Diesel is it really worth it??

Fudd_Man

So what do you think?? I bought a 320d about 8 months ago and to be honest I'm not impressed with the whole diesel experience! The engine is loud and rough compared to the petrol and the added cost of servicing along with the extra you pay to buy a diesel car asks the question is it really worth it? I'm averaging about 40 mpg which is only about 5-7 more than a 2litre petrol.....I'm an economical driver but surely it should be a bit better than that! Anyway what do you guys think?

dar83

Worth it to sell your soul?!?!

Never!!!

:pac:

mickdw

If you are driving across the country regularily, diesel is a no brainer. At smaller mileages, its not so clear cut. I have not been tempted yet.

MugMugs

I cover 30k miles plus a year and would be screwed on a petrol equivalent. Also, I wouldn't go back now..... I like to hear my engine

What kind of mileage do you cover OP?

shawnee

When I see diesel selling at the same price as petrol (in some outlets) and slightly cheaper at other pumps , I really don't think that it is worth it. Having driven diesel for the last twenty years , i reluctantly changed to petrol.
Why.... Modern diesels need much more servicing and car than those of the 80s/90s. Cost of diesel has gone to close to petrol. Cost of motor tax on diesels (Other than the overpriced 08s) is more expensive. Petrol is generally a smoother and less noisy engine.


Lastly just when every Tom , Mick and Mary decides to buy diesel in the country , whether they need it or not.. the price rises.

Fudd_Man

That's my point the cost of diesel to petrol is to close now is it really worth it? I do roughly 140-180 miles a week a mix of motorway and urban miles!

MugMugs

Fudd_Man wrote: »

That's my point the cost of diesel to petrol is to close now is it really worth it? I do roughly 140-180 miles a week a mix of motorway and urban miles!

Your mileage would not justify a diesel. You cover under 10 miles a year.

big_drive

I do an average of around 330/350 miles per week. Where do ye think I am in regards to petrol or diesel?

shedweller

Among other things, the L/100k of both cars plays a part, obviously. After that, depreciation, maintenance (planned and unplanned) tax and ins. The price of each fuel in the future is an unknown so use your best judgement.

MugMugs

big_drive wrote: »

I do an average of around 330/350 miles per week. Where do ye think I am in regards to petrol or diesel?

Sorry physic hat isn't working buddy.

ION08

big_drive wrote: »

I do an average of around 330/350 miles per week. Where do ye think I am in regards to petrol or diesel?

I do about 350-400 miles a week. Mainly motorway miles monday to friday. And mixed at weekends.
I recently switched from petrol and bought an 02 A4 TDI.

In urban, low gear driving diesel is a bit gruff but once on the move on a motorway it comes into its own. Very solid, relaxed cruising with decent amount of grunt and the economy is excellent. Filled it up last sunday evening and still have half a tank today after 340 miles! ... I would stuggle to get 300miles from my previous petrol on a full tank!!

Overall very impressed and this is after coming from a 200bhp GTI.

Also diesel encourages more relaxed, lazier driving whereas i find with zippier petrols, the temptation is always there to drive them in a "sportier" manner.

One thing you cant deny though, its great not seeing the petrol needle considerably dropping every day!

Also when i put €30 into it, i know its not gonna be gone by tomorrow evening :-D

No more petrol range anxiety!

big_drive

ION08 wrote: »

I do about 350-400 miles a week. Mainly motorway miles monday to friday. And mixed at weekends.
I recently switched from petrol and bought an 02 A4 TDI.

In urban, low gear driving diesel is a bit gruff but once on the move on a motorway it comes into its own. Very solid, relaxed cruising with decent amount of grunt and the economy is excellent. Filled it up last sunday evening and still have half a tank today after 340 miles! ... I would stuggle to get 300miles from my previous petrol on a full tank!!

Overall very impressed and this is after coming from a 200bhp GTI.

Also diesel encourages more relaxed, lazier driving whereas i find with zippier petrols, the temptation is always there to drive them in a "sportier" manner.

One thing you cant deny though, its great not seeing the petrol needle considerably dropping every day!

Also when i put €30 into it, i know its not gonna be gone by tomorrow evening :-D

No more petrol range anxiety!

I'm totally in 2 minds at the moment. Finding it hard to figure out exactly what is best for me

MugMugs

big_drive wrote: »

I'm totally in 2 minds at the moment. Finding it hard to figure out exactly what is best for me

What kind of mileage ?

Do you do 350 miles in stop start traffic or motorways ?

What are you in at the moment ?

bazz26

Fudd_Man wrote: »

That's my point the cost of diesel to petrol is to close now is it really worth it? I do roughly 140-180 miles a week a mix of motorway and urban miles!

When you are doing such low mileage then the answer is no diesel is not worth it. Should have done the homework before buying I'm afraid.

johnos1984

I'd love to go back to petrol. Sadly I pay my own fuel bills so diesel it is!

I had a petrol Mondog for a week or so over Christmas and the cost of putting fuel into it shocked me compared to what I was used to with the Passat TDI.

It just seemed that it was empty after every bloody trip

Fudd_Man

Yeah hindsight is 20/20! To be fair when I bought it diesel was 20cent cheaper a litre! Lesson learned I guess!

MetzgerMeister

MugMugs wrote: »

Your mileage would not justify a diesel. You cover under 10 miles a year.

Your maths hat doesn't seem to be working either :pac:

Satanta

My last two cars have been diesels. All before that were petrol of various sizes and my last petrol was a Mitsubishi FTO. Current car is a 520d. I dont think I'd go back to driving a petrol. To have the same power and torque I'd need to buy a relatively large petrol which I have always found to be thirsty. I dont hear my engine much either so that isnt really a factor although petrols are generally more refined at lower speeds. Once up at cruising speed it doesnt matter. I dont think you'll hear the engine in either.

As for servicing costs, I havent found any additional costs in owning a diesel. I really dont know where this is coming from. Everyone talks about DPF etc but I have yet to carry out any work on one and I have owned diesels now for 5 years. Someone also said the cost of tax on pre 08 diesels are more than pre 08 petrols... no its not. The tax is calculated on engine size so a 2.0 diesel costs as a 2.0 petrol.

big_drive

MugMugs wrote: »

What kind of mileage ?

Do you do 350 miles in stop start traffic or motorways ?

What are you in at the moment ?

Audi a4 2001 diesel. Happy with how much I spend a week on diesel
But few bits going wrong with car so thinking of changing.

I work in Kerry but from cork.

Travel from cork to Kerry twice a week and back. Rest is general miles around Tralee & cork

bazz26

Fudd_Man wrote: »

Yeah hindsight is 20/20! To be fair when I bought it diesel was 20cent cheaper a litre! Lesson learned I guess!

20c a litre cheaper. :eek: Where and when was that? I'm driving diesels about 5/6 years and the most I've seen in the difference is 8c/9c.

And to be fair diesels have alwasy been noiser and less refined than petrols no matter who much sound proofing manufacturers put around them. A diesel engine is agricultural by design.

EPM

I switched to a diesel a year ago this Sunday purely out of necessity. I had it parked up a while before using it and between a few setbacks I've clocked up close on 60k km. I did the sums, and when all is said and done it has actually worked out cheaper buying this car, including the cost to change. Then add in the value to me of a newer, higher spec, lower mileage car and it's a no brainer.

This higher servicing costs is the biggest load of crap floating about this forum. I pay about €140 for a minor service and €200 for a full service at a main dealer. That's cheaper than my old 1.6 petrol.


However, while I'm more than happy with the performance of the car, go above 3k revs and it's a bag of spanners. The short first gear means it's a pig in town too. You can't potter about time in 3rd from close on stationary like you can with a petrol either. But the majority of my mileage is on a motorway and a diesel is far superior - you can't hear the engine note, the peak power is where you want it and its an easy 48 to the gallon.

So while I'd love an ST its not going to happen, needs must.

REDLAD123

johnos1984 wrote: »

It just seemed that it was empty after every bloody trip

100% diesel all the way for me.. I'll never drive a petrol car again.. My girlfriend was driving a 2007 1.4 Kia Rio petrol on a 50 mile round trip to work every day and doing another 60 miles over the weekend, she was putting up to €110 petrol in the car each week :eek:

I convinced her to change to a 2008 1.4 Peugeot 207 1.4 HDI... After 3 days of driving the diesel she declared "i think the fuel guage is broken on the 207 coz its not really moving"

She now only spends €75 per week on diesel

Calculations per annum are as follows;

07 1.4 petrol Kia Rio €110 per wk x 52 = €5720 p/a Road Tax €444
08 1.4 HDI Peugeot €75 per wk x 52 = €3900 p/a Road tax €160

Savings p/a are €1820 on fuel & €284 on Road Tax = €2104 saving p/a

Servicing costs are the same (filters and oil cost more or less the same for both fuel types)

Buy a diesel people and stop kidding yourselves

lar203

i have a 10 ford fiesta 1.4d 50 euro a week and she does about 700km . i was driving a opel vectra 1.7d 06 and i have to say the confort compared to the fiesta was amazing . i'll be getting a new car this year and i have to say ill move up the engine size and spile myself

Fudd_Man

bazz26 wrote: »

Fudd_Man wrote: »

Yeah hindsight is 20/20! To be fair when I bought it diesel was 20cent cheaper a litre! Lesson learned I guess!

20c a litre cheaper. :eek: Where and when was that? I'm driving diesels about 5/6 years and the most I've seen in the difference is 8c/9c.

And to be fair diesels have alwasy been noiser and less refined than petrols no matter who much sound proofing manufacturers put around them. A diesel engine is agricultural by design.

In swords in June it was 1.34 a litre now in palmerstown it's 1.53!

Fudd_Man

bazz26 wrote: »

Fudd_Man wrote: »

Yeah hindsight is 20/20! To be fair when I bought it diesel was 20cent cheaper a litre! Lesson learned I guess!

20c a litre cheaper. :eek: Where and when was that? I'm driving diesels about 5/6 years and the most I've seen in the difference is 8c/9c.

And to be fair diesels have alwasy been noiser and less refined than petrols no matter who much sound proofing manufacturers put around them. A diesel engine is agricultural by design.

In swords in June it was 1.34 a litre now in palmerstown it's 1.53!

MugMugs

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

MugMugs wrote: »

Your mileage would not justify a diesel. You cover under 10 miles a year.

Your maths hat doesn't seem to be working either :pac:

Touche!

Tigger

I do 18 thousand miles
A year my car does 50mpg and she's Mapped to 200 bhp
There is no way I'd get that performance for that money in petrol

Thee weekend car is a 3.5l straight 6 petrol tho

maidhc

I have always had diesels, but got a petrol for my most recent car.

I have had the expensive failures, and I was not in a position to pay big money on a newish car. You can get lovely petrols with under 60k on them for peanuts now, even small engined 1.8s and 2.0L are completely unwanted. I couldn't face buying a reliable diesel (i.e. Vento or something), and buying an old HDI/TDCI is a lottery.

Can't comment too much on economy as yet.

Kristopherus

"Buy a diesel people and stop kidding yourselves"



Do you not realise that diesel is reckoned to go 8c ahead of petrol over the next few months?

Saab Ed

For someone like me who lives in the Bangernomics world, diesel is not the way to go. Second hand diesels are at a premium at the moment were as 2.0 litre, turbo petrols most certainly are not.

From my perspective, once the much lower cost of buying a very useable car that nobody else wants are factored in then diesel for me just wouldnt add up....and thats after paying 70 quid a week on fuel. Add to that the fact that a petrol car, IMO, is still a much much sweater drive than any aul lumbering diesel out there.

I know that "modern diesels are much better" argument inside out and I'll argue against it all day long. While there's no doubt about the economy of a 1.6 ish diesel for a high mileage driver, a 1.6 diesel of any sort is not a great drive. At the other end of the scale, say a 3.0 BM or Audi, well they might be very powerful but A) you feel every bit of their weight if you push on and once you push on then they're not that economical anymore so the benefit is lost.

For me, if you need a 40k a year car for work or going to work, then yes its a diesel all the way. But if you do normal mileage the IMO I'd recomend saving your money on the initial purchase by buying a pariah, otherwise know as a petrol car and end up with something far nicer for less that leaves you with more money in your pocket to go and buy some lovely 95 RON.

lar203

i have to buy the wife a seven seater {the familys getting bigger } any ideas . i have a 06 auto to traded

shedweller

I drive a diesel and do an average of about 3.4L/100k. Diesel has a loooong way to go before i'll switch to petrol!

whoami1

I had a 1.8 litre petrol Peugeot 406 for a year. The 60-litre tank never gave me more than 380 miles from brim-full to fuel light on. I now have a 2.0 diesel 406 for six years and at the moment with a lot of town driving, I'm getting about 620 miles from a 70-litre tank. With more motorway miles than town traffic miles, the figure was closer to 680 miles.

Therefore with petrol and diesel at about the same price , I'm getting 40% further for the same money and the cost of diesel would have to go above petrol by the same amount before I would think of moving back.

bazz26

Fudd_Man wrote: »

In swords in June it was 1.34 a litre now in palmerstown it's 1.53!

But petrol was in and around that price back in June too so your argument that diesel was 20c cheaper doesn't add up. Comparing the cost of diesel now to 7 months is irrelevent when it comes to working out if it is worth buying one over a petrol car. You need to compare diesel fuel prices against petrol fuel prices at the time, the annual mileage you are driving plus the premium cost of buying a diesel car over a similar petrol model. You then have maintenance costs between the two, modern diesel cars are more complex than most petrol models and most things that break on them are expensive to repair/replace.

These are the type of things that should be taken into consideration before buying either.

bazz26

bazz26 wrote: »

But petrol was in and around that price back in June too .............

I bought petrol 3 times in June, 1.499, 1.489 & 1.459 were the costs/litre

Fudd_Man

RoverJames wrote: »

bazz26 wrote: »

But petrol was in and around that price back in June too .............

I bought petrol 3 times in June, 1.499, 1.489 & 1.459 were the costs/litre

Yeah exactly petrol was 1.49 and diesel was 1.32-1.34 depending where you went for it.....so petrol has only slightly gone up and diesel has jumped....sure in some garages they are the same price now

650Ginge

REDLAD123 wrote: »

johnos1984 wrote: »

It just seemed that it was empty after every bloody trip

100% diesel all the way for me.. I'll never drive a petrol car again.. My girlfriend was driving a 2007 1.4 Kia Rio petrol on a 50 mile round trip to work every day and doing another 60 miles over the weekend, she was putting up to €110 petrol in the car each week :eek:

I convinced her to change to a 2008 1.4 Peugeot 207 1.4 HDI... After 3 days of driving the diesel she declared "i think the fuel guage is broken on the 207 coz its not really moving"

She now only spends €75 per week on diesel

Calculations per annum are as follows;

07 1.4 petrol Kia Rio €110 per wk x 52 = €5720 p/a Road Tax €444
08 1.4 HDI Peugeot €75 per wk x 52 = €3900 p/a Road tax €160

Savings p/a are €1820 on fuel & €284 on Road Tax = €2104 saving p/a

Servicing costs are the same (filters and oil cost more or less the same for both fuel types)

Buy a diesel people and stop kidding yourselves

These sort of calculations with variable variables are in no way accurate, reliable or honest. All the driving conditions would need to be the same every week ie temperature, wind, traffic, actual miles driven each week, price of fuel would have to stay constant. Also you have different tax rates so it is not like against like. You don't mention or factor in of the cost to change.

I Make it that a rio petrol would cover 900 Kms on average on €110 at €1.55 liter. So you girlfriend is doing something like 46900 s a year.

Surpringly your figures on average are spot on 900 @ 5.5l/100km @ €1.55 is €76.00. So you definitely making big savings.

What the cost to change? How long will it take to recoup?

(all average l/100 take from same car on spritmoniter.de).

650Ginge

shedweller wrote: »

I drive a diesel and do an average of about 3.4L/100k. Diesel has a loooong way to go before i'll switch to petrol!

That's quite a low figure interested to know what you drive and do employ any special driving techniques.

mad muffin

What about one of those tsi engines? The smoothness of petrol with the economy and torque of a diesel…ish?

shawnee

REDLAD123 wrote: »

100% diesel all the way for me.. I'll never drive a petrol car again.. My girlfriend was driving a 2007 1.4 Kia Rio petrol on a 50 mile round trip to work every day and doing another 60 miles over the weekend, she was putting up to €110 petrol in the car each week :eek:

I convinced her to change to a 2008 1.4 Peugeot 207 1.4 HDI... After 3 days of driving the diesel she declared "i think the fuel guage is broken on the 207 coz its not really moving"

She now only spends €75 per week on diesel

Calculations per annum are as follows;

07 1.4 petrol Kia Rio €110 per wk x 52 = €5720 p/a Road Tax €444
08 1.4 HDI Peugeot €75 per wk x 52 = €3900 p/a Road tax €160

Savings p/a are €1820 on fuel & €284 on Road Tax = €2104 saving p/a

Servicing costs are the same (filters and oil cost more or less the same for both fuel types)

Buy a diesel people and stop kidding yourselves

Wait till your turbo , or dmf or injectors give grief and then you will see what servicing really costs. Read the handbook and you will see that there is far more to servicing a modern diesel than changing the oil and filter;)

bazz26

Fudd_Man wrote: »

Yeah exactly petrol was 1.49 and diesel was 1.32-1.34 depending where you went for it.....so petrol has only slightly gone up and diesel has jumped....sure in some garages they are the same price now

I'm not sure who sold petrol at nearly 20c a litre more back then but there was never that much of a difference down this neck of the woods. 8c/9c max at the time.

The reason diesel and petrol are in and around the same price now is due to supply and demand. Everyone went out and bought diesel cars even when they didn't need them so demand has an influence on price along with other factors.