Petrol v diesel

littlebob9

We looking to replace the family car, we need an estate Mondeo, Insignia size. Having had look online most second hand ones for sale are Diesel. Our annual mileage is about 10K, mainly urban. Only doing low mileage would we benefit from the extra economy of a diesel or would it work out more expensive than a petrol in the long run with higher purchase price, maintance costs etc.
Thanks

cootuk

Petrol... Subaru Legacy estate?

Buellguy

given your mileage and use, petrol every day of the week

daveyjp

Skoda Octavia and Superb estate with a 1.4TSi are worth a look. Enough power and economical.

F_Bear

theres several discussions on this online. think on average the diesel cost more unless your covering a certain amount of miles then its cheaper to get it.

if its a grand more and then your paying more for the juice and its best to change the oil more regulaury on a diesel.

doing 10k a year im sure a petrol will be best

roonaldo

Get petrol or you will engine up with DPF and other problems doing low milleage like that around town. There are many family size petrol cars now that do 45+mpg. Diesels are mainly motorway cars.

motorguy

Petrol all the way. Seek out a 1.8i Insignia - cheap as chips as everybody wants diesel and a great engine thats easy worked at.

The diesel variant WILL need stuff done over time like DPF and dual mass flywheel - its a common and expensive failure on them.

Mate of mine just bought a 2.0CDTI Insignia and hes only getting late 30's in it as its not doing long runs

Herzlos

If you're doing lots of short trips you want petrol, because it's not good for a diesel engine (it'll never get up to a good operating temperature) and the fuel economy will be dreadful. Then if it's got a DPF that fails you'll have blown any potential savings away.

littlebob9

Many thanks for the replys. Petrol it is. Only problem is not many second hand petrol estates around will just have to keep looking

force_ten

the mainly urban part of your original post would say to me go for a petrol

I do not know what age of car you are looking to buy but i think all the mark four Mondeo diesels post 2007 are fitted with a diesel particle filter

if you are doing mostly urban then you may not meet the criteria for active regeneration of the filter and it may become blocked and cause expensive problems

a moderen diesel is not really suitable as a town car and needs to do long high speed trips to clean the DPF

stick with petrol

motorguy

At least as big a problem as the diesel particulate filter is the dual mass flywheel on both those diesel engines.

Short runs are not good for it and both are notorious for it failing.

Expect to pay £700-1000 for a replacement.