£30k for a car with a laughably dated tablet jammed awkwardly onto the dashboard. My mother-in-law's new Kia Picanto has better than that, and it includes Apple Carplay and Android Auto.

Would one of these be fast enough:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201810031130016

I'd have one in a heartbeat if I had 30k.

Yes.... I just think they are ugly? Perhaps small minded of me, but I just hate the back of them in particular.

Surely the mileage justifies going diesel. My understanding of the issues are down to incomplete re-gens of the DPF (due to short, stop start journeys) knackering it. Presumably at 20k per year you must be spending a lot of time pounding along motorways and such so this shouldn't be an issue?.

As for performance, as the Passat bi-turbo diesel (6.3s 0-60, 147mph) would keep up with a Sierra Cosworth, how much performance do you need or think you can realistically use?. Also, a point worth noting is that the Passat also has more torque (369 lb/ft) than the n/a V8 RS4 (317 lb/ft).

Surely the mileage justifies going diesel. My understanding of the issues are down to incomplete re-gens of the DPF (due to short, stop start journeys) knackering it. Presumably at 20k per year you must be spending a lot of time pounding along motorways and such so this shouldn't be an issue?.

As for performance, as the Passat bi-turbo diesel (6.3s 0-60, 147mph) would keep up with a Sierra Cosworth, how much performance do you need or think you can realistically use?. Also, a point worth noting is that the Passat also has more torque (369 lb/ft) than the n/a V8 RS4 (317 lb/ft).

Agree... If this was 5 years ago... just all this diesel fuss at the mo is putting me off. I run cars long (that's the plan anyway). God only knows what's going on with diesel in 6 years time.
(will be holding onto the current one until it fails the MOT next month and then decision time).

There is plenty of performance in the Passat.
I guess I just want a load of people to say "don't worry about buying Diesel - it will all be fine".

Cheers all for taking the time to give me your thoughts on this.

PS - correct - very few short journeys... all motorway. On original clutch its hardly touched on 105K on current one.

As regards getting diesels or not, you need to break it down into different areas:

1. Whether your overall mileage and the make up of that mileage make a diesel over a petrol engined car economically viable. You will need to take into account the purchase cost (for similar/minimum performance and spec requirements), resale value, fuel, normal maintenance, insurance costs and the likelihood and cost of additional larger maintenance bills that might come with driving diesels predominantly in urban areas for short journeys from cold or specific problems a brand, model of engine type might have.

Helped obviously if you're buying/leasing a company car, where it's their responsibility to adequately maintain it.

2. Whether much of your driving takes you into town/city centres that are likely to introduce or increase congestion and especially emmissions based charging, even if that's only at the end of longer journeys.

For the moment (depending on how long you're likley to keep the car for), this means that to avoid getting a £10 - £15 extra charge per day when entering such Ultra Low Emissions Zones (ULEZs) from next year or so (e.g. London), or even outright bans, then for now you'll likely need either a Euro4 petrol car or a Euro6 diesel.

All new cars will already exceed these requirements, and its rare for governments to heavily penalise owners of older cars retrospectively via VED, only new ones sold after a Budget, because doing so would lose LOTS of votes.

I would say that in your case, you appear to do sufficient mileage overall and on longer journeys that the issues with diesels DPFs and EGRs gumming up is far less of an issue, so it comes down to the drive, comfort, reliability, practicality and costs, as well as any personal preferences about styling or brand.

Best of luck.

Edited by Engineer Andy on 28/10/2018 at 13:45

Flip side though wants something nice to spend those 20k miles in. I'd buy another diesel after all after another 5 years and 100k miles whatever you buy is going to be worth pennies. I reckon a decent 2.0 mile muncher for 20k you could get something really nice, do you really need more power than a typical 200bhp four pot diesel gives? Then you could spend 10k on a nice weekend toy which you could occasionally use for the commute too.

Personally I’d be running one performance car and a cheaper commuter to keep the miles off. It would more than pay for itself by slashing fuel, maintenance and depreciation costs. By all means buy a toy but I’d put £3-£5k into a cheap car too. As I say it’ll more than pay for itself if it takes the bulk of that 20k mileage. I’ve a 1.2 TDi Polo that’ll sit happily at limit bursting speeds on the motorway yet averages 55-60mpg and has depreciated very slowly or if more space is needed I also have an immaculate Toyota Avensis Estate I paid just over £4K for that would have no problem swallowing up 20k a year for many years to come with again minimal depreciation. Even keeping the old Mondeo as a second car could add up if it’s in basically good order. The 2.0 and older 1.8’s can cover well over 250k with care and it’s alreadu lost the bulk of its value. One thing’s for sure though, if you put 20k p/a onto £30k worth of car you’ll suffer crippling depreciation, easily 5 figures in the first year alone. While an old Toyota or similar could be had in decent order for £1,500.

Good points and will consider... the depreciation on was the last one works out at about £2500 a year which seems acceptable to me. Understand year one's painful, but intending to run it until 100K plus all being well and it is what it is...
I like to get as new as poss to get the warranty. I understand could do something privately in this area but it's not the same. Had some V painful experiences paying four figures to fix cars in the past and the peace of mind of the warranty is welcome.

Finally - I am 10 hours a week in the car... some weeks 20 hours or more, I would like to reduce that but no real prospect in the near future. I would like these hours to be in a nice environment. If this was all about money I wouldn't even be looking as there is nothing essentially wrong with what I have.