cars - diesel V petrol - pros and cons please....

[poppiesinaline]

this year we are buying a new car. DH wants diesel. Im not so sure.

help please...

do you do alot of miles? as diesels are generally more expensive and the fuel is also more expensive so unless you do big miles as dielsels do more per gallon it does work out cheaper to buy a petrol car.

diesel = smelly, noisy, more polluting. Don't do it.

Does this help?

basically if you are driving less than 20,000miles a year the increased fuel efficiency is outweighed by the higher cost of petrol/increased cost of a diesel car over petrol.

if you are driving over 20,000 miles a year, consider diesel, but bear in mind it is more polluting. also consider the type of car you are buying - there is no point buying a petrol discovery for example, because you'll never sell it on, and your depreciation will be mahoooosive.

if you are towing, diesels are generally better (something about more torque in the lower ranges I think)

if you are buying a saloon, hatchback or estate rather than a 4x4/truck, and not going to be towing anything heavy, then I'd buy petrol unless you are a very high mileage family.

Buy a diesel then convert it to bio-diesel .

We have one diesel and one petrol car. We live in the country and do lots of long trips in the diesel car and have found it more economic for us.
I use the diesel all the time (other car too small for a pushchair) but it took some getting used to after having only driven petrol cars. It takes much longer for gear changes to kick in and it is much easier to stall at roundabouts and traffic lights.
I don't think modern ones are generally noisy or smelly though, on the whole.

we only do about 8 thousand miles a year if that. Do a couple of long trips (300 miles each way) per year but other than that we don't use the car much on a day to day basis.

So petrol would probably be better for us then? yes? We are thinking of buying a small 7 seater type of car (not a huge people carrier) and never tow anything.

I didnt realise diesel was less green.

thanks for your replies. They have been very very helpful.

petrol's the way to go then, definitely

We have just bought a Renault Scenic 1.5 diesel. It qualifies for lower licence (£110) than the 1.6 petrol because of lower Co2 emissions. It also gives around 60 miles per gallon rather than 40 for the petrol version. It doesn't sound like the old diesels and it doesn't seem to be either noisy or smelly. I think diesels have improved greatly in very recent years.

Poppies, diesel isn't less green, you weren't wrong. It used to be but now with new common rail diesel engines, most diesel cars made in the last few years will be as eco-friendly as petrol.

The fact that diesel is more expensive than petrol is a new thing too. Bio-fuels or hybrids are the most green way to go but the fuel is not widely available and the hybrid cars aren't either.

Whatever you do don't by a 4x4 unless you live off road.

[ducks and waits for flak]

sounds like they have improved then!

please ignore my earlier out of date info then.

i was sure it was the opposite, ie diesel more green. Also we have diesel and it is definitely not the slightest bit noisy or smelly. People seem surprised when they find out it's diesel, so dunno if our car is a particularly quiet diesel (don't think so) or if they're just a lot better than they were years ago.

btw, we ummed and ahhed bwn petrol vs diesel and it wasn't the overall mileage, acc. to garage man, but lots of small trips/town driving then go for petrol, vs more longer motorway trips then go for diesel, rather than overall annual mileage iyswim

what about gas?

Diesel is differently un-green - it's to do with particulates rather than CO2 (or something )

FWIW I have a 2.0 DTI diesel Zafira, and for a couple of weeks had to drive a 1.8 petrol when mine was being mended. I didn't know how long I'd have it for, so kept buying fuel in £5 or £10, and I didn't keep notes, but the petrol one seemed to use at least 50% more fuel and getting on for twice as much, no exaggeration.

ah, interesting JanH. Thats one of the models we were interested in test driving.

Apart from the cost of fuel, how did you find the petrol Zafira V the diesel to drive as a car?

Petrol one was disappointingly sluggish, poppies - mine is really quick (and often leaves egg on face of boy racers at traffic lights who expected to leave me standing). The latest diesel one is a 1.9 rather than a 2.0 but I imagine it goes just as well.

I prefer my gearbox to the loaner's, but I don't know if the new Zafira has a different one or if it was just stiff (car was practically new). Can you test drive both and see what you think?

I was checking out the C4 Picasso earlier and the Ch4 website still thinks the Zafira is the class beater (and the 1.9DTi the best engine). I would love to get a new one but mine is only 4½ years old, loan was paid off in June, it's only done 36000 miles, and a nearly-new equiv would cost me about £5K on top - not worth it, sadly.