diesel vs petrol

Iceweasel

Hotspur wisely did his homework and made an informed decision as to which engine to buy.

The problem is that many folks can't see past the mpg figures and often lower VED.

After a year or so the DPF clogs up and they blame the car - concluding that diesels are rubbish.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

I'd go for neither the 1.6 tdi is underpowered and lifeless in the heavier focus compared to the fiesta.


the ecoboost is thirsty at higher motorway speeds.

Stoke

maxmycardagain wrote: »

13,000 miles a year?

there wont be any savings by having a diesel car

1. Diesel cars are dearer than petrol cars to buy
2. Diesel is dearer than petrol
3. Most diesels achieve 10mpg more than a petrol AT BEST, some dont
4. Diesels need more servicing
5. A broke diesel is a money pit big time

Lol, what an awesome post.

1. Nope, not necessarily. Depends which diesel car you buy. Second hand diesel cars can be had at very reasonable prices.
2. Yes it is, but only in this country and many can also run on vegetable oil, which is an interesting alternative fuel is 80p a litre, so cheaper than petrol.
3. Big assumption. Petrol Ferrari does about 14mpg. My Lupo diesel does 70mpg. Depends on the car doesn't it? The Lupo petrol does about 40mpg, and I've achieved 70mpg in my diesel.
4. Do they? Where did you read that?
5. Depends again what vehicle you go for? A good diesel engine will easily outlive a petrol one. Fact. So when you say a 'broke' diesel is a money pit, which part is broken?

[Deleted User]

Have you checked the service intervals for both? Modern petrol engines often have longer service intervals than modern diesels, so the money you save on diesel you'll spend getting it serviced every year instead of every two years (and if you're taking it to the main dealer for servicing, that's probably £200 quid for a simple oil change and checks). I've no idea about the Ford Focus, but it's something I'd advise you to check.


Also, a lot of post-2006 diesels have had problems with their diesel particulate filters - which were intended to last the lifetime of the car, but many people are finding they last only around 75k or less, and cost £1000s to replace - hence the explosion in garages offering DPF removal services (having the DPF removed is now an MOT fail, but garages are still doing it).


Personally I much prefer driving diesels, but I would think carefully before buying a brand new one.


Of course, you could save yourself a whole load of money and get a 15 year-old diesel car that'll cost you less than £1000 and will likely give you 10s of 1000s of miles. In this part of the market diesels come into their own - the initial extra cost over petrol is eliminated, and they'll last longer.

Herzlos

Stoke wrote: »

1. Nope, not necessarily. Depends which diesel car you buy. Second hand diesel cars can be had at very reasonable prices.

But you'll be able to find similar age/spec petrol models for less.

3. Big assumption. Petrol Ferrari does about 14mpg. My Lupo diesel does 70mpg. Depends on the car doesn't it? The Lupo petrol does about 40mpg, and I've achieved 70mpg in my diesel.

The gap has closed up a lot since they stopped making the Lupo, when diesel was the way to go (nice and simple whist petrol wasn't very efficient). At that age there's no reason not to go diesel. But the OP is looking at 2013 cars where the difference is negligable (my 2.5l petrol Jag does 27mpg, and my 1.5 diesel clio does 47mpg, but those cars are hardly like-for-like)

5. Depends again what vehicle you go for? A good diesel engine will easily outlive a petrol one. Fact. So when you say a 'broke' diesel is a money pit, which part is broken?

Longevity depends on more than the fuel. Modern diesels are very complicated to keep emissions down and performance up, it's these expensive components (turbos and particulate) filters that cost the big bucks. It's unlikely that the engine itself will fail, but the same is true of petrols, which don't have such complex auxilliary components.


OP; if you're doing short city journeys, take the petrol, otherwise take the diesel. If it's a 50/50 mix then take the one in the nicer spec/colour.

There's not a huge deal in it according to honest johns realmpg - http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/ford/focus-2011

51mpg with the 1.6 diesel and 42mpg with the 1.0 ecoboost.

[Deleted User]

If you do go for diesel, always use Shell V Power, under no circumstances use supermarket diesel - it'll run like a bag of bolts and it'll decrease the lifespan of your injectors, DPF, and exhaust system generally. Remember Tesco recently had silicon contamination in their fuel - ruining many peoples engines.

boatman

As others have said, if you do lots of short runs, petrol, longer runs diesel, make sure you like the car, or you'll want to change it in 6 months, this will wipe any savings as the cost to change vehicles is never very cheap.

benham3160

I had a diesel car years ago that had a 4,500 mile service interval.

My diesel panel van goes about 20k between servicing.......

Things have moved on an awful, awful lot.

[Deleted User]

I would Google for the owners manuals/service intervals for the two Focus's and check. My 4 year old Mazda diesel requires 12,500 mile services, but the petrol version only requires 25,000.


Really dealers should be forced to publish the total 10 years servicing cost of all the cars they sell - this way people can make a much more educated decision. You'd have thought at least the Which? reports would do this (go through the specified services in the owners manual and get prices for everything that needs doing over 10 years), but they don't. Which? reports are quite poor.