Petrol buyers remorse!

peteb2

Just over a year ago my wife was pregnant and we bought a lovely 2009 Ford Mondeo Estate with just over 40k miles on it. I swear it must be the only 1.6 petrol estate Mondeo in the country.

I went for petrol because it would mainly be used by the missus to go to the shops, about with the kid and the dog, etc. So i thought it would be better, less problems and lower maintenance costs.

Stinger about it was that tax is €750 because of the ommissions bracket it is in. But either way c'est la vie.

however now that we are planning our holidays this year which involve driving to france and coming back via Dover & Glasgow I'm thinking diesel would have been a better idea. Not just for this year - but the in laws are French so a lot of future holidays will be spent there. Plus these days i get it out for a good run at the weekend. So now I'm thinking i made a bad move and would possibly consider dropping a year and probably a grand to get to a diesel.

Can anyone make me feel better about my decision? Is the petrol still the best move in the long term? Or did I mess it up??

Markcheese

What mileage do you do per year ... ?
What roughly is your current fuel consumption and price ? What would it be in a diesel Mondeo ?
If your still not doing massive mileage in a year,and mainly short hops then you'd probably be as well sticking with petrol,

Manor26

Messed up big time,did not think you could get petrol in them cars,who would buy it now could be hard to get rid off.

Markcheese

I assume the current road tax system will have to change again sometime soon ... if the government want to get x number of billion from road tax and everyone is driving band a and band b diesels with f-all road tax then something is gonna give... And diesels churn out more pollution anyway...

bbam

Time to sit down and calculate your actual costs.
Work out your annual running costs at the moment, then work that out for the diesel car you are hoping to get. Then over a few years work out how much you'd save and see if that is more than the cost of changing.
It may still work out more sensible to drive on and change in a few years.

We've traversed France a few times in both petrol and diesel cars. The difference isn't that much really.

Atlantic Dawn

As things currently stsnd with your use of the car you made the right decision. Resale value may be lower than a diesel but unless you are selling it soon theres no problem, longer you keep it the less you will lose.

The Bishop Basher

I think there's way too much hype on the petrol v's diesel debate on this forum. I
do about 10000 a year, mainly suburban driving with the odd run thrown in. I'm on my 3rd diesel and I've never had a problem. My father would do similar mileage and is on his 4th diesel with no issues. Now both of us would do a couple of cross country trips every month. Servicing costs are no different and while consumption isn't vastly improved in the city, that's off set by the lower cost.

To be fair, anything would cheaper to run then the 1.6 petrol you have now !!

Leonard Hofstadter

You should have bought a 2.0 petrol instead, it would have been more fuel efficient (because it has so much more power and so doesn't need to be worked so hard) plus it would have cost exactly the same in motor tax as the 1.6 on the emissions based system. 1.6 Mondeos are chronically underpowered, especially an estate!

For what it's worth, I recently had a 2.0 TDCi for a weekend, and it did 45 mpg on motorway driving (although I was doing between 80 and 85 mph most of the time), so I'm not sure if you'd save a lot by having the diesel. Don't forget diesel is as much as 10 p a litre dearer than petrol in the UK as well, so, depending on where you're going to in France, you could probably get away with filling the car in Dover and not filling it again (or just putting a small amount into it in France) till you get back to England.

I think the best thing to do is hold on to it until it dies, unless you suddenly start doing over 15,000 miles a year. At the end of the day, it's not worth a lot (because most people want diesels and very few want estates on the second-hand market), and if you were to change to a diesel right now it would take a very long time to get the money back, because diesels go for so much more money.

The_Honeybadger

As above if your annual mileage isn't huge the savings will be negligible. That 1.6 Mondeo is supposed to be absolutely gutless though, that alone would make a lot of people want to change. If it gets a good run every weekend a diesel would probably be fine for you and will depreciate a lot less than the petrol. I would expect you will need to put up more than a grand to change though, even if you are dropping a year your own car might be hard to shift, nobody wants petrol cars any more.

keithclancy

peteb2 wrote: »

Just over a year ago my wife was pregnant and we bought a lovely 2009 Ford Mondeo Estate with just over 40k miles on it. I swear it must be the only 1.6 petrol estate Mondeo in the country.

I went for petrol because it would mainly be used by the missus to go to the shops, about with the kid and the dog, etc. So i thought it would be better, less problems and lower maintenance costs.

Stinger about it was that tax is €750 because of the ommissions bracket it is in. But either way c'est la vie.

however now that we are planning our holidays this year which involve driving to france and coming back via Dover & Glasgow I'm thinking diesel would have been a better idea. Not just for this year - but the in laws are French so a lot of future holidays will be spent there. Plus these days i get it out for a good run at the weekend. So now I'm thinking i made a bad move and would possibly consider dropping a year and probably a grand to get to a diesel.

Can anyone make me feel better about my decision? Is the petrol still the best move in the long term? Or did I mess it up??

Think of it this way OP, if you bought the Diesel you could have had a major problem with it such as a Failed Turbo/DMF/Dual Mass Flywheel by now.

You would have paid a lot more for a 2.0 Diesel Estate as they are much more sought after.

That potential saving could have been wiped out by a whopping huge bill and the difference in the Purchase price.

If your only doing infrequent long trips there's not that much of a difference tbh.

I'd only consider a Diesel when doing over 20000km/year at least.

I couldn't drive a 1.6 in a big car like a Mondeo, the poor engine !

There are a few 2.0 TDCI's 140 hp. on carzone But of course mainly 1.8 tdci's with 100-118 hp.

It's very hard to get a good used diesel that hasn't north of 100,000 miles in this country !

colm_mcm

Its only a holiday, its not the end of the world.

Besides, if it was diesel, who's to say it wouldn't have crapped itself by now.

Enjoy your holiday

Zoney

peteb2 wrote: »

however now that we are planning our holidays this year which involve driving to france and coming back via Dover & Glasgow I'm thinking diesel would have been a better idea. Not just for this year - but the in laws are French so a lot of future holidays will be spent there. Plus these days i get it out for a good run at the weekend. So now I'm thinking i made a bad move and would possibly consider dropping a year and probably a grand to get to a diesel.

Can anyone make me feel better about my decision? Is the petrol still the best move in the long term? Or did I mess it up??

I think you've probably come to the right place to be reassured about your decision

Sure how much of a big deal is a little bit extra cost on some one-off trips? (even every couple weekends) Doubt the figures stack up for diesel car costing less overall. If your overall mileage is low and a lot of small trips, then you should be content with the decision of petrol rather than diesel. Plus your long trips are probably quieter/a nice drive with the petrol? Just consider the long drives as being a bonus of better fuel economy on those trips with the petrol too compared to urban driving.

As long as your happy with the drive, I also wouldn't worry about the engine size consideration that other posters mentioned. Large engine might actually be more efficient for a large estate, but you would have a bit more in tax to pay.

alfreg

You could fill up While you are passing through the UK. Where petrol is cheaper then diesel up to 10p cheaper a Lt. Not sure how that equates to the price of petrol in Ireland in Euros, but it may save you a bit.

slimjimmc

alfreg wrote: »

You could fill up While you are passing through the UK. Where petrol is cheaper then diesel up to 10p cheaper a Lt. Not sure how that equates to the price of petrol in Ireland in Euros, but it may save you a bit.

The UK would the last place I'd be filling up on petrol or diesel if these prices are anything to go by
http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/

Petrol Diesel
France € 1,498 € 1,299
Ireland € 1,519 € 1,459
United Kingdom € 1,572 € 1,663

keithclancy

slimjimmc wrote: »

The UK would the last place I'd be filling up on petrol or diesel if these prices are anything to go by
http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/

Petrol Diesel
France € 1,498 € 1,299
Ireland € 1,519 € 1,459
United Kingdom € 1,572 € 1,663

You'll get raped on motorway prices anyway.
Motorway is usually 10-15 cent more per liter than off the motorway on the continent.

Soarer

There's the honest answer and the make-you-feel-better answer. Which would you like?

rovoagho

peteb2 wrote: »

Stinger about it was that tax is €750 because of the ommissions bracket it is in.

Ford are notorious for leaving those brackets out.

Markcheese

.... Read somewhere recently that diesels are on the way out ... In about 10 years , no new diesel cars , they can't get the emissions (nox,co1 ect ) down enough ... Ironic when everyones gone over to diesel for the low emissions(not cheap tax)
Apparently a modern oil burner isnt as clean as a petrol of a decade ago ..
Not that it's much comfort to you now... What mileage p/a
are you doing Now... You probably won't save much (or anything ) on fuel .(by the time you factor in what you'd lose selling it ) It's the tax ,maintenance ect that's the big decider...

Idbatterim

E750 to tax that?! LOL you can tax the bmw 3L, 330 from 08 on with 272bhp for that price! Goes to show, its not just the CC that can offer appalling value for money. In relation to the diesel, so what if you have to pay a bit more for petrol over there? Fair play for doing a bit of research originally and correctly going for the petrol, but the motor tax on that on that is more than on CC, with SFA power, youd have been better going for the 2L petrol, IF any were available...

peteb2

Yep there was no 2 litre petrol estates available. And as for the diesels, they were 20% more on the price and 60k more on the miles!!! did not want a family car that was 2008 with 100k already on it!

Popoutman

Markcheese wrote: »

.... Read somewhere recently that diesels are on the way out ... In about 10 years , no new diesel cars , they can't get the emissions (nox,co1 ect ) down enough ... Ironic when everyones gone over to diesel for the low emissions(not cheap tax)
Apparently a modern oil burner isnt as clean as a petrol of a decade ago ..

As it is beginning to be shown by recent research, modern direct injection petrol engines that are being designed for higher efficiency are worse than diesels for very small particulate matter emissions. This suggests that there will be DPFs installed on all new cars petrol or diesel to meet regulations.
The numbers are modern petrol engine is 1000 worse than old petrol engines, and 10 times worse than current diesels.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/us-caremissions-study-idUSBRE9AQ0TN20131127

So it's a bit like foods/ lifestyle and cancers - some things are possibly good for preventing one type while being a risk factor in another type. Regarding the engines, you'll just have to choose which type of pollutant you put out.

Leonard Hofstadter

Popoutman wrote: »

As it is beginning to be shown by recent research, modern direct injection petrol engines that are being designed for higher efficiency are worse than diesels for very small particulate matter emissions. This suggests that there will be DPFs installed on all new cars petrol or diesel to meet regulations.
The numbers are modern petrol engine is 1000 worse than old petrol engines, and 10 times worse than current diesels.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/us-caremissions-study-idUSBRE9AQ0TN20131127

So it's a bit like foods/ lifestyle and cancers - some things are possibly good for preventing one type while being a risk factor in another type. Regarding the engines, you'll just have to choose which type of pollutant you put out.

The PM limit for petrol and diesel engines is identical yet petrols don't need particulate filters because while direct injection petrol engines do indeed pollute particulates (unlike more old fashioned indirect injection engines), they're still a lot cleaner than diesel engines.

650Ginge

peteb2 wrote: »

Just over a year ago my wife was pregnant and we bought a lovely 2009 Ford Mondeo Estate with just over 40k miles on it. I swear it must be the only 1.6 petrol estate Mondeo in the country.

I went for petrol because it would mainly be used by the missus to go to the shops, about with the kid and the dog, etc. So i thought it would be better, less problems and lower maintenance costs.

Stinger about it was that tax is €750 because of the ommissions bracket it is in. But either way c'est la vie.

however now that we are planning our holidays this year which involve driving to france and coming back via Dover & Glasgow I'm thinking diesel would have been a better idea. Not just for this year - but the in laws are French so a lot of future holidays will be spent there. Plus these days i get it out for a good run at the weekend. So now I'm thinking i made a bad move and would possibly consider dropping a year and probably a grand to get to a diesel.

Can anyone make me feel better about my decision? Is the petrol still the best move in the long term? Or did I mess it up??

Nah you messed up. Should got a Prius.

Sam Kade

Why not take the plane to France and hire a car, faster cheaper problem solved

peteb2

Because I have a baby and I can wedge more stuff in the back of an estate than one case on a plane!! So car is cheaper!

Sam Kade

Babies can also go on planes. Why take so much luggage?

Idbatterim

isnt the child entitled to carry on? 3 carry on bags + 1 or 2 normal bags, I would definitely be flying! If its ryanair, they are also allowing a second smaller carry on now...

MetzgerMeister

slimjimmc wrote: »

The UK would the last place I'd be filling up on petrol or diesel if these prices are anything to go by
http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/

Petrol Diesel
France € 1,498 € 1,299
Ireland € 1,519 € 1,459
United Kingdom € 1,572 € 1,663

That's very cheap especially considering that France have their motor tax built into the price of fuel! :eek:

peteb2

Idbatterim wrote: »

isnt the child entitled to carry on? 3 carry on bags + 1 or 2 normal bags, I would definitely be flying! If its ryanair, they are also allowing a second smaller carry on now...

Nope an infant isn't. Actually got kids? How you think we'd do 3 carry on bags?

JackF1

Essentially the expenditure is a sunk cost at this stage. Hard to shift a petrol family car let alone one with €750 tax.

Live with the high tax and slightly higher fuel consumption and relax in the knowledge you don't have potential diesel issues on the horizon.

As for France - relax and enjoy the scenery on A roads saving money on tolls:)