Petrol or diesel ??

shawnee

I have mostly had diesel cars and find them more ecoomical than petrol . However I am not doing as much mileage as I used to because of work situation. I am wondering what mileage one would need to be doing to justify buying a diesel. They are usually a bit more expensive, harder to get low mileage ones and tax is also that bit higher.?? Any comments or experiences

Depends on loads of things, spend €18000 on a diesel or €15000 on a petrol and you need to buy lots of diesel to justify it and hope nothing costly goes wrong. Spend €2000 on an old diesel or the same on an old petrol and the difference in mpg starts paying off immediately even if you're doing small miles.

What's your anticipated mileage and budget ?

opinion guy

In this tax regime and with current tech - diesel all the way in my opinion

itarumaa

If you are looking under 1k cars, then petrol would be better idea(more options to choose from), but if spending more than that, then I cannot see any point to buy anything else than diesel.

jaffa20

itarumaa wrote: »

If you are looking under 1k cars, then petrol would be better idea(more options to choose from), but if spending more than that, then I cannot see any point to buy anything else than diesel.

Petrol is much more fun. Diesel is for the boring.

Ricardo G

Would prefer a high a mileage diesel than a high mileage petrol !!
2.0d vs 2.0 petrol,,,,,,,,, diesel wins
Theres so much choice out there i'd still be going for diesel

bazzachazza

What's your budget ?
What's your intended mileage ?
What do you want the car to do i.e. haul ass fast, carry 2 adults 2 kids etc etc ?

The difference is 10c a litre or so a litre. Its worth it but you will need to be doing 20000 miles a year at least to justify spending €3000 more for diesel. That's the maths that worked for me.

rebel.ranter

I'm looking at a petrol & diesel equivalent of the same car (2005 X5). I do less than 10k miles per annum. What I have noticed so far (for the car I'm looking at):
- Diesels are 25% more expensive ~€25k v ~€20k
- Mileage is always higher on the diesels
- Trim specification on the petrols seem to be higher
- Diesels seem to have extra issues like turbo failure

If you're doing less than €15k miles per annum I think a petrol variant has to be considered. Also if you're planning on hanging on to a vehicle for a number of years depreciation brings them so close that you are only talking about €1k - €2k difference when it comes to selling.
There's no denying that a petrol will be more difficult to sell but that also means better value when you're buying.
In my case I'd want to be saving alot of fuel for the extra €5k I'd be paying for the diesel equivalent.
I have not fully made my mind up yet, not even sure I'll change this year.
Just to note it's not a clear cut decision.

bazzachazza

That's a toughy. I guess petrol is best if you are going for the X5.

The shock will be the cost each time you fill her up expect a bill of €100 each time. But remember how much you saved over buying the diesel version .

Tragedy

Gone from a 2.0l diesel that's done an average of 45mpg over 16,000miles(I'm anal and track every fill) to a 2.5l petrol that get's 33mpg at best on a long run as I'll only be doing 4-5k per annum now.

No looking back :pac:

bazzachazza

bazzachazza wrote: »

The shock will be the cost each time you fill her up expect a bill of €100 each time. .

I got that shock when I filled my 520.

opinion guy

jaffa20 wrote: »

Petrol is much more fun. Diesel is for the boring.

Have you driven newer common rail diesels ? Just as much fun as petrol. Drove a 2l diesel audi a3 quattro 170bhp a while back. Whoa momma. Certainly anything but boring.