All those who scoff at diesels in any form in any car will be very upset indeed...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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All those who scoff at diesels in any form in any car will be very upset indeed...:-)
I don't scoff at modern diesels - far from it as technological advances have been mightily impressive - I just don't like many of them. To me, power delivery characteristics are important, and few modern turbo diesels avoid a no go / ALL GO / sudden death powerband.
I also consider the type of noise that an engine makes to be important when choosing a car (I have to live with it at the end of the day), so would, for example, choose the howl of a six, or the smooth but gruff edged beat of a five, over the humdrum boom of a four pot any day. Factor in compression ignition, and such a preference becomes even more stark.
My bro's V70 D5 auto sounds terrific and avoids most (but not all) of the no go / ALL GO / sudden death characteristic, as does the 330D I tried, but both of these are relatively large engines with more than four cylinders. In contrast, friends' Passat TDi 130 and Beemer 320D both have narrow, switch like, power bands I don't like, and sound like rattly buckets of bolts. Although reasonably quiet in the cruise, put them under load, and you are rewarded with a boom more intrusive that their four pot petrol (turbo or normally aspirated) counterparts.
Take away my petrol card, and charge £5 a litre, and I might think differently, but until then, I'll stick with my nice five pot V70 2.4T, thanks. Smooth, cultured, fabulous sounding under load, and with an incredibly wide, elastic, power band.
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I also consider the type of noise that an engine makes to be important when choosing a car (I have to live with it at the end of the day), so would, for example, choose the howl of a six, or the smooth but gruff edged beat of a five, over the humdrum boom of a four pot any day. Factor in compression ignition, and such a preference becomes even more stark.
You must have a luxurious life to fuss over engine noise when buying a new car, I actually find the sound of a Diesel therapeutic traveling with loud or nagging kids.
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Its an interesting piont you make about whom it is marketed at. As you say 20-25's can't afford the insurance etc.
I fall into the 30 something category (just) and I'm quite tempted I have to say, it would chear up the commute no end, especially during the summer when some new B road routes home could be found (that Aldi sat nav would have been useful-should have bought one). It appears to me to almost be a replacement for the greatly missed Puma.
(Glass-Tech)
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£900 extra for the 90bhp diesel over the identical 100bhp petrol version dents the economic advantage for many.
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looks like an ideal car to buy when 3 years old...(the diesel that is. Rock hard suspension is a waste of space on wet A roads...)
madf
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HJ - Did you find the footwell very cramped in the Fiesta, or have they addressed that problem in some way?
When I took a test drive there was barely enough room for the pedals let alone ones feet.
CF
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"Or that PSA simply wouldn?t let Ford have it for the Fiesta"
The 1.6 HDi/TDCi engine is a joint Ford/PSA venture, it probably would not exist but for the demand re Focus, C-Max, Mazda, Volvo therefore Ford surely could have had the 110ps version if they wanted in the Fiesta, clearly they reckon 90ps is fine in a Fiesta size car, probably good marketing ensuring a fine blend of economy (fuel/insurance etc) and performance.
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> clearly they reckon 90ps is fine in a Fiesta size car, probably good marketing ensuring a fine blend of economy (fuel/insurance etc) and performance.
And leaves room for a cheap and easy model upgrade next year.
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"Or that PSA simply wouldn?t let Ford have it for the Fiesta" The 1.6 HDi/TDCi engine is a joint Ford/PSA venture, it probably would not exist but for the demand re Focus, C-Max, Mazda, Volvo therefore Ford surely could have had the 110ps version if they wanted in the Fiesta, clearly they reckon 90ps is fine in a Fiesta size car, probably good marketing ensuring a fine blend of economy (fuel/insurance etc) and performance.
The 1.6 HDI is a very frugal engine, so I doubt that there would be much gain in economy.
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There will probably be a Fiesta ST TDCi with the 110 engine one of these days as per the Mondeo.
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I switched to a Volvo D5 a couple of months ago (having obviously consulted to combined wisdoms of this forum first. ;) )
Overall I'm very pleased with it. In terms of performance, compared to the petrol model it's much the same or faster until it runs out of puff at a bit over 4000rpm so is missing the last 1500rpm or so of perfomance you'd get from the turbo petrol but it is more than adequate for day to day spirited driving. It's certainly vastly superior to the non-turbo Volvo petrols.
However, it is not as smooth or as quiet as the petrols and I am yet to encounter a diesel car which is. There is still a noticable bit of diesel clatter in the 1800-2100rpm range under load although it's much smoother when revved higher - even to the point of making a quite sporty growl. It's acceptable but I wouldn't want anything less smooth than this.
It'll pull from just about any speed but needs to be kept above 1700rpm to be on the boil. Power delivery is quite linear above this.
The upside is that even when driven quite hard and at high speed motorway cruising it'll return 42-44mpg. After many years of owning petrol cars which deliver low 20's when driven hard (no matter what the official figures may say) this is a nice change. The 600 mile plus range is also a big plus point ignoring the cost aspect. It'll probably be easier to resell too.
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