Should you buya diesel car??

inacrisis

Hi


We are both currently looking at a new car. We have just moved to a new area that is likely to have far more snow than our previous area, we also live at the bottom of the estate with fairly steep hills in all directions to get to the main road. Lastly the local council don't grit the roads on the estate!!


So we are both looking at 4x4 cars. We have 2 kids and 2 dogs so don't feel too bad about buying a 4x4 The options we have looked at are Ford Kuga for her and Mini countryman All4 for me. Both seem to be mainly diesel cars and a friend has said that the govt are cracking down on road tax and other fees on diesels! The models we are looking at are 2011. I don't want to buy two new cars then have a big hike in running costs and also massive depreciation in value!


I have also looked at the Peugeot 3008 hybrid which is slightly dearer but still in budget.


I have looked online for details on the changes to car tax etc for diesels but everything seems to mention London and 'other cities' (We live 30 minutes from Manchester I don't drive within the m60 ringroad but my wife works in the centre of Manchester and needs to drive.)


1) Does anyone know of somewhere with more details on proposed changes to costs of owning a diesel car?


2) Does anyone know if the hybrid Peugeot which is a electric/diesel 99g/km CO2 will also suffer these increased costs?


I would love an electric car but currently they aren't affordable for us.


Any advice would be great.

Thanks

daveyjp

Get any car and fit winter tyres.

Wait until the budget to see if diesel cars are affected.

missile

Unless Manchester(?) follows the London model with exhorbitant congestion charging , diesel is still the way to go for those covering more than the average mileage. IMHO any price hike for diesel fuel tax and VED is unlikely to be more than the cost saving vs a similar petrol model.
If you are low mileage users then diesel is not as attractive and if you do predominately short journeys you may experience DPF issues.
Why not hedge your bets with one diesel and one petrol.
There are many small petrol / diesel 4X4 like those you have mentioned for sale, see autotrader.

F1F93

daveyjp wrote: »

Get any car and fit winter tyres.

Wait until the budget to see if diesel cars are affected.

This.

Autoexpress did a test with a Ford Kuga. 4x4 vs winter tyres up a snowy hill.

Standard, front wheel drive Kuga made it 7m up the hill.
Four wheel drive Kuga made it 13m up the hill.

The front wheel drive Kuga with winter tyres made it 110m up the hill.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

There is quite a bit of stuff going on behind the scenes. The German manufacturers are desperately looking at reprogramming the current Euro5 & 6 diesels to see if they can be made less polluting as the German government is putting a lot of pressure on. Some brands are worse in practice than others (for example, Mercedes you get what they suggest you get in pollution, whereas VAG are more programmed to the tests rather than practical events).

The British government has said it does not intend to punish owners of diesels, so I would expect to see something where current cars on the market are protected, very old cars have been dealt with by the scrappage scheme, so if there are to be changes to discourage diesel, it will be targeted at new cars I suspect.

The trouble is that for effective miles per pence of fuel, there is a big difference, and with diesels being less attractive, I suspect the premium for diesel engines will reduce. The government could make a case for increasing diesel fuel duty as it is effectively quite a bit cheaper, but I'd guess it would be small amounts just to get diesel to appear more expensive than petrol.

2011 cars will be Euro 5 diesel engines, not as clean as Euro 6, supposedly.

I'd assume that you'd be safe enough buying one of those diesels - there are too many diesels of that type around to make it safe for the government to penalise them, with their precarious position they will not want to be annoying owners of cars that are probably right in their demographic!

Personally, we have 2 diesels, I only just swapped to diesel because the only petrol engines around were bottom end and I wanted something better. I expect that next year will see a wider range of petrol engines making a comeback. We aren't panicking and are watching the hybrid market with interest, and with two cars, an electric car would be quite practical for us as long as it had over 150 mile round trip range, as we could have a tourer and a commute/local journey car.

JP1978

Winter tyres are probably the best option in your situation - the cost of the tyres and possibly a second set of wheels will be largely offset by the savings in purchase price - ie, 4x4's are dearer than their 2wd equivalent.

I had a fiat van and used winter tyres and was amazed at the difference they made

Gloomendoom

F1F93 wrote: »

The front wheel drive Kuga with winter tyres made it 110m up the hill.

How far did the 4x4 Kuga with winter tyres make it up the hill?

Honey_Badger

Gloomendoom wrote: »

How far did the 4x4 Kuga with winter tyres make it up the hill?

Here you go https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mfuE00qdhLA

thescouselander

It's not worth trying to outmanoeuvre the government. Diesels are the focus for the current tax grab but you can make the case that any car is environmentally damaging so the odds are something will be found wrong with hybrids and electric cars to justify further tax grabs.

System

No 4x4 on this and it is rear wheel drive too which should make it even worse but it does have winter tyres fitted. 4x4 cannot make up for a lack of winter tyres or lack of ability in driving on snow and ice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pcdg9m7Dao

Living 30 minutes from Manchester if this year is like the last few you're only going to get a day or two at most this winter where a 4x4 MIGHT give you an advantage. It really makes no sense whatsoever to have the far higher costs and lower safety of a 4x4 just because of a few days a year. Its as daft as buying a transit instead of a car because you may have a tip run to do a couple of times a year which won't fit into the boot.

Sosumi

Tarambor wrote: »

No 4x4 on this and it is rear wheel drive too which should make it even worse but it does have winter tyres fitted. 4x4 cannot make up for a lack of winter tyres or lack of ability in driving on snow and ice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pcdg9m7Dao

Living 30 minutes from Manchester if this year is like the last few you're only going to get a day or two at most this winter where a 4x4 MIGHT give you an advantage. It really makes no sense whatsoever to have the far higher costs and lower safety of a 4x4 just because of a few days a year. Its as daft as buying a transit instead of a car because you may have a tip run to do a couple of times a year which won't fit into the boot.

OK; if nobody else is going to take the bait, I shall…

With what reasoning do you proclaim that a four-wheel-drive vehicle is less safe than a two-wheel-drive vehicle?