Petrol car with less mpg but cheaper fuel or stick with a diesel?

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

I need to change my car as it’s becoming unreliable.

I have narrowed it down to 2 choices and I very much like both. One is a 1.2 petrol and the other is a 1.5 diesel. I currently drive a 1.6 diesel but was pleasantly surprised at how well the 1.2 petrol drives when I took it out on a test drive.

Any thoughts that might help me to make a decision?

How many miles do you do a year? How long do you intend to keep your car?
What sort of driving, motorways/long distances? Or local running around?

I do about 15-17000 local running around in the week but longer trips for kids’ hobbies most weekend.

we’ll keep it for at least 5 years, possibly longer. The current one we’ve had for 11 years but I hope to be able to downsize as the kids grow up and start to move on (is that wishful thinking?!)

I had the same choice, roughly the same mileage, so last time I broke down, I asked the RAC man's advice.

He said if I was a one car household and relied on it for getting dc to school, then to go for a small but decent quality diesel, as they tend to last longer and be more reliable. In the end I bought a small 3yo Volvo diesel. Not great for air quality I know, but I live in the middle of nowhere.

Assuming this car lasts 10 years, next time might be electric.

I have petrol (always have) and get greater mpg than published - last motorway journey was 45mpg and we did 200 miles in each direction on one tank of fuel . My car is 10 years old and I've had it for the last 7 years. I hated the diesel I was given as a courtesy car as it just wasn't as nippy around town, sounded dire and didn't have the acceleration needed for getting out of difficult junctions!

The sole deciding factor should be the types of journey you do. If short only or mostly, you need petrol as diesel do not cope well with this. I'd say you will get similar mpg with a small diesel and petrol tbh. I had a 1.5 petrol and got more in that than my heavy 2.0 diesel saloon.