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I am aware that I might be rubbing against the grain of your little Diesel Max Power club, but here it goes. Its all very well saying for example ? my 200 horse power Merc Diesel is miles better than my previous 1.4 Astra? and concluding that the Merc is an ?animal? and its performance is awesome and so on, but I don?t think that?s much of fair comparison and valid conclusion. If like-for-like is compared the differences will be all but clear. As some of you might know, I have an AX 1.4 petrol and also an AX1.4 Diesel, apart from the engine these two cars are exactly the same in all other respects and were manufactured within 5 month of each other in 1991. Now if I was to compare these two, well, there is no comparison because they are totally different. The petrol is FAST (you can imagine that, after all it?s a 1.4 engine in a car made of plastic and tin, so the power to weight ratio is pretty good) , very nippy, handles excellent, and I ?enjoy? driving it, what I mean by that is that every time I press my foot down the accelerator I feel like I am back in high school and showing off to girl??. But the Diesel, now that?s a different story, the engine is about 100 K heavier which means the car handles absolutely crap and feels like you are steering a ship because of the extra front-end weight (there is no steering, tracking, alignment problem before you say it !!), when you press the accelerator you don?t ?feel? any excitement or you don?t hear any wonderful noise, then the acceleration leaves much to be desired (I think the 0-60 is about three and half weeks) and the worst bit is the engine noise. The AX is not renowned for its tough body work and basically as I said is made of plastic and tin, you can imagine how much of that diesel grinding noise comes in to the cabin, and you almost feel you are sitting on top of the engine). BUT here are the good bits, the diesel has done 140K, with only ONE cam-belt change (I inspect the belt at every oil change and I wont ?push? it if I felt the belt was on it way out) and is SO reliable it makes me want to break it on purpose so that I can fix it!!, I NEVER think whether the engine will start up, cut-out or play any other games whatsoever, and once I am on the M-way, the car really comes into its own. The petrol on the other hand, has only done 80K, and its an absolute mess. If its warm it worn start, it uses petrol like its duty free commodity, and I have had gear box, CV joint, Clutch, and all sorts of trouble with it. This is even thought when I obtained the cars the Petrol was in a far better state than the diesel. So when I drive my diesel I don?t kid myself by the horsepower figure or try to out-accelerate the guy next to me (who probably has a button on his steering wheel, whose pressing will release a nice and healthy injection of Nitrox into his engine), I drive it knowing that its more reliable, there are WAY less things to go wrong (no carb, no ignition system, that alone is enough), its will start in the morning irrespective of how hot/col/wet/dry/frosty/widny?.. the weather is, AND it RESPECTS my pocket and costs much less to use it. and you can do almost anything to it and it wont give up. The Diesels have to be taken for what they are and surely its cheap to try to pass them on as fake petrols. After all there is a reason why all racing cars use petrol but all trucks/cars/tanks/submarines/agricultural machines (and basically any other things that is required to work with minimum fuss, headache and cost) are Diesel.
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Amin,
If you go to the Mercedes website and look at the power output and performance figures for the W211 E320 petrol and E320CDI diesel I think you might be surprised.
The diesel is quicker in every respect but it is in everyday driving that it beats the petrol version hands down. I have driven both and the petrol version is a wonderfull car to drive, the diesel version is a superb car to drive. It has so much torque that driving it is just so effortless and if you want to go quick that too is effortless.
The fuel consumption is much better with the diesel and hopefully the running costs will be too.
I'm certainly not trying to pass my car off as a fake petrol car as then I would be putting my car down.
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Marcos, you are right. I did go to check and I WAS surprised. The CDI was the same capacity as the petrol one (3.2) and it delivered almost identical performance (0-60 7.7 sec for both, 149mph diesel 151mph petrol) with half the MPG of the petrol one!!!! wow, beats me. I consent, indeed, you do drive an animal!! Happy driving, but don?t forget us, in ?normal? agricultural diesels!!!
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Thankyou Amin,
I'm sure ALL diesels will become better and better over the next few years and become less and less agricultural. I was a passenger in a new Laguna 1.9DCI yesterday and the engine was just so smooth I didn't believe it was a Renault diesel. A super little car.
Just a small point but the figures you quoted are slightly wrong. 149mph petrol and 151mph diesel is what is should read.
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Intellectually, I know that modern diesels can make excellent sense these days; the torque advantage makes them feel lively in real-world driving situations, especially around town, and there are substantial fuel economy savings. I know from being a passenger in a few (including the new Laguna) that refinement is no longer an issue.
I know all this and yet emotionally I could never, ever buy one. All the ultimately fastest, most exciting and most aurally stimulating engines in the world are petrol. No question.
I'm not completely closed-minded though. If someone wants to lend me a new 330d, or a Touareg V10 for a two year evaluation, I'll give it serious consideration...
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