Diesel vs Petrol - useful article

harveybobbles

Marktheshark wrote: »

In the real world.
Two cars for sale to a second hand buyer with £2000 to spend.
One will cost £60 a week in petrol to get to work every week, the other will cost the buyer £30 in Diesel.
This is a more realistic choice factor.

But the diesel driver should put the extra £30 away for when something goes wrong.

Marktheshark

harveybobbles wrote: »

But the diesel driver should put the extra £30 away for when something goes wrong.

This I agree with.

motorguy

forgotmyname wrote: »

I can relate to post number 2. When buying a car im looking at £2000 - £2500. It has to be a Mondeo of course

If i buy a petrol one i will be getting around 23 - 25mpg on my usual short daily trips. A diesel in the same situation gives me 37mpg.

A 2 week holiday touring Cornwall will use at least one full tank of fuel extra, Most likely a tank and a half extra.

Resale value difference will be neglible when i come to resell.

maybe £200 difference. But that will depend on any parts that had been changed recently and if that is enough to make a buyer part with more cash.

Although the guides will say a diesel would never be my right choice. It works for me.

With my old petrol car i would barely get 300 miles to a tank, In my diesel i have just passed 400 miles and still some left. All short journey city work.

On a run i can get much more to the tankful.

The problem is that at that price point you're buying something that could very well need a flywheel, turbo, set of injectors or DPF sometime soon.

Also, as i've said already, your money will buy a considerably younger and lower miles petrol car, therefore wear and tear repairs will be less.

forgotmyname

Petrol and Diesel Mondeo's around the £2000 mark are similar ages. Newer ones will have more miles or the condition may not be quite as good.

No DPF on the MK3 which there are plenty at the £2000 region.

Flywheel, Yes thats a possibility but petrol cars have then also. And although they do last longer i would not stick a clutch in without changing that at the same time.

Turbo's are cheap. I paid under £200 for one to fit my sisters car. Not a big job on the Mondeo either.

Injectors are not as bad as they make out. Too many mis-diagnosed cars where replacing the injectors didnt fix the problem. Must be the pump then is usually their next reply. Just poor diagnosis.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I agree on the lack of analysis on maintenance and second hand but I thought it was useful that the article showed that a £1000 difference on price was going to be unlikely to be recovered for the average private buyer, second hand or new. That counters the perception that we still hear that diesel are inherently more economical - those headline mpgs are tempting.

When I was looking at nearly new C Class from a dealer there was a lot of choice of diesel and only one or two patrol and as far as I could tell the diesels were essentially priced the same as the petrol, supply and demand.

The latest generation of petrol engines are full of the same complexities as diesels. I've come to the conclusion that the poor reputation of the DPF comes from poor engineering, simply sticking a filter on an inherently dirty engine.

There was a sensible comment n the article, which was personal taste shouldn't be dismissed, and loss of people like the torque delivery of the strong turbo engine.

bartelbe

I would go with a petrol now, have relative with a modern complicated diesel and it has never quiet run right. EGR valve clogged, problem with intercooler, then the MAF.

How much do I know about my old XUD? Nothing, because I have never had to do anything to it other than change belts, oil and glow plugs. It just works and never goes wrong.