perksy
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 posted on 12/12/10 at 10:16 PM |
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New Tin Top - Petrol or Diesel ?
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
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AndyW
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| posted on 12/12/10 at 10:25 PM |
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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]
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PSpirine
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| posted on 12/12/10 at 10:51 PM |
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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.
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steve m
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| posted on 12/12/10 at 11:32 PM |
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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
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cliftyhanger
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| posted on 12/12/10 at 11:59 PM |
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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
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ChrisW
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 12:47 AM |
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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
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dlatch
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 12:56 AM |
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big car go diesel
small car stay petrol
so what do you want? 
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Daddylonglegs
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 08:21 AM |
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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
It looks like the Midget is winning at the moment......
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pekwah1
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 08:41 AM |
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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.
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ashg
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 09:25 AM |
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the service intervals on my vauxhall diesel are 20k. the equivalent petrol model has a 12k service interval. both services are the same price.
Anything With Tits or Wheels Will cost you MONEY!!
Haynes Roadster (Finished)
Exocet (Finished & Sold)
New Project (Started)
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nick205
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 09:48 AM |
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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.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 10:39 AM |
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Diesel savings aren't anything at they were since particulate filters were introduced.
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perksy
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| posted on 13/12/10 at 08:21 PM |
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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
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