Unleaded Vs Diesel

1886

I always keep an eye on fuel prices as I'm sure many of you do. For the last three years I've owned a 1.4 TDI VW Polo, it has'nt got an MFA but the MPG is quoted as being 58-65 on Parkers.co.uk

One of my friends said that a diesel car is only really a good idea if you're going to be driving over XX miles a year because the price of diesel is more than petrol.
Most petrol stations in my area currently sell petrol 9p a litre cheaper than diesel. I was curious as to what other people's opinions are on this.

Diesels are supposedly more money to buy new/used but then you would hope to be able to sell at slightly more when the time comes.

I've done a couple of calculations and it appears that a petrol car would be £800 a year cheaper to run at 40 mpg vs diesel at 60mpg. I'll think hard when it comes to sell my diesel as that's a huge saving.

The other thing to think about is road tax, I currently only pay £30. I know most cars won't be able to beat that but the fuel saving bill will still be massive

motorguy

1886 wrote: »

I always keep an eye on fuel prices as I'm sure many of you do. For the last three years I've owned a 1.4 TDI VW Polo, it has'nt got an MFA but the MPG is quoted as being 58-65 on Parkers.co.uk

One of my friends said that a diesel car is only really a good idea if you're going to be driving over XX miles a year because the price of diesel is more than petrol.
Most petrol stations in my area currently sell petrol 9p a litre cheaper than diesel. I was curious as to what other people's opinions are on this.

Diesels are supposedly more money to buy new/used but then you would hope to be able to sell at slightly more when the time comes.

I've done a couple of calculations and it appears that a petrol car would be £800 a year cheaper to run at 40 mpg vs diesel at 60mpg. I'll think hard when it comes to sell my diesel as that's a huge saving.

The other thing to think about is road tax, I currently only pay £30. I know most cars won't be able to beat that but the fuel saving bill will still be massive

I'm curious as to how your calculations came to that conclusion?

worried_jim

As a rule of thumb you need to be driving approx 15,000 miles per year for a new diesel car to make sense and you will need to keep it for 10 years to break even over an equivalent petrol model.
If you are buying an old diesel then there can be instant savings.

neilmcl

Try out the petrol/diesel costs calculator here: http://www.which.co.uk/cars/driving/driver-tools/petrol-vs-diesel/petrol-and-diesel-fuel-costs/

motorguy

neilmcl wrote: »

Try out the petrol/diesel costs calculator here: http://www.which.co.uk/cars/driving/driver-tools/petrol-vs-diesel/petrol-and-diesel-fuel-costs/

Doesnt take into account the higher residual of the diesel car though. It could be several thousand pounds different depending on make & model.

motorguy

worried_jim wrote: »

As a rule of thumb you need to be driving approx 15,000 miles per year for a new diesel car to make sense and you will need to keep it for 10 years to break even over an equivalent petrol model.
If you are buying an old diesel then there can be instant savings.

Again, thats not taking into account residual price differences and the fact that most people drive a car for two or three years not 10

gman955

Also remember the cost of servicing a diesel can be more than a petrol so take this into consideration

motorguy

gman955 wrote: »

Also remember the cost of servicing a diesel can be more than a petrol so take this into consideration

Shouldnt be much in it. This came from when diesels needed serviced a lot more often than petrol cars.

Oil + Oil Filter will be roughly similar in price.

Even IF it required servicing twice as often, an oil + filter service should only cost £60-80.

motorguy

One thing to bear in mind is potentially the extra maintenance costs of diesels - they moreoften have turbos, dual mass flywheels, DPF's, air flow meters that clog up, etc, etc. Any one of these can result in a big bill.

Paperbird

worried_jim wrote: »

As a rule of thumb you need to be driving approx 15,000 miles per year for a new diesel car to make sense and you will need to keep it for 10 years to break even over an equivalent petrol model.
If you are buying an old diesel then there can be instant savings.

Or you could buy a car with a 2.0 petrol engine rather than the same model with a 1.6 petrol engine and pay more every year, what sense does that make.

If people only bothered about how much it would cost to do X thousand miles for X years no one would buy a Titanium X Mondeo for £4000 more than the Edge version costs.

Joe_Horner

motorguy wrote: »

I'm curious as to how your calculations came to that conclusion?

So am I.

Assuming a fairly average 10000 miles:

The petrol would use 250 gallons = 1135 litres
The diesel would use 167 gallons = 757 litres

At current prices round here (£1.35 ans £1.44 per litre) that gives fuel costs of:

Petrol £1532
Diesel £1090

So yes, there's a considerable saving (based purely on fuel) but it's the diesel that's cheaper, by about £450 per 10k miles.