slowly, and most people seem to report worse fuel consumption.

I reckon 15000 miles a year is probably high enough to make a diesel cheaper overall.

I don't have any hard data on petrol vs. diesel maintenance costs, but my Haynes manual suggests that diesel Fiestas are more difficult to work on than petrol ones, because the engine bay is more crowded.

In my opinion, a Fiesta sized car is quite sufficient for doing high mileages.

jase1

jamesp31 wrote: »

I have a similar dilemma. I have a 55 plate 1.6 petrol focus, and am driving around 20,000 miles a year. It currently has 122000 miles on the clock. I am getting around 35mpg but seem to be spending a fortune on petrol each week. Would I be better off looking at getting a diesel? I would only have about 3k to spend and have seen a peugeot 307 55 plate hdi 1.6 diesel for sale. Is this a good buy?

You'll be spending a fortune on diesel in the Peugeot. Just a slightly smaller fortune. The savings you'll make are in the order of hundreds per year -- better off therefore to save thousands by not replacing the Focus.

By all means replace the Focus with the HDI when it expires.

grizzly1911

jase1 wrote: »

You'll be spending a fortune on diesel in the Peugeot. Just a slightly smaller fortune. The savings you'll make are in the order of hundreds per year -- better off therefore to save thousands by not replacing the Focus.

By all means replace the Focus with the HDI when it expires.

I agree to an extent on our 2.0 (H)TDi large family I reckon it is about £600 year difference over 18000.

I guess it just seems a lot when it is coming out of consumable money rather than capital payments/depreciation/repairs which are happening anyway (but increasing year on year) unless you have the ability/luck to skip from one old car to the next.

lindopski_2

My last two cars have been diesels and being fresh from Uni after a change of career I wasn’t able to afford much so they have both been bangers pretty much.
I had a Citroen Xantia which is probably the most comfortable and spacious car I have ever owned. Driving the Citroen was like driving on a bag of air floating around in space – it’s a dream of a motor car and I would have another one tomorrow.
Mine had been abused and the suspension was on its way out. A pal came up with a cat D Rover 420 Diesel for £350 on an S-plate (99) and I snapped it up.

The Rover is a proper shed but its also brilliant at the same time, its done probably 40k with me over around 3 years and has hardly given me an ounce of trouble – nothing mechanical has gone on it at all and it seems allergic to rust so far apart from two tiny holes I had welded on the front overhangers. The service interval has been sloppy and that’s being optimistic as its had one in 40k.
It takes £70 to fill the tank (50 litres I think) and it gives me 440 miles before the light goes on – and you’ll get another 40 easy before you have to worry.
You will snap one of these old bangers up for a few hundred and you can drive it into the ground and it will take it and give you some more, it’s a tough little sod make no mistake.
Other than that you can’t really go wrong with a VW golf Diesel, Ive seen them clocking up 500k and still running. I have also had my eyes on more expensive but far newer Citroen C2’s and C3’s – the diesel models of these things return something daft like 70 odd mpg

As for the tiny engined petrol cars, well they are not too bad either – difficult to get out of trouble in a hurry, same as a diesel really – but you do lose out in room stakes.
My 1.9 diesel Xantia whale probably gave you similar return to your 1.3 petrol fiesta but you could have a roller disco in it or just chuck a mattress in the back – youd fall asleep whilst the thing is driving around its that comfy.

Hammyman

Lithian wrote: »

Really the diesel would be a candidate but unfortunately its a bit of a disaster, yes its reasonably refined, yes it'll get 50mpg but with the dual mass flywheel and injector issues is not cheap to run, especially if you don't have a mate who'll fit the parts in exchange for a crate of beer :beer:

I am still waiting for someone to tell me when the injectors and DMF on my Mondeo are supposed to pack up. They are now on 160,000 miles....