Mis-selling of diesel cars

Netwizard

jimjames wrote: »

A diesel does more MPG in general than a petrol.

Diesel mpg is also terrible around town

AlexMac

Dear scooterb,
you have the patience of a saint! You come on this forum in all good faith with a question (arguably a debating point) and half the replies blame you! I'm with you; I think sales staff are poorly briefed, and arguably poorly trained on 'common knowledge' issues such as the need to run your AirCon at least fortnightly even in winter to lubricate the system, Dual Mass Flywheel failures, DPF failures, and, on BMW's turbo and swirl-flap problems. Even if you obey the (unwritten) rules and give your car the necessary thrashing along a motorway to clear the DPF, they don't then mention the need to then 'simmer' the engine on halting to avoid the oil on hot turbo bearings from carbonising.

Having owned and loved my diesel Beemers' oomph and done high mileage for many years, I learned all this lore, not least from the excellent 'Honest John' advice in the Saturday Daily Telegraph and website. But it was news to the wet-behind-the-ears kid in the sales showroom whose only role was to sell shiny motors and talk about upholstery options.

So yes, there ought to be a 'mis selling' button. But don't hold your breath. Look at how incompetent BMW were over the scandalous and much publicised failure of their 2007-2012 cars' security and immobilisers; 'gone in 30 seconds' by any scally with a programmable fob (I lost mine from the forecourt twice!). They grudgingly took the cars in for re-programming, but never acyaully admitted they go it wrong!

So OP- bless you for not sniping back at the trolls, but for posting so that a few more innocent 'only pop to the shoppers' buyers can avoid diesels.

And to prove I do what I preach, I now own a petrol 3-series as I'm retired and only do 8-10k pa; but still get 38-42mpg in town or country!

Trebor16

Netwizard wrote: »

Diesel mpg is also terrible around town

What do you base that on?

jimjames

Trebor16 wrote: »

What do you base that on?

All those crazy taxi drivers using diesel cars?

Netwizard

Trebor16 wrote: »

What do you base that on?

28MPG from a diesel mondeo TDCI whilst using it for 2 weeks on my 3 mile commute to work whilst my car was off the road for repairs and my mates BMW on a similar commute with similar MPG

Netwizard

AlexMac wrote: »

such as the need to run your AirCon at least fortnightly even in winter to lubricate the system,

You're supposed too Else when you turn it on for the first time in summer, it doesn't work as all the seals have dried up through none use over the winter.

Ultrasonic

Netwizard wrote: »

28MPG from a diesel mondeo TDCI whilst using it for 2 weeks on my 3 mile commute to work whilst my car was off the road for repairs and my mates BMW on a similar commute with similar MPG

I suspect that's more to do with a short trip and the longer time it takes diesel engines to warm up, rather than city driving. Although I'd seriouly struggle to make my own diesel do as badly as 28 mpg unless it was stop-start all the way. I've never seen anything below mpgs in the 40s.

What mpg do you get from your petrol car for the same trip?

Netwizard

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I suspect that's more to do with a short trip and the longer time it takes diesel engines to warm up, rather than city driving. Although I'd seriouly struggle to make my own diesel do as badly as 28 mpg unless it was stop-start all the way. I've never seen anything below mpgs in the 40s.

What mpg do you get from your petrol car for the same trip?

You're correct I was just saying that diesel mpg isn't always brilliant. For town driving, a small petrol car would be preferable to a diesel

I get 20mpg from my petrol car, which is 8mpg less than the diesel, but considering my car is a 2.3 turbo estate with 160,000 miles on it, I don't think 20mpg is bad (considering the mpg of the diesel). My annual mileage is very low also.

Cornucopia

Horses for courses. If I only got that kind of MPG, it would be costing me nearly £2000 extra in fuel costs every year.

AdrianC

Cornucopia wrote: »

Horses for courses.

Indeed.

I'd _love_ to get 20mpg out of the 4x4 - and not just short journey/stop-start, either...