Diesel or Petrol car

torrevieja

I do a bit of driving getting a car shortly some people say Diesel is cheaper to run but more expensive in car repairs were petrol can be dearer to run but cheaper in repairs?


Would you go for a Skoda or Toyota or a Hyundai ?thanks

bazz26

What will your annual mileage be and what sort of driving will it consist of, ie mostly city driving or mostly motorway/long commutes?

CiniO

torrevieja wrote: »

I do a bit of driving getting a car shortly some people say Diesel is cheaper to run but more expensive in car repairs were petrol can be dearer to run but cheaper in repairs?

In short diesel can give much better fuel consumption on long runs.
So if you use car mostly for runs of 50km or more in one go, then diesel is definitely a way to go if you want to save money.
If you mostly do short city runs of few km, then petrol is definitely a way to go.
Anything in between is kinda between - hard to say which will be cheaper.

Would you go for a Skoda or Toyota or a Hyundai ?thanks

Out of these 3 I'd go for Toyota, but purely out of personal preference.

torrevieja

bazz26 wrote: »

What will your annual mileage be and what sort of driving will it consist of, ie mostly city driving or mostly motorway/long commutes?

mostly city 23,000 miles a year roughly

CiniO

torrevieja wrote: »

mostly city 23,000 miles a year roughly

That's 63 miles a day on average.
Are you really going to drive that much mostly in the city?
Are you running a taxi or something?

bazz26

At that type of driving I'd be looking at a hybrid like a Prius or Auris.

tempnam

A couple of years back I was in a job fairly close to home, but which had me on the road a bit. We also just had a new baby at the time - so I wanted to upgrade the car for the baby's safety and also for work driving.

Bought a diesel Passat 2.0L. Then got made redundant and my next job was only 10km from home (all city driving to & from work) and I was 100% office based.... so the car wasn't a great investment.

But now I've moved jobs again and I'm doing a 90km round trip each day on motorways to & from work. I also do a good bit of work related driving now so glad I held on to it.

The difference in fuel consumption is crazy.

On a full tank and doing mostly city driving I used to average about 800km.

Now doing mostly motorway driving I average about 1,200km on a full tank of diesel.

tempnam

Also, if you're doing mostly city driving you should consider an automatic

starlit

I'd recommend a Toyota myself. Reliable and good to run. Found it easier car brand to drive than other ones I've tried. All depends what kind of a car you like, consider what factors you want when deciding on a car.

Depends how much mileage you do on average a year if its 18,000-20,000 or less a petrol car would suit better. Mainly town/city driving and short journeys a petrol car suit. You really need to be driving everyday on a motorway or doing really long country drives on a weekly basis to consider a diesel. Think there is such a thing that it's bad for a diesel engine to not be driven often that can do damage to it.

Would you consider a 1.2 turbo engine or a hybrid depends if you wanted more engine power? Efficiency, tax, insurance, maintenance and ease of driving it and ease of running it long term be factors to take into account as well.

The new Auris is to have a 1.2 turbo engine I think.

torrevieja

thanks for info guys


Threads merged

torrevieja

I do a lot of Driving particulary in the City ,

Skoda Octavia 1.6 Diesel or a Toyota Corolla 1.3 petrol or aToyota Corolla 1.4 Diesel

Thanks

bazz26

Not diesel anyway.

Didn't you ask something similar recently?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=96132901

torrevieja

why not the ~Diesel?

bazz26

Because diesels are not suited to city driving that involves lots of short stop/start journeys. It also takes a diesel engine longer to warm up so a cold diesel engine being used around the city is not going to be particularly fuel efficient either. They are most fuel efficient on long journeys.

You should consider a hybrid, it sounds like your driving is more suited to one of these, something like an Auris or Prius. Will give diesel fuel economy without the potential trouble. They will be automatic too which is way more suitable for city driving.

JohnBoy26

bazz26 wrote: »

Because diesels are not suited to city driving that involves lots of short stop/start journeys. It also takes a diesel engine longer to warm up so a cold diesel engine being used around the city is not going to be particularly fuel efficient either. They are most fuel efficient on long journeys.

You should consider a hybrid, it sounds like your driving is more suited to one of these, something like an Auris or Prius. Will give diesel fuel economy without the potential trouble. They will be automatic too which is way more suitable for city driving.

I know modern diesels aren't suited to town driving. I think the 1.4d4d will do town driving without issue though.

torrevieja

Skoda octavia 1.6 15 d

bazz26

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

I know modern diesels aren't suited to town driving. I think the 1.4d4d will do town driving without issue though.

Depends on the year, I think from 2011 onwards they were fitted with a DPF. Imo a Prius would be more suitable to that sort of driving.

toyotamechanic

Corolla 1.4 D4d its good enough for city drive as well,just remember to care about turbocharger and engine,best from these you mentioned for sure.But year,mileage and all rest are the most important.Corollas 1.4 diesel are very expensive anyway if you will find with real and not high mileage.

torrevieja

toyotamechanic wrote: »

Corolla 1.4 D4d its good enough for city drive as well,just remember to care about turbocharger and engine,best from these you mentioned for sure.But year,mileage and all rest are the most important.Corollas 1.4 diesel are very expensive anyway if you will find with real and not high mileage.

could you explain the care about the turbocharger and engine ?

Thanks

toyotamechanic

When you stop a turbocharged car after driving - not only hard driving(speeding, towing, etc.) don't shut the engine off right away; let it idle for a while to cool down the turbocharger. Very long uphill driving under constant load can also overheat the turbocharger.In owner manual most cars would have info how long it need to leave on idle after longer drive.Avensis T25 (2 generation)have for exaple 1,5min and about 20sec what start engine on winter time.One of most stupid things Ive seen is star diesel on cold night and drive straight with good rev.Even with good quality 5w30 or 0w30 oil, it wont lubricate engine enough.In our climate winter is soft enough that i would recommend to have 5-10seconds on idle and then go.About finishing longer drive or just drive on higher rpm,uphill I would keep engine on for 40sec-1minute that should be enough.Turbocharger is not stopping straight when you turn off engine it has low rpm so you wont hear it at all but problem is that after switch off oil pump wont give anything to charger that leads to seconds when turbo is rotating wthout oil,shortening turbo life.You might to use turbo for 100k or 300k but if you wont you can kill turbocharger in 20k.Good oil is very important as well as oil filter and more important than in petrol engines changing fuel filters as should.If anything will go with petrol through fuel system up to injector that will kill injector(s) which fuel injectors are very expensive in most diesels.When doing service good if someone can check on computer things like injectors correction values,MAF,common rail amin pressure but you can get that done in any major garage.There's more things to watch out,thats some of most important anyway.

torrevieja

that you get all your servicing done in main dealer to cover the Warranty

toyotamechanic

Well till th end of warranty itd good option for sure,but ater 100k garage you trust if you have that option would be good as well.

Wossack

Re warranty and main dealer servicing..

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/general-advice/right-to-repair-campaign.html

"Changes to the BER in 2002 included clauses intended to increase choice when it comes to servicing of a new car. You cannot be obliged e.g. as a condition of warranty, to have your car serviced by a franchised dealer.

...

The work can be carried out by an independent garage as long as that garage uses manufacturer approved parts and correctly follows the manufacturer's service schedule. Independent garages generally have much lower overheads than franchised dealers so their hourly labour rate is also cheaper.

Although you are free to have your car serviced at whichever garage you like - and benefit from the cost savings - you can't then expect much help and goodwill from the manufacturer if the car develops a major fault just after the warranty has expired. Manufacturers often cite lack of loyalty on the customer's part as the reason for their decision not assist with the cost of a repairs after the warranty has expired."

tempnam

toyotamechanic wrote: »

When you stop a turbocharged car after driving - not only hard driving(speeding, towing, etc.) don't shut the engine off right away; let it idle for a while to cool down the turbocharger.

What about cars that have automatic stop/start.... when you get to the end of your journey the engine cuts off as soon as you stop. I know you can manually re-start the engine.... just wondering if the automatic stop/start is a design flaw if car should be left idling for a while after driving?

wardides

Apologies for Hijacking this thread but I'm currently having this discussion with myself. My current situation. Driving a 1.2 Seat Ibiza (70,000 Miles on the clock). Currently driving about 500km Mon-Fri for work. Putting about €60 per week in. I will (hopefully) be cutting this in half and only travelling 250km per week from August.

Originally I had planned to sell once I passed my test (which I did last week) and purchase a diesel but now I'm unsure of the benefits. Mainly I'd like to sell ( can probably get 2,500 for it), but two cars I've been looking at (A3 & Golf) I can only see in 1.9L Diesels. Would there even be any savings in regards to fuel economy between a 1.2 petrol Vs 1.9 Diesel?

To sum up, originally I wanted to sell & purchase a diesel for Fuel Economy but I'm not sure if that's possible (jump from 1.2 petrol to a newer 1.9 diesel would probably have an effect on my insurance to, even though I have passed my test).

Thoughts?

bazz26

250k km per week is 13,000km per year. Doesn't really put you in diesel territory at that rate. You should consider another petrol car for that sort of annual mileage.

toyotamechanic

Hi Wardies.You would need to calculate this,in your situation diesel has to be 2008 or newer to avoid tax per engine size,and if 2008 insurance would change a little but if you doing about 13k per year it might to be the same cost.Check exacly how much your Ibiza takes per 100km.
Another thing if you buy diesel with high mileage(depend of mark and model of course)it may need to put some money.
About start-stop cars.Still diesel need to cool its charger after longer drive it may be dfference between models as example in toyota,lexus turbos you have much bigger rpm than in vw group so it need bit more time to keep on idle after drive-but these turbo newer end their life in big smoking show like other turbos(completely different construction)
If system start stop working as designed it shoudnt turn of engine after longer drive when oil tempertature is high and coolant higher as well and some cars wont turn off engine when many things are not as should be- even front wheels turned,car stopped not on flat surface etc.

wardides

Cheers for the replies folks.

So can I just ask in regards to purchasing a larger petrol car. Is there much in the difference of fuel economy between a 1.2, 1.4 & 1.6?

bazz26

That totally depends on the car and the type of engine fitted. There is no one size fits all answer. Your annual mileage is small so fuel economy should not be a deciding factor in your choice.

gooner99

Just got my 04 golf 1.4 petrol serviced.couldnt believe how short it was since last service.just checked and we put up 20k MILES on it in one year.are we now over diesel territory or borderline.80% of driving would be A/B roads.not much motorway or town driving.