Diesel to petrol-recommendations?

6ix

I currently drive a 1.9 straight diesel car-van (first car of my own), but I'm looking to change to a car, probably a '02 or '03, and I'm looking for opinons.

I've almost always driven diesels, so at first I was thinking of going with a TDI car, obvious choices being a Mk IV Golf or something along those lines. Since that, I've been thinking of petrols, and maybe something like a (boring, I know) Corolla. I'm wondering what differences I'd find with moving to a petrol in terms of performance and overall drive.

I wouldn't mind a 1.6, but a lot of the Corollas for sale are 1.4. I know they're reliable, but what sort of poke do they give? I'm not expecting a supercar, but one quality I'd want in my potential new car would be decent acceleration for overtaking. Although diesels are seen as sluggish, I've never had trouble overtaking in my current motor. Once I drop down a gear or two, there was always plenty of pull.

Would a 1.6/higher be advised? (insurance isn't a problem). Are there any particular cars from that "class" that would be recommended?

Cheers in advance!

bazz26

You will have to change your driving style a bit going from a diesel to a petrol car. There is alot less changing up and down the gears in a diesel compared to a petrol car. A petrol car will have to be reved alot more too as it doesn't have as much torque as a diesel engine.

BTW a MKIV Golf will be no more interesting to drive than a Corolla imo.

cantdecide

Golf is the best of the bunch IMO, unless you want to spring for an A3.

bazz26

cantdecide wrote:

Golf is the best of the bunch IMO, unless you want to spring for an A3.

Golfs are not the indestructable superior product these days that the VW marketing department claim them to be though.

A 1.6 Ford Focus would probably suit the OP.

Eoin

bazz26 wrote:

You will have to change your driving style a bit going from a diesel to a petrol car. There is alot less changing up and down the gears in a diesel compared to a petrol car. A petrol car will have to be reved alot more too as it doesn't have as much torque as a diesel engine.

BTW a MKIV Golf will be no more interesting to drive than a Corolla imo.

I find I change gears more often in my diesel because of the narrow power band.

Biro

Coming from a 1.9 N/A diesel, anything is fast. I matched the acceleration of a 1.9 SDI bora while driving a crappy 1.1 '87 Fiesta.
A 1.4 petrol would have no bother eating any of the SDI brigade.
Honda make the best petrols, consider a civic. 1.4 will be enough to gain a performance increase over your current motor.
The 1.4 in the VAG up until about 3 years ago was a poor affair.

colm_mcm

the 1.4 Civics are underpowered. at 83bhp (IIRC)

E92

Oddly the "boring" Corolla will be the fastest, the 1.4s all have 97 ponies under the bonnet, so that will definately be a big step up from an old fashioned diesel.

Biro

colm_mcm wrote:

the 1.4 Civics are underpowered. at 83bhp (IIRC)

That's the current model civic, which is technically a 1.3, but something like 1343cc from the Jazz.
The previous model had 90bhp, and a nice spread of torque considering it was a small petrol. The model before again had 89bhp, but needed to be pushed to get the best from it. Also, I believe the previous model corolla had around 90bhp too. He did mention '02 or '03 in his post.

colm_mcm

I've driven a few old model Civics and never found they revved as easily as the Corolla.

.Longshanks.

I had a '03 1.4 3dr civic. It had 90bhp and so had that wee bit quicker acceleration than the '03 type 1.4 golfs or focus. They only had 75bhp AFIK.
Rev'd to about 7K as well.....when required;) . Was a bit noisey on motorways thou; 80mph = 4000k revs.