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New Tin Top - Petrol or Diesel ?
perksy - 12/12/10 at 10:16 PM

Looking to change SWMBO's (the boss) Tin top next year but are unsure about going either for a Diesel or a Petrol engined car

Has Anybody done the maths on how many miles you need to do to make a Diesel worthwhile ?
Obviously road tax & MPG comes into it

But not sure She does enough miles tbh

This will be for personal use and not for business


Cheers
Perksy

AndyW - 12/12/10 at 10:25 PM

diesels cost more to buy, cost more to fill up, cost more to service and probably cost more to insure due to larger capacity engine, so you need to find the model you like, work out your running costs based on the annual mileage that you do and then compare to the petrol equivalent. Otherwise all you will get is people's personal opinion and not one's based on facts. Also you mentioned mpg, I get over 50mpg from my diesel (A4) and the wife gets about 40mpg (megane) from hers. Same sized engine and on the same journey. All down to how you drive too!!!

[Edited on 12/12/10 by AndyW]

PSpirine - 12/12/10 at 10:51 PM

It also depends on the size of car... If it's a small hatchback, petrol all the way - far more reliable, and cheaper to run, the 15mpg difference you get is negligible.

I wouldn't buy a petrol BMW or Jag XF, mind. I think the same issues re: reliability and cost of servicing apply, but the petrols are just too thirsty.

If 4x4's, diesel all the way.

steve m - 12/12/10 at 11:32 PM

We tow a caravan, (not all the time!!)
and the previous car was petrol, and dreadfull at towing

present car mondeo 2.0 diesel, is an excellent choice for towing, and i believe the tow car of the year, for two years

cliftyhanger - 12/12/10 at 11:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by PSpirine
It also depends on the size of car... If it's a small hatchback, petrol all the way - far more reliable, and cheaper to run, the 15mpg difference you get is negligible.

I wouldn't buy a petrol BMW or Jag XF, mind. I think the same issues re: reliability and cost of servicing apply, but the petrols are just too thirsty.

If 4x4's, diesel all the way.


I wouldn't dismiss a BMW petrol, well the 3 series little one (1800? 2000?) seems pretty good. A friend has one as opposed to diesel as his tax bill is lower. I drove it to Classic Le Mans this year with him, we averaged nearly 40mpg fully loaded. He reckons mainly motorway driving plus a fair bit of town work he gets an average of 38mpg, which I reckon is pretty good.

However regarding financial costs etc it is NEVER straightforward. You need to find what the REAL mpg will be (and nobody seems to print that figure), and then look at depreciation which is the biggest cost of new cars by a country mile. Plus initial costs to factor.....it is all very difficult to work out.
Best bet is decide which car you want and drive both fuel types to compare. Then factor in any (if any) savings, then flip a coin

ChrisW - 13/12/10 at 12:47 AM

I love my diesel just for the torque. It's a 3.0 Audi tiptronic auto quattro, which has been 'turned up' to 285bhp and 560 torques. (ft/lbs I think, but I get confused with that and Nm's!). 40-90mph is incredible. It's a 2 tonne car, but it can show most hot hatches a clean pair of heels, but is a lot more refined than the equivalent petrol in that you don't have to rev the nuts off it to go quick.

I get 33-34 mpg from it 'real world' consumption, that's commuting (a roads all the way) and general weekend use. Combined tank is the best definition.

Chris

dlatch - 13/12/10 at 12:56 AM

big car go diesel
small car stay petrol


so what do you want?

Daddylonglegs - 13/12/10 at 08:21 AM

Not sure what petrol engines give nowadays regarding mpg, but we have a Peugeot 308 1.6 diesel which gives us an average of around 56mpg which considering the back roads we live on is pretty good. Pretty much halved our fuel bill. But as already said, the mileage you do does have a deciding factor, and we certailnly shop around for fuel.

I must admit though, I really miss the torque when driving a petrol car, and this time of year a front-wheel drive diesel is a god send because you have great low down grunt and plenty of weight on the driven wheels so it does make a difference.

HTH

pekwah1 - 13/12/10 at 08:41 AM

again depends on the car, but diesels are very nice to drive nowadays.
I prefer them for 'regular' driving due to the torque, they just require very little effort to drive, and for a bit of acceleration in any gear you don't need to drop it down one, just let the diesel power do the work!

People are saying that the servicing is more expensive, but depending on how many miles you do, diesels are generally 12.5k servicing compared to petrol's 10k.

ashg - 13/12/10 at 09:25 AM

the service intervals on my vauxhall diesel are 20k. the equivalent petrol model has a 12k service interval. both services are the same price.

nick205 - 13/12/10 at 09:48 AM

Unless you're going to run a really small car or do very low annual mileage (sub 7-8k) then diesel seems to win out on overall cost as far as I can see. The ageing addage of big car diesel/small car petrol is waning with the introduction of the much smaller capacitiy diesel engines 1.4-1.6 in many cases. The even older addage of service intervals is all but gone on the latest generation diesel engines many of which are up to 20k between services (my 57 plate Passat is on a long life interval and asks for a service approx. every 22k miles with a service costing the same as a petrol one).

Personally I find diesels more pleasurable to drive in pretty much all situations, very relaxed compared to petrol motoring.

britishtrident - 13/12/10 at 10:39 AM

Diesel savings aren't anything at they were since particulate filters were introduced.

perksy - 13/12/10 at 08:21 PM

Thanks for the comments lads, Some good thoughts there

She only does a small mileage (around 5k iirc ) so lookslike petrol might be the way to go


Cheers
Perksy