Diesel vs Petrol?

Johnmcl7

Indout96 wrote: »

I have the VW Passat 2.0 TDI (140bhp) so same engine as the Audi and drive lots of short trips. 3.5 miles to work ect. I have around 1 longer trip around every month of around 160 miles and that seems to keep the DPF OK ( a bit more often in summer)
In this weather going to work it returns mid 30's average there and back, in summer this was mid 40's. on longer trips around 50mpg average with motorways around 60mpg at steady 70.

Tax is £170 per year, I have the renewal in front of me now.

How old is the Passat? £170 per year sounds like the older PD engine which may not have a DPF.

John

steve-L

GolfBravo wrote: »

Diesel engines take much longer to reach full operating temperature -.....


It isn't about the short trips that kill DPFs and diesel fuel economy, it is the lack of optimum operating temperature. For example, diesel taxis are running most of the day so the engine is always warm. On the other hand, 2 daily short 5 minute trips, eg. to and from work, will never allow a diesel engine to reach the optimum operating temperature for good fuel efficiency, and the DPF will have no chance to regenerate.

Spot on.....
I can run my diesel up to operating temp and it will then keep the heat for hours.... (depending of course on outside temp)...
If I park for an hour the engine will still be warm and take much less time to get up to a sensible operating temp than starting cold...

(Simple way I know this is simply that the heater is set at 20.5 and comes on much faster if I park for a couple of hours in a covered car park vs leaving it overnight).

gord115 wrote:

Having had 2 cars with the 1.9tdi engine(around 43mpg) and 2 cars with the 2.0T engine (around 30mpg), I'd say go for the petrol.

Way better to drive,much faster,even when the diesel is remapped.

That might well be true for the ones you had but I don't think it can be applied as a general rule.
VAG diesels (in the band I'm looking at) lagged behind BMW (in that sense*) until the most recent 3L.

*The driver feel

BMW decided they would make a diesel that would be really powerful and deliver decent economy, VAG went more for economy. (as a simplistic overview)

Noone can deny the VAG performance petrol engines deliver pure savage power and the RS6 is a great example.... but they just didn't see diesel in the same way until more recently.

A remapped BMW x35D or the new VAG 3L D will not be in the M5/RS6 category but is certainly in the 'very quick' category and the 2.0L's are nowhere close despite worse MPG.

Indout96 wrote:

I bought it as I was going to do silly millage for work but then my job changed and thats now not happening. But I am now a diesel convert.

ha ha.... I bought my 1st diesel thinking the same then spent 9 months commuting by train... but it still converted me.
I'm back commuting by car now.... but I never actually badly regretted the change, even when I wasn't doing the miles.

andygb

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

How old is the Passat? £170 per year sounds like the older PD engine which may not have a DPF.

John

So just going from a 1.9 to a 2.0 means that you pay around £50 per year more in tax (plus higher insurance).
I wonder if it is really worth it?

Indout96

How old is the Passat? £170 per year sounds like the older PD engine which may not have a DPF.

2008 (58 reg) 2.0 TDI CR Highline - it does have DPF

Johnmcl7

andygb wrote: »

So just going from a 1.9 to a 2.0 means that you pay around £50 per year more in tax (plus higher insurance).
I wonder if it is really worth it?

It depends on what you want from the car, the 2.0 TDI engines replaced the higher output 1.9 engines leaving just the 105bhp version of the 1.9 engine which is quite a bit down in power from the 140bhp/170bhp in the 2.0 litre engines. The newer CR versions mostly drop the tax back down.

I did prefer the 1.9 engine as I had the 150bhp version before the 2.0 TDI PD170, the 1.9 was more economic, had no DPF and was a lot more entertaining to drive but that said it wasn't generally liked for its agricultural noise and massive turbo lag.

John

Johnmcl7

Indout96 wrote: »

2008 (58 reg) 2.0 TDI CR Highline - it does have DPF

Interesting, I didn't realise any of those engines came into the upper tax bracket but it looks like there were an early few that did.

John

gord115

Stev- L said....That might well be true for the ones you had but I don't think it can be applied as a general rule.
VAG diesels (in the band I'm looking at) lagged behind BMW (in that sense*) until the most recent 3L.

*The driver feel

BMW decided they would make a diesel that would be really powerful and deliver decent economy, VAG went more for economy. (as a simplistic overview)

A remapped BMW x35D or the new VAG 3L D will not be in the M5/RS6 category but is certainly in the 'very quick' category and the 2.0L's are nowhere close despite worse MPG: End quote


That may be true,but the OP wants an Audi A3, I think he might have trouble finding one with a BMW engine...

Trebor16

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Interesting, I didn't realise any of those engines came into the upper tax bracket but it looks like there were an early few that did.

John

The original bandings that were introduced in March 2001 were revised in 2006/7 so it may have been the case that the earlier VW engines were in a different tax band originally.

The original bands were as follows:-

Up to 150g/km
151-165
166-185
Over 186

A sub 120g/km band was introduced in April 2002.

The revision in 2006/7 brought in more bands and there was a further revision to these bands in 2009/10.

There is a lot more info about the bands here:-

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/vehicle-excise-duty/

steve-L

That may be true,but the OP wants an Audi A3, I think he might have trouble finding one with a BMW engine...

I was replying more to the oft stated 'fact' that diesel engined cars are 'slow' compared to petrol.... (in the general sense rather than a certain vintage of VAG's)

Johnmcl7

Trebor16 wrote: »

The original bandings that were introduced in March 2001 were revised in 2006/7 so it may have been the case that the earlier VW engines were in a different tax band originally.

The original bands were as follows:-

Up to 150g/km
151-165
166-185
Over 186

A sub 120g/km band was introduced in April 2002.

The revision in 2006/7 brought in more bands and there was a further revision to these bands in 2009/10.

There is a lot more info about the bands here:-

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/vehicle-excise-duty/

No, it's nothing to do with that as it's a 2008 car - the very first ones to use the common rail engine in 2008 had slightly higher emissions, the engine must have been tweaked shortly after to drop the emissions down one band.

John