|
It also depends on the car itself, going back to the original post I would rather drive a 2.2 petrol Vectra than a 2.2DTi because the DTi is not the most torquey or refined diesel, if it were the new 1.9 CTDi it might be a different question.
|
|
Diesel. Everytime. Love the torque, relaxed motorway cruising and being able to fill up with cheap diesel in France.
|
I'd go for diesel every time. Put your foot down and instant power. Unless you like thrashing a petrol to bits you will never see it working at its best. Turbo diesel gives the power and torque where you need it!
As for the money, the difference is minimal in cost (my Punto 1.9 JTD costs more to service than the 1.2 16v, is the same to insure and is cheaper to fuel and tax).
Don't forget the diesel will be worth more than the petrol come trade-in time, making the real difference half of the £1,200.
|
|
|
|
I haven't heard that Brown will raise duty on diesel, but at the moment I believe that duty on standard unleaded and derv are identical, it is the oil companies that are responsible for the 6-7p price hike on derv.
I too am a disillusioned diesel driver having opted out of my company car scheme and bought a new diesel car just over a year ago.
My take on diesels, is that the disadvantages now outweigh the advantages, namely noisiness, slowness to warm up in cold weather, greater service expense, greater purchase expense generally, lack of low speed nippiness and apparent complexity making them possibly less reliable than their petrol equivalents.
I am thinking of changing my car in the next 6 months or so to something else costing around £20K, but I am seriously thinking of going back to petrol.
My diesel car now does about 43 mpg, whilst my petrol turbo VW Passat used to do about 36 mpg on the same journeys. Withn the ever looming cost of diesel is this 7 mpg really worth the hassle ?
|
Does a given amount of crude oil break down into fixed quantities of petrol, diesel etc.? I probably knew once, but I don't now. Diesel and heavy fuel oil were once by products of the petrol refining process. With the trend towards diesels, if it becomes worldwide, will the situation become reversed with an excess of petroleum?
The benefits of diesel will increase as the fossil fuels become scarcer and the move to biodiesel gathers pace. From what I've found on the net, renewable diesel fuels are much easier to make than is methanol for spark-ignition engines.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
|
|
|
My take on diesels, is that the disadvantages now outweigh the advantages, namely noisiness, slowness to warm up in cold weather, greater service expense, greater purchase expense generally, lack of low speed nippiness and apparent complexity making them possibly less reliable than their petrol equivalents.
Are modern diesels really noisier than petrol engines? Certainly not the HDI in our C5. We took a friend home from hospital recently and she had no idea it was a diesel engine. At speed it is much quieter than any petrol engine I have experienced. Slower to warm up, really? Less reliable, certainly not.
As for the cost of diesel, that is down to the UK being out of step with the rest of Europe
|
WHY does it cost more to service a diesel than a petrol?
Looking at the Haynes manual for the 4 & 5 cylinder Audi 100/A6, there is only one difference in the servicing requirements between the petrol & diesel.
Replacing spark plugs.
Now it would seem to me that this should make the petrol more expensive to service than then diesel...
|
I do all my own servicing, and have since I was.....young.
As far as I understand it, the only difference with petrol and diesel servicing is that the oil needs changing more frequently on a diesel than a petrol, so thats about £20/£25 a go, and the fuel filter needs changing periodically. Other items such as glow plugs (which are not "used" except on very cold mornings on the modern diesels) can be likened to spark plugs, and a cam belt is a cam belt. There's no mystery about servicing a diesel engine, but the modern diesels are beyond most peoples abilities to fault find, if and when anything does go wrong.
I was told by a knowledgeable friend a few years ago that the Chancellor had put a higher tax levy on diesel, as disel users were look upon as tax evaders!
I still prefer, and run 2 diesels to a petrol, although I haven't tried a turbo petrol yet, or a big V6 petrol. They are just sooooooo lazy and unfussed compared to the typical petrol. I did actually own a petrol 2.0 206 (138bhp allegedly) and yes it would pick up from 1,000 rpm and was very flexible, but when it was asked to get a move on, it felt and sounded like I was thrashing the life out of it. But I suppose we are all different and like different things about our cars.
Reggie
|
I have to say that there are several things in this thread that I disagree with. Note that I say disagree, not that they are wrong. I am going purely on my own experience of driving (mainly ) diesels since 1987 and they are solely Citroen diesels (XUD and HDi for last 3 yrs)
"thrash a diesel, as you invariably have to" Why? And anyway my old BXs always returned at least 45 mpg no matter how I drove. Wife's Xantia HDi refuses to do less than about 48.
"noisiness," Different noise perhaps, maybe a bit more clatter on start-up with older diesels but not noticeable on HDis or at cruising speed. Arguably quieter cruising at 3000 rpm at 90 mph than a "buzzy" high revving petrol.
"greater service expense," apart from cambelts when required and two new sets of glowplugs, over the last 17 years and cars that have done 170k, 140k and 100k plus present diesels that have done 77k and 17k the engines have not been touched. The "greater service cost" of diesels over petrol is therefore hard to calculate since the service cost of my diesel engines in 17 years has been virtually zero (OK - £50 for glowplugs)
"lack of low speed nippiness" - what? with all that torque? Saw bit of Top Gear highlights last night and a Skoda Fabia diesel blew away a Mini in terms of accelleration
"apparent complexity" see points on servicing above. Only thing that has needed doing to mine has been oil changes and glowplugs - how complex is that?
"less reliable" Had a breakdown in about 1990 - broken accellerator cable - couldn't have happened to a petrol???
Now, if you said you preferred the characteristics of driving a petrol engined car and because diesels command a price premium then I would say go and buy one. But don't run down diesels because of spurious and imagined "costs", noise, etc
Happy motoring (petrol or diesel - it's up to you)
|
|
|
|
|
|
