Diesal car a bad idea ?

travelmonster

I'm looking to buy an Audi A4 09 plate or a a Golf . is it a bad idea to buy a diesel ? tax seems fine by the looks of it.

But as to some introduction of tax zones in towns? this is worrying me. can someone please explain this to me ?

debtdebt

Yes.

Possibly no.

Mercdriver

It's down to your driving style as well as some as yet unpublished plans to introduce charges for diesels. Just because there is talk doesn't necessarily mean it will happen. Has your local town talked about introducing it? What about places you go to regularly?

How many miles do you do annually? That is a pertinent question. If you do only short distances or mainly start stop journeys then diesel won't be best due to DPF issues.

vikingaero

There's people panicking about buying new diesels already. The world can be a very kneejerk place. You need to consider:

(1) Your anticipated mileage
(2) % town vs. motorway driving
(3) Are you going to tow with it?
(4) Do you drive 4/5 up with loads regularly?
(5) Do you just like the driving/low torque of a diesel?

daveyjp

You need to know what condition the DPF and all the sensors are in. If there is evidence there has been recent maintenance, good.

If there isn't you need to budget for having a DPF cleaned (£300+), replaced (£1,000+) as at that age it may well be close to needing attention, same goes for the sensors.

andygb

The OP could do a lot worse, than find a low mileage VAG car from 2007, because that was (AFAIK) the last year they produced the 1.9 TDi PD engined cars. This has to be one of the best engines ever produced IMO, because they didn't have the DPF, and combined reliability, low down torque and economy.

JP1978

DPF's are not always doom & gloom.... my VAG 2.0L 140bhp lump has 92,000 miles on it and the DPF still has 75% of its life left in it (using canbus to view the dpf state).

IF any controls are bought in for diesels, its likely to only affect Euro 5 and below, maybe Euro 4 and below. The car OP is looking at is Euro 5, so could be affected depending on each councils view. Unlikely to happen for a few years yet though, if at all.

Apodemus

travelmonster wrote: »

I'm looking to buy an Audi A4 09 plate or a a Golf . is it a bad idea to buy a diesel ? tax seems fine by the looks of it.

But as to some introduction of tax zones in towns? this is worrying me. can someone please explain this to me ?

Yes definitely avoid all diesel cars, but especially any '09 Golfs, you never know what anti-diesel horror-legislation is around the corner!

...and I am currently looking for one, so need to talk the price down!

Strider590

The recent diesel panic articles in the press, were designed to give the automotive industry a bit of a boost. People will panic and then use it all as the excuse they needed to go electric, other people will snap up used diesels thinking they're getting a great deal, the sales of used cars directly drives the sale of new cars and the sale of new cars fills govt coffers with 20% VAT off every car (average £5000 per car).

bris

It's a mileage thing really. The only reason I ever had a diesel car was because I was at one point doing well over 16k a year. Now I'm down to around 10 k there is no way I would buy another diesel.
They are dearer to service and for under around 12k a year they are dearer to run too.

Nodding_Donkey

JP1978 wrote: »

DPF's are not always doom & gloom.... my VAG 2.0L 140bhp lump has 92,000 miles on it and the DPF still has 75% of its life left in it (using canbus to view the dpf state).

Um, that's not what it means, that % is how full it is and will change as the DPF regenerates. One day you can look at it and it will say 90%, then it will regenerate and the next time you look it might be 15%