Petrol engine - no alternative

Slattsy

After somewhat hijacking this thread earlier: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057285791
im interested in what the experts think on this subject.

I currently drive a petrol and always have.
I do approx 10,000 km per year, neither I nor Mrs need to drive to work as we both work in Dublin City Centre and have easy access to public transport 2 minutes from our front door and this journey itself only takes 20 minutes daily.

Obviously a diesel is out of the question for me. Right??
I look at Carzone/DD often and 99% of 2011-2014 cars are diesel. So im kinda snookered.

We have talked about getting a new or a nearly new car after our wedding next year.
But firstly it could take god knows how long to sell current car.
Then, as someone pointed out in the thread above, dealers are warning that they may not trade in the new petrol cars they sell.

So, im stuck between a rock and hard place to some extent. I'd be too worried about DMF/DPF to buy a diesel and sure i dont do the miles anyway.
I could buy a brand new A4 petrol, but may not shift it easily when the time comes to sell it own the line. And obviously this is a big concern if garages aint willing to take them off me when the times comes to buy again.

Is buying brand new and keeping it for 7/8 years my best bet...
Or is there where something like Audi PCP would suit?
What kind of options are available? What would you do?
Cheers.
(and sorry for the long post)

Senecio

What is your current car and what would you like to replace it with?

In my view there is little to no demand for large saloons in petrol but there is still demand for small hatchbacks in petrol.

George Dalton

What type of driving does the 10,000km per year consist of?

If you don't use the car for urban commuting and only use it for longer journeys at weekends and holidays etc then a diesel will be fine.

Slattsy

Senecio wrote: »

What is your current car and what would you like to replace it with?

In my view there is little to no demand for large saloons in petrol but there is still demand for small hatchbacks in petrol.

Prob should have said, its a 2008 A5.

George Dalton wrote: »

What type of driving does the 10,000km per year consist of?

If you don't use the car for urban commuting and only use it for longer journeys at weekends and holidays etc then a diesel will be fine.

There'd be a spin to the West once a month.
A few weekends away etc.
Obviously some short term spins to shops and football training twice a week. The basic/average stuff i guess.
Car would maybe sit idle twice a week i'd say.

Marcusm

I imagine George D will be in a better position to comment on whether your driving style would suit a diesel but at least you have regular long trips.

Have you had the A5 since new or are you buying at a few years old and selling after 4 years? Personally, I think it will be very interesting to see, over time, whether the current diesel trend is a fad which reverses as it becomes apparent that diesel is not a panacea. While diesel superiority has existed in Germany and France for decades, they are significantly different countries than Ireland or the UK from a demographics perspective. Additionally, diesel took hold before the "innovations" which are found in complex modern day diesels. It would not surprise me if, over time, second hand petrol cars kept better residuals. For town/city dwelling commuters, I doubt that diesel provides much int he way of fuel savings but over time servicing etc will be more expensive.

The pendulum may swing back towards you.

That being said, I had a mid spec (per Avis) A4 TDI estate for rent over the last week and apart from the noisy start ups, I found it quite responsive. It still wouldn't drag me away from petrol - apart from my first car being a diesel, all since have been petrol.

hoodie6029

Would exporting to the UK be an option when you need to move it on? Purely anecdotal but I heard the UK dealers were picking up V8 range rovers etc. here in the last few years

Idbatterim

I understand with the diesels that initially the Co2 was far lower than petrol hence cheaper vrt and tax, but if the A6 mentioned in the Op's has that low a rate of VRT and hence tax, why would you bother going for the diesel if you werent doing the mileage? Does someone care about residuals if they are prepared to splash out 34/45k?

Slattsy

Firstly, it'll be very hard from what i can see to get the petrol car i want second hand, in Ireland anyway.
Secondly, i am worried about how things will be in this country in 3/4/5 years, will there be even less petrols and hence ever harder to shift the car I want?
Thirdly, i dont need a diesel given my mileage and prob never will.

Resale is the main issue. I think..

Atlantic Dawn

If you are very lucky whatever your purchase will be worth at most 50% of what you paid for it in 3 years time, consider this with no matter what you buy, factor these costs in to whatever decision you make. If you want to change the car every 3 or 4 years you should consider if your going the petrol route to perhaps hold on to it for 5 or 6 years. A good strategy is to buy a model of car which is out less than a year or just out, that way it should get maximum resale value instead of purchasing a model near the end of that production run.

The cheap motor tax system will only have a couple more years left, prices will go up in future budgets for these models and as more people switch/import 2008 onwards cars the government will have no choice but to raise motor tax on these cars to make up for the shortfall.

mickdw

I've my petrol A5 from new and I'm not particularly worried about it having a market.
The way i see it, there are lads around that would still kill to get into an A5. Having an 08 is an early car and it being petrol puts it at the cheaper end of what's available. I'm sure it would find a buyer for reasonable money.

Slattsy

mickdw wrote: »

I've my petrol A5 from new and I'm not particularly worried about it having a market.
The way i see it, there are lads around that would still kill to get into an A5. Having an 08 is an early car and it being petrol puts it at the cheaper end of what's available. I'm sure it would find a buyer for reasonable money.

OK. I can see there may be a wee market for an A5. Hopefully.

But it's my next jump that's on my mind.

Ideally... And subject to change obviously, I'd love to get into an A4 s-line.
I'm chatting maybe 4 or 5 years down the line trying to sell that on here I know, but still it must be a factor worth thinking about. Or am I totally being way too cautious?

MuppetCheck

Slattsy wrote: »

OK. I can see there may be a wee market for an A5. Hopefully.

But it's my next jump that's on my mind.

Ideally... And subject to change obviously, I'd love to get into an A4 s-line.
I'm chatting maybe 4 or 5 years down the line trying to sell that on here I know, but still it must be a factor worth thinking about. Or am I totally being way too cautious?

There's an extended warranty available on uk Audis to 90k miles. See if it's available here.

If not try a diesel and see does it suit/not annoy you. Some can be irritating around town.

If you're happy to accept it will never be quite as smooth as the petrol and are prepared to give it a run regularly then it might be a runner. Diesel tech has come on in the last couple of years meaning DPF's Rd more tolerant and DMF's can be offset by slight savings in running costs and residual values if they are needed.

Even if both failed I think you might be quids in the way the majority view the market at the moment.

fmcg_scribe

MuppetCheck wrote: »

There's an extended warranty available on uk Audis to 90k miles. See if it's available here.

If not try a diesel and see does it suit/not annoy you. Some can be irritating around town.

If you're happy to accept it will never be quite as smooth as the petrol and are prepared to give it a run regularly then it might be a runner. Diesel tech has come on in the last couple of years meaning DPF's Rd more tolerant and DMF's can be offset by slight savings in running costs and residual values if they are needed.

Even if both failed I think you might be quids in the way the majority view the market at the moment.

It's become almost an axiom that you have to be doing at least 15,000 miles to justify buying a diesel. Further, with diesel engines and arguably V8 or larger petrol engines, you need to be doing long journeys on a regular basis (once every so often does not count) to prevent the build-up of carbon deposits.

Agree that if someone was thinking about buying a luxury/premium car, especially a large one, buying a diesel might look like a better bet for depreciation but the depreciation argument does not trump the mileage argument.

Considering that car makers are reducing the sizes of engines (number of cylinders, cubic capacity, and CO2 emissions), I can't believe that there isn't a choice of four cylinder petrol engines form the last 7 years across a range of makes and models.

The OP might need to reconsider the makes of car that are of interest and the frequency and types of use of a new car. For example, would a small electric, or hybrid, or petrol car meet the OP's needs most of the time with the option to hire a larger (possibly diesel) car for occasional longer journeys?

MuppetCheck

If the OP wants to maximise residuals from a petrol while not driving a Prius or Leaf a GTI might be worth looking at.

Slattsy

The main thing for me is the re-sale.
What way will the market be in 4/5 years.

Yeah i'd love a GTI, but couldnt see myself in a Leaf/Prius

fmcg_scribe

Slattsy wrote: »

The main thing for me is the re-sale.
What way will the market be in 4/5 years.

Yeah i'd love a GTI, but couldnt see myself in a Leaf/Prius

I'm a self-confessed car snob. It seems that you are at least "fussy" about the car you drive even though you don't seem to drive that much. Clearly, you have some sort of head v heart battle ahead of you.

Eric Cartman

If i was only doing 10,000km a year personally id go for something like this http://cars.donedeal.ie/view/6520119
Audi S8 5.2 Litre Petrol

But that may not be your cup of tea , if you were to buy something a bit special (2.5-3 litre petrol) with a host of options on it youd shift it in the uk in 3-4 years time and the vrt rebate may recover your diesel losses, high spec cars will sell over there, markets dead for petrol here though.

Slattsy

Yeah i would be fussy lads, not going to deny it.

I'd drive a diesel, no question, I'd get over the 'ride' eventually but clearly with the miles im doing there must be a chance im going to have problems with it.

R.O.R

As a bit of perspective:

I supplied an A4 Avant 1.8T this year to a customer. When pricing (for lease) I rang my Audi dealer to check where he thought the value of it in 4 years time would be, in relation to the 2.0Tdi version. €4,000 less was the figure that we both had in our mind, so that's what went in to it. Costing the company much more to run than the 2.0Tdi (and he's not a low mileage driver), but costing the driver himself less in BIK.


My good lady has a modern diesel, mainly due to a lack of anything else available that suited our requirements. Had it just over a year now and she's put up around 8,000km in that time, which includes a trip to the UK and a trip to Kerry - she works about 3 miles away from home, and stops on the way to/from the office to drop/collect the kids.

Only issue we've had was the EML coming on a few weeks ago. Serviced not long before then so popped it back to the dealer - EML was caused by the oil level being a touch too high, so drained and reset, and it's been fine since.

We do use her car every weekend and park mine up, and we do try to get at least a 25 minute motorway journey in. Hadn't done any decent trips for 2-3 weeks before the EML came on, so that may have been the cause, but with a decent blast every 1-2 weeks you should get away with it.

Slattsy

Cheers.
Have you been lucky would you say? Ie where do all these horror stories about diesels and DPF and DMF come from? Are people just not giving it that decent blast to bypass these concerns.

Also. Define a decent blast every few weeks?

R.O.R

Slattsy wrote: »

Cheers.
Have you been lucky would you say? Ie where do all these horror stories about diesels and DPF and DMF come from? Are people just not giving it that decent blast to bypass these concerns.

Also. Define a decent blast every few weeks?

I'm not really hearing any horror stories of blocked DPF's / knackered DMF's - lot's of scaremongering on boards, but not really any issues in the real world.

Only real DPF issue I can recall is someone driving a C4 1.6HDi a couple of miles to and from the office. Think that's been in for regen a couple of times and we've told her to drive it more, so it doesn't have to go back to the dealer so frequently.

A decent blast for us is Drogheda to Swords or further. That's 25 minutes of steady motorway speed, once a week or every 2 weeks, and I think that will be enough to keep herself's car running without issues. Obviously - need to do the same journey on the way home as well, so close to an hour at steady motorway speed, in a single day.

mickdw

MuppetCheck wrote: »

If the OP wants to maximise residuals from a petrol while not driving a Prius or Leaf a GTI might be worth looking at.

Golf gti is a good shout. It will always have a market but I would feel a little short changed getting into a golf, even though it's a very nice golf.
Perhaps the 1.0L fords will start a swing back to petrol.

illumin

I've a 2010 1.6 diesel golf with less than 30km on it. I mainly drive to and from work and go on the odd excursion. No problems at all with the dpf. The dpf light has never come on either. There's so much scaremongering about dpf's its unreal. I haven't heard of one person having a problem with one.