Petrol VS Diesel i'm confused!

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

loofer wrote: »

The not-so-plus point is that the PD engines require 'special' Oil. It can't be just any full synthetic oil.

Its only low-ash oil, you can buy Mobil-1 to that spec for £20+vat for 4 litres from Costco.

td

Hi all,

I am playing these arguments over too. We are just looking to buy a family car a bit bigger than the megane we have now (51 reg) and so we have been looking at

Skoda Roomster
Citroen Xsara Picasso
Renault Scenic

We are quite pollution conscious but don't really understand the technicalities about petrol-v- diesel pollution debates and we have therefore considered diesel options as we presumed that because they were lower tax bands that they would be lower polluters. Is this not the case?

We generally drive around the city we live in and don't go on motorway that much except for holidays weekends etc.

We generally keep our cars 7 years or more because I hate buying cars as I can never decide what to buy. We were looking at the Zafira mainly because our garage has a diagnositc machine for it and it costs a fortune to take cars to dealers machines but the zafira isn't great on emissions so we were put off.

There are pretty good deals on diesel and petrol versions of all 3 cars we've looked at. AAaaargh I hate buying cars.

Any thoughts on these cars would be appreciated too.

ta

td

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

From that list I'd go with the Roomster. I'd rather eat my face than own a French car. However, if you're pollution conscious then buying a new car is quite perverse, the energy cost of building a new car is significant.

Diesels are superior in almost every respect regarding emissions from the exhaust. The real 'green' route to running a car is to keep it until it must be put on the scrap heap. That means regular maintenance and mechanical sympathy.

cyclonebri1

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

From that list I'd go with the Roomster. I'd rather eat my face than own a French car. However, if you're pollution conscious then buying a new car is quite perverse, the energy cost of building a new car is significant.

Diesels are superior in almost every respect regarding emissions from the exhaust. The real 'green' route to running a car is to keep it until it must be put on the scrap heap. That means regular maintenance and mechanical sympathy.

TD, if you have 51 megane it'll be the mk 1? I had one of these 10 months old and hated it, keeping it only 4 weeks. You must like french cars as you're considering another. I did the same, I bought the newer megane diesel estate as my latest car at a year old a year ago. What a difference. I tend to keep my cars for around 6 to 8 years. I wasn't convinced the 2st one was built well enough to go the distance, the latest megane is much improoved, scenic is better looking though.

Daughter recently bought a scenic although the latest zafira was the car of choice but too expensive

LandyAndy

I had an 'x' reg Golf tdi 90 bhp as a company car and it refused to do anything other than 60 mpg regardless of conditions. I replaced it with a '53' reg Golf GTi 150bhp diesel and that refused to anything other than 58mpg.

pault123

LandyAndy wrote: »

I had an 'x' reg Golf tdi 90 bhp as a company car and it refused to do anything other than 60 mpg regardless of conditions. I replaced it with a '53' reg Golf GTi 150bhp diesel and that refused to anything other than 58mpg.

I bet you didn't complain about that!

drewwa

I have two 1.9 TDI cars. A mk1 Audi A4 and a Mk5 Passat, both with the 115 TDI PD varient, year 2000.

I have had the Audi 'chip tuned' which gives it 160bhp, rather than the standard 115.

The Audi is a commuting car, bought for long distance running, quietness, economy, reasonable performance and fitting in with the company car park.



The Passat is the family wagon, Estate. Designed for shopping, towing a trailer tent, two kids and a dog.

Both cars return an average of just over 50mpg on motorway runs, and around mid 40s in town. I'm disappointed if I don't get 600 miles on a full tank.

Both purchased at 2 years old. Audi - £10k(£22k new), Passat £9k(£18k new).

Both have been regularly serviced with our Audi main dealer and retain FSH.

The Audi has covered 145k miles, and the Passat around 75k. Repairs and servicing over six years have cost about £3000 for the Audi, and £2400 for the Passat (Audi lost the airbag and dashboard computer - v. expensive)

I anticipate keeping both cars until the mortgage is paid in 6 years (I hope!). By this point the Audi should have near 300k miles and the Passat approaching 150k.

Both cars are extremely resilient and tough, look pretty much as they did when they were new and show no signs of needing imminent replacement.

Notable repairs to date:

Audi
Dashboard and airbag computer (no dials and no airbag on collision!)
Temperature sensor (bad starting, poor economy)
Rear disc brakes replaced
Exhaust replaced due to internal corrosion

Passat
Temperature sensor replaced (bad starting, poor economy)
Interior lights failed

Cheers,

Drew.

thescouselander

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

From that list I'd go with the Roomster. I'd rather eat my face than own a French car. However, if you're pollution conscious then buying a new car is quite perverse, the energy cost of building a new car is significant.

Diesels are superior in almost every respect regarding emissions from the exhaust. The real 'green' route to running a car is to keep it until it must be put on the scrap heap. That means regular maintenance and mechanical sympathy.

Total nonsense I'm afraid, diesels are better with regard to CO2 emissions but they pump out more Nitrous Oxides and more worryingly large quantities of particulates that have been linked to a number of serious health conditions.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

I suggest you do some research on this, the matter isn't nearly so black and white. For instance, petrol also produces particulate emissions that are much smaller than PM10s, and therefore more easily absorbed into the body. Petrol produces far more carbon monoxide and more hydrocarbons than equivalent diesel engines.

The nitrous oxide levels of diesels are only slightly higher than catalysed petrol engines.

eslick

We are on to our second diesel and to be honest I wont go back, 500+ miles to the tank around town and 60+ miles to the gallon on a motorways. Just dont go for a small engine one, or you will probably wish you had a petrol one especially when you pull away at round abouts or junctions.