new car diesal or petrol

denwyn

I am going to part ex my 2004 Skoda Fabia 1.2 for a new car, well not barnd new but something up to £10,000. The Skoda has been the best car i have ever had but its a bit boring, even the newer ones are a bit dull. I had thought i might get a diesel car this time but several people have said it may prove problematic with a diesel particulate filter which is fitted to all newer diesel cars as i dont do many long trips. Is this correct as i would hate to buy something which is going to cost me money in repairs. I have been looking at the likes of Polo's, Fiestas , Astras, and the Focus as diesel cars i may buy. Any advice or suggestions appreciated....thanks

OddballJamie

How many miles do you do?
Many long trips or all short?

keith1950

These diesels are ok as long as you do a couple of 20 ish mile runs per week and keep your revs over 3000 for the entire run to ensure the car manages ro complete a regeneration.

Strider590

"Small car" and "low cost" just don't belong in the same sentence.

The fleet market is important for manufacturers, so they make those cars more robust.
Small cars are more likely to see frequent visits to dealerships for silly repairs.

As for the question, I wouldn't buy a diesel that's only done low mileage runs and is more than say 4 years old.

Retrogamer

If it's a used car you intend to buy and it's out of manufacturers warranty it might be good to go for a diesel and spend a little extra on removing the DPF and having the computer on board the vehicle updated to reflect the change.

OddballJamie

Strider590 wrote: »

"Small car" and "low cost" just don't belong in the same sentence.

The fleet market is important for manufacturers, so they make those cars more robust.
Small cars are more likely to see frequent visits to dealerships for silly repairs.

As for the question, I wouldn't buy a diesel that's only done low mileage runs and is more than say 4 years old.

Have any thing to back that statement up as I've seen quite a few surveys that differ. Small city cars tend to be fairly reliable considering how demanding urban driving is compared to all day motorway cruising for the larger cars.

Strider590

OddballJamie wrote: »

Have any thing to back that statement up as I've seen quite a few surveys that differ. Small city cars tend to be fairly reliable considering how demanding urban driving is compared to all day motorway cruising for the larger cars.

Surveys, what a joke.......

Firstly they're only relevant for new cars bought in the last few years.

People will always defend their poor purchasing choices, if the general public opinion is that the vehicle is great. I call it VW Golf syndrome.....
They'll also defend their purchase choice if they or their friends/family like the look of or performance of the car.
Or if it's an expensive brand...... Hence why Mercedes cars build from 1990 onwards tend to be awfully unreliable and the A class for example is just financial suicide.
In short you can rarely trust an owners opinion.

The truth was in my previous statement..... Larger cars are built to be reliable for the fleet market, they need to last 100'000 miles with minimal failures. Big manufacturers like GM and Ford would go under if not for the fleet market.

Small cars on the other hand, are built to be cash cows for the dealerships, they don't need to be reliable beyond the warranty and due to some fiddling (ie your warranty isn't as long as the one their suppliers give to them) they actually make a good profit from failures by charging both the customer and the supplier when something fails.

^^ Although really the dealership only keeps the customers money and the manufacturer charges the tier 1 supplier, which then trickles down to tier 2 and 3.

OddballJamie

So that's a no then.

Thought as much.

I was referring to data from a large warranty company
http://www.reliabilityindex.com/top-100

Strider590

OddballJamie wrote: »

So that's a no then.

Thought as much.

I was referring to data from a large warranty company
http://www.reliabilityindex.com/top-100

You can't trust that stuff, it's all statistics........

If I believed the stats, my car would be off the road more than on.

5% of all road deaths are caused by drink driving, so if I told you that meant that driving when sober is more dangerous, would you believe me?

OddballJamie

So you have no proof to back up your claim that small cars are unreliable and cost more than their larger counterparts. Yet when I provide statistics gathered from actual cars that have actual warranty claims you still believe otherwise.

Regarding drink driving, the figure is more like 15%. I would then look into what percent of drunk drivers there are compared to sober drivers for the answer.

From what I can tell you're only evidence for you wild claim is that small cars are made to a budget. Here's some news for you, almost all production cars are built to a budget. I can only think of one car that is made at a massive loss.

TradePro

Strider590 wrote: »

People will always defend their poor purchasing choices, if the general public opinion is that the vehicle is great. I call it VW Golf syndrome.....

I like this!

+1