More diesel V petrol ramblings.

Stallingrad

As you may know I recently bought a new Passat 1.4Tsi. The car needed some warranty work and I was given the same model as a replacement albeit a 1.6 Diesel. First thing that strikes you is just how crude the diesel feels compared to the diesel, louder, rougher, noisy at idle, easy to bog down. It was better at speed and the torque is always welcome but I came away totally unimpressed and was delighted to get my petrol back.

Another acid test is the start stop. In the petrol you barely can feel or hear it switching off as the engine is so quiet, in the diesel it is night and day when the engine switched off.

On the motorway there was less between the two, but the diesel transformed the Passat from a refined, premium feeling product to something much more mundane and crude, especially around town at slower speeds.

veetwin

I was behind one of these diesel Passats with stop/start "technology" in traffic the other say. I just thought - Man that would annoy the fcuk out of me if I had to listen to that engine starting up and shutting down all day in traffic