At what point diesel start to make sence

avantra

I have a question: due to the crazy prices of petrol I am thinking to switch to a 7 years old Polo diesel and may be run it on biodiesel.
At the moment my Almera 1.4 gives me 45 mpg to 50 mpg when I drive carefully and it is ultra reliable (always). But I only drive 10,000 miles a year and sometimes less. How many miles should one do a year to make diesel a sensible buy considering that the Polo initialy cost £2500 (The Almera was £500) and the insurance is about £30 more a year?

vansboy

You'll find the figure of 300 miles/week - 15000/year to be about right, for you to start saving, BUT...

As you're thinking Polo, as with most city size cars, quite often the petrol is more cost effective, tax/insure/maintain are probably less than a diesel.

It's on the larger cars it makes more sense, 'cos they'll probably do a higher mileage, or longer journey anyway. It'd be more sensible for a rep to drive Focus or Mondeo size, than Fiesta or Polo, but even then the figures need a good look over.

VB

elmer

Hi
there was a big article on biodiesel in yesterdays Sunday times in the driving section, apparently its fairly easy to make and very cheap but you have to pay 20 odd pence per litre tax on it!

Elmer

chris73

Owning a diesel is certainly cheaper than a petrol, providing you do the a reasonable amount of driving. Owning a diesel just to run the kids to school or do a bit of local shopping isn't going to save you much, if anything.

With any diesel make sure that the oil is changed on a regular basis, if it's a modern TDI then you may get 20k between services, however a 7 year old car is going to need servicing at the more usual intervals and an oil change once ever 4000 - 6000 miles or more frequent if you do a lot of very short journeys. Make sure that the car you are buying has been serviced at the correct intervals, otherwise you may be due some very expensive surprises.

A diesel engine is more likely to outlast the rest of the car than a petrol, i've had several diesels which have cheerfully run well into 200k miles, and one which managed just over 289k. In other words buying a diesel car with 100 - 120k isn't really much of a big deal these days providing it's been well treated and had regular servicing.

I have a Diesel EcoTec Vectra which does no less than 45mpg in stop-start traffic and 55mpg+ on a motorway trip, and its by far the most economical car i've owned, which isn't bad for a 2.0. It was also cheaper to insure (£130 cheaper) than the equivalant 1.8i petrol although this of course will vary from person to person.

I've researched the bio-diesel thing, and like myself, some may find it a pipedream, since it is almost impossible to source locally, and to my knowledge, not available alongside fossil diesel on any forecourts.

There are many posts on this forum regarding the ease of producing biodiesel, but I have yet to see anybody taking the incentive at starting up in business producing it!, this may be one reason that many of the links on some biodiesel sites have either broken or the producers have gone out of business (don't take my word for it - ring around).

Surely, if this country was as concerned about green issues as some would perhaps like to think, then maybe they could explain why there isn't at least one forecourt in EVERY town and village which offers biodiesel (regardless of per ltr cost), and why there is / has been very little advertising, research and still virtually non existant availability. I didn't see the newspaper article, but i'm guessing they didn't supply a list of suppliers, or a pull-out-and-keep supplement listing the forecourts selling it - that may have been more of a challenge

BobToo

I think your Almera is doing fine and you should keep it. In your case the benefits of Diesel would be too small to justify the additional costs and the risk associated with buying any used car.

chris73

I'm also guessing that your 1.4 is in the lower tax band. Assuming a 7 year old 1.9 diesel polo you will have higher roadtax to pay and this should also be factored in.

Don't just buy a diesel thinking you'll get Bio-diesel at every forecourt, for super low (tax relaxed) european rates, or easy availability because you'll just be wasting your money!.

Murphy_The_Cat

personally, I think diesel makes sense because in my experience (Rover 75) it gives a much nicer drive than petrol (IMHO)

MTC

jjames_3

Stick with the Almera.

You're doing nowhere near enough miles for it to be worthwhile, and if you're getting up to 50mpg out of the 1.4 (sounds reasonable, we get 45mpg out of the 1.6 Sunny which is essentially the same car mechanically) you won't see too much of a saving with the diesel, bearing in mind that older diesels weren't as economical as they are now (maybe 55-60mpg if you're lucky).

At 10,000 miles per year at 50mpg with the petrol you'd be spending approx £810 on petrol a year, assuming 90p/l. With the diesel at 60mpg, with diesel at around 94p/l the cost would be £705. But you'll be paying more for tax, possibly more for insurance and you have to factor in the cost of changing vehicles and the possibility that the new car may have hidden faults, for which I'd budget £500 to be safe.

So you'll be waiting years to make any real cost savings on the Polo over the Almera, and in the meantime you'll have a smaller, noisier and smellier car. Worth it? I think not.

Maybe get a diesel when the Almera breaks, but not until.

avantra

Thank you JJames for the wise advice,

I will keep the Almera as it is a very nice car to drive (handle like Focus in my opinion). As you say it will cost far less to run on 10k a year. It is making sense, after all the Nissan never had any problem and it has passed it's MOT with flying colours every year in the last 9 years (tell you something about Jordy build quality). thank you again.

BenL

Don't forget that Diesels have only just become good over the last few years.

The engine in that polo would be a load of rubbish.

You need a common rail diesel turbo engine, mainly from 2001 onwards.

Ben

BargainHunterCat

Diesel engines are generally much more reliable than petrol ones and also last longer - there is simply less to go wrong! Diesels tend to be more economical on fuel too.
My Peugeot 205 1.8 Turbo diesel 1991 model has done 156,000 miles and is still going strong!
I use bio fuel with currently costs me 75-80p per litre from a producer in Lincoln. I prefer bio fuel as my car runs better on it with regards to mpg and also it makes it faster and feels less like a classic diesel to drive.
Whilst you can save yourself money by using bio fuel, the meany government won't thank you for saving the environment by reducing your road tax as your vehicle is still a "diesel".
You will however sail through the MOT emissions test with flying colours!
https://www.bio-power.co.uk is a useful resource for finding bio fuel producers and has lots of advice.
If you want to produce the fuel yourself, they can help you set up and the web site has links to the relevant forms you need to fill in to keep it legal and keep HMCE happy!