petrol or diesel

aidanki

going to be doing around 15k per year and trying to decide on petrol or diesel

looking at cars like a ford focus, volvo s40, toyota corolla, going to spend 7-9k

if I go diesel it will be 1.4 or 1.6 so tax and insurance are out of the equation

does it simply then come down to increased mpg offsets higher purchase price, higher servicing costs, and risk of higher repair bills with a diesel as the engines are more complex

in the 7-9k bracket diesel is about €1200 more expensive judging by my research

the higher servicing costs im not sure about other than a fuel filter what else should be accounted for

risk of higher repair bills- with more complexity in a diesel lots of things that can go wrong, turbo, dual mass flywheel, particulate filter, what else should i be thinking of Im guessing allow €500 over its lifetime

what do others think?

Victor Meldrew

Another factor is the length of your journeys.

Diesels don't like short trips at all and need a good long motorway spin regularly.

you can say the same about petrols, but they tolerate suburbia better.

If you are doing a fair bit of motorway and haul the family around go diesel