To buy petrol or diesel fiesta?

Legacy_user

Hi all

I am looking to buy a new fiesta and trade in my old mazda 2. I have looked at the option of going for the diesel (1.4) versus the petrol 1.25.

Basically there is around a £1300 premium to buy the diesel. I drive a relatively short 16 mile round trip to work every day (around half is dual carriageway and is a clear run -i.e. 70mph). I expect to cover 10,000 miles pa.

Basically is it worth the premium? The ford dealers say no because because of my mileage, but surely taking into account resale value in 3 years, the cheaper road tax (£20 v £95) and better fuel economy (around 20mpg better) there cant be a lot in it? Not sure if they are just trying to flog the petrol model because they have more in stock???

I would probably hang on to the car 3 or 4 years before trading in. They also mentioned something about the DPF getting clogged on short journeys - would atleast 8 miles a day at 70mph solve this problem?

Ive never driven a diesel car (other than on a test drive), so dont really know what they are like to drive in practice.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Lum

Refreshing honesty from a main dealer here. An 8 mile commute is going to kill that DPF in short order and it will cost about a grand for a new one. See the ongoing diesel vs petrol thread for more info as it's not really worth going over it all again here.

Modern diesels are really only suitable for people doing regular motorway cruising. Sales reps and the like. To be honest I'm not really sure why a diesel Fiesta even exists as it's too small for this kind of work.

System

thanks for your help - will check out the link

Lum

Ahh, I just realised, you probably want to start on page 14 of that thread. The original posts are from 2004 when the advice was very different. DPFs didn't exist then, so MPG vs servicing costs was all that was worth considering.

Here's a link to page 14 for you.

Sorry about that.

newfoundglory

I was all ready to get a diesel fiesta, until I read about the DPF - they sound like a total nightmare unless you are doing frequent long journeys at high speed. Now, I wouldn't touch a diesel with a bargepole.

But it looks like Ford are going to be putting 1.0 litre, 3 cylinder turbocharged ecoboost petrol engines in the fiesta possibly as early as this year. This should make a petrol fiesta cheaper to tax (£20) than a diesel one and produce excellent fuel economy.

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=35582

System

Thanks Lum,

Id just skipped through it to the more recent section.
Petrol is looking like a definite winner for me!:D

Premier_2

If you really do only use your car for driving to & from work (8 miles) then yes, get a petrol.

However, if you use your car occassionally for other journeys then a diesel should be fine providing the journey allows you to drive at about 2500rpm+ for a minimum of 20 mins. (You can always keep the revs up by driving in a lower gear if road conditions do not allow you to drive at speed)

The DPF only needs occasional regeneration; it doesn't happen every trip usually.

System

TBH I drive like a granny now anyway in my petrol, so the urge to drop a gear in a diesel certainly wont be there with me! Also by driving like this I will probably go a long way to reducing the fuel economy benefit anyway.

newfoundglory - had a look at the link for the ecoboost engine. Unfortunately for me it is going into the focus. However the technology is certainly there now and it probably wont be long before they put it in a fiesta. For now though the 1.25 petrol should suffice.

Thanks for all your advice. Ive just got to decide which model now, and whether it is worth changing before the '12' plate in march to get a better discount!

newfoundglory

Yeah, annoying its going into the focus first....

Trebor16

payvpac wrote: »

Basically there is around a £1300 premium to buy the diesel. I drive a relatively short 16 mile round trip to work every day (around half is dual carriageway and is a clear run -i.e. 70mph). I expect to cover 10,000 miles pa.

Basically is it worth the premium? The ford dealers say no because because of my mileage, but surely taking into account resale value in 3 years, the cheaper road tax (£20 v £95) and better fuel economy (around 20mpg better) there cant be a lot in it? Not sure if they are just trying to flog the petrol model because they have more in stock???

At a premium of £1300, the diesel will cost in the region of £1250 for fuel, assuming 50mpg and cost of fuel at £1.38 per litre. The costs for the petrol would be £1997 at 30mpg and £1498 at 40mpg. You would therefore save £250 on fuel and £75 on road tax, assuming a differential of 10mpg.

If the diesel was averaging 55mpg then the cost difference would be £360 on fuel.

It would therefore take 4 years before you broke even on the premium you would pay for the diesel.

With regards to the DPF, if the car is being driven 8 miles on a dual carriageway at 70 then it is not going to get affected in anyway the same way as if it was being used for short town journeys at urban speeds.

kkgree1

I bought a new Fiesta in October and looked at this carefully as we do more miles than you (about 14 -15,000) a year.

There wasn't much in it between Petrol & Diesel but we went for the Petrol 1.25 Zetec. We drive mostly on A roads and in town and get 43.5 MPG at the moment.

It was less than I was expecting so I do think costings wise that there isn't much in it between the Petrol & Diesel. Highly recommend the Fiesta though - it's a great little car!