Petrol or Diesel?

tux130582

thanks for the replies heres a few answers to the questions....

I do about 6000 miles a year so less than average I guess, but I am buying it to keep for another 7 or so years, and buy then I will have move house with partner so in effect we would be sharing the car in a year or twos time.

Budget is around £8000 as a maximum dont have any debt, in fact have 25k in the bank which is savings for a house deposit,

what does everyone think? what are the dual mass flywheels? and how expensive is it likely to be? any other car recommendations within the budget and age?

thanks

AdrianHi

tux130582 wrote: »

thanks for the replies heres a few answers to the questions....

I do about 6000 miles a year so less than average I guess, but I am buying it to keep for another 7 or so years, and buy then I will have move house with partner so in effect we would be sharing the car in a year or twos time.

Budget is around £8000 as a maximum dont have any debt, in fact have 25k in the bank which is savings for a house deposit,

what does everyone think? what are the dual mass flywheels? and how expensive is it likely to be? any other car recommendations within the budget and age?

thanks

The flywheels thing comes from a recent Honest John article in the Telegraph. I've been following a car enthusiast forum for over two years now hearing about all sorts of issues that can affect diesels with all the emissions control gubbins on board that can cause problems, especially for diesel's driven a lot around town on short trips, instead of out on the open road where they belong.

Now we know you are buying used and doing quite low miles, the heavier depreciation of the petrol car works more in your favour. Those turbo Saab's are thirsty and will be hard to sell on in the current climate.
If your thinking Saab you probably want a bit of style and interest in the car, so I guess the very worthy but dull Skoda Octavia is not going to cut it for you unless you look at the vRS model.
I'd suggest putting £8K into a 2 year old (a bit of warranty left) Mazda 6 2.0 petrol TS or TS2. £8K should buy you the facelifted model with much better quality materials used in the interior than the early 6's. Stylish and sporty with a really interesting raspy exhaust note, not too thirsty and frankly a much more interesting interior than the rather flaccid Saab. The 6 is also fun to drive, you can chuck it about down a twisty road and it manages to appeal very well to male and female drivers / owners. My wife has one

save-a-lot

AdrianHi wrote: »

It's all none sense this, what are Glasses saying?

I was also considering the fact that deisels tend to need more services - I have known service interval of 6000 miles, the cost of diesel is more, and there are petrol cars that will do, or almost do similar mileages per gallon

daveyjp

save-a-lot wrote: »

I was also considering the fact that deisels tend to need more services - I have known service interval of 6000 miles, the cost of diesel is more, and there are petrol cars that will do, or almost do similar mileages per gallon

Modern diesels need less servicing - 18,000+ for mine - petrol equiavalent is about 12,000.

Some petrol cars have dual mass flywheels.

6,000 miles a year is petrol everytime. Turbo diesels need regular hot running to prevent carbon build up in the turbos - not cheap to fix.

Smi1er

save-a-lot wrote: »

I was also considering the fact that deisels tend to need more services

My TD needs a service every 20,000 miles;)

tux130582

does anyone know how accurate this is?

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/specs/Summary.aspx?model=780&page=3


some of the diesels do more than 50 per gallon and others only 35! same size of engine!

at the moment according to this site im only getting 36 per gallon, so I presume that a petrol maybe best for me with the cost of diesel being more?

Also having never owned a newer car what is the situation with the tax it looks like some of the diesel options will only be £120 per year which is less than I pay now on my 1.6 saxo!

thansk for the replies i will now look into the Rs Skoda and mazda 6. I also like the ford mondeo ST TDCI is this also a thirsty model?

tux130582

ive since looked up all the cars, my fav second choice is the ST TDCI mondeo which is a 2.2 diesel and according to the guide does 46 mpg which is 10 more than the saxo, so should work out the same running costs with the extra cost of diesel. Does anyone know anything about these cars? At the moment they seem a bit out of my 8000 budget with the lowest in a 40 mile radius of Bristol being 9500!!!!!

AdrianHi

My BMW 320d has condition based servicing, first oil service at 19,000 miles costing £138 (expensive sythetic oil which means you don't get carbon build on on turbo components etc.). Some people doing more motorway miles will get over 22,000 miles before the first oil service is needed.

tux130582
Don't kid your self the Saxo and Mondeo will have the same running costs, they might have the same fueling costs, but depreciation and other costs are going to be different (higher) on the Mondeo.

Earlier this evening using a few PetrolPrices.com historic figures I did a little projection on where the cost of fueling is going. Most diesels do around 25% to 30% more mpg than petrols, but the price of diesel has been rising a lot quicker than petrol. At the current rate of increases the cost of fueling a 58mpg BMW 320d (diesel) is going to rise and match the 47mpg BMW 320i (petrol) in around 6 to 8 months from now.
:eek:

tux130582

thanks for the replies, its much appreciated, although confusing.

I would just like a car that looks good and is bigger than my current car. I bought the saxo when i was 19 im 26 now and too old for it and big for it!

Im not keen on the Skoda, or the Mazda 6, Audi A4 and BMW are too expensive, the lexus 200 only does 26 mpg!!!! the main cars in my price range i like are the saab 9-3 and the tdci mondeo...any other suggestions? If i was to choose a saab i presume it should be a petrol one? The inititial cost might not be a massive deal (in terms of depreciation) as i may beable to get a friend car dealer to get me one from auction (trade price) i find it strange that models with the same engine size give such huge MPG differences!

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/specs/...del=780&page=3

AdrianHi

tux130582 wrote: »

thanks for the replies, its much appreciated, although confusing.

I would just like a car that looks good and is bigger than my current car. I bought the saxo when i was 19 im 26 now and too old for it and big for it!

Im not keen on the Skoda, or the Mazda 6, Audi A4 and BMW are too expensive, the lexus 200 only does 26 mpg!!!! the main cars in my price range i like are the saab 9-3 and the tdci mondeo...any other suggestions? If i was to choose a saab i presume it should be a petrol one? The inititial cost might not be a massive deal (in terms of depreciation) as i may beable to get a friend car dealer to get me one from auction (trade price) i find it strange that models with the same engine size give such huge MPG differences!

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/specs/...del=780&page=3

That link does not work.
When looking at turbo diesels and turbo charged cars in general the engine size (cubic capacity) becomes largely irrelevant.
If looking at Saab diesels be aware that the 2.2d is an older, noisier, slower and thirstier engine. The 1.9TiD (from Fiat) is a much better engine, quicker, quieter and more economical.

Your are also looking at an age of car where the CO2 emissions started to make a difference to the tax company car users paid and this is around the time new emissions standards came in. So it is no surprise you see a raft of engine modifications improving performance, mpg and emissions.

It is a bit confusing, partly because the answer to the petrol / diesel which is cheapest question is likely to be different in a matter of months. You mileage says petrol and petrol may well become a cheaper way to fuel a car over the next year. Better to pick what you like best, that way even if it turns out to be the slightly more expensive option at least your enjoying the car more.

Out of Mondeo and 9-3 the Mondeo will be more fun to drive. Neither of these cars are winning any reliability awards. My £8K would go on the Mazda 6 as said or an older (probably 6 or 7 year old) BMW 3 or 5 series which is depreciating so slowly by that age that it's not more expensive than the other options in the long run, even if the fuelling it is a bit more expensive.