Diesel v petrol

cat81

Hi guys just want some opinions from you guys. Looking to get a new car maybe 2011- 2013
Have been looking at ford focus but they are all 1.6 diesel. Never had a diesel car before. Now I mostly drive just around town. So was wondering is a diesel car ok for this.

cat81

Looking to upgrade my car. Have looked at 2013 ford focus but they are all diesel. I've never had a diesel car and I only really drive around town so was wondering would a diesel car be ok

Zaph

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Cee-Jay-Cee

No you need a petrol car. Diesel cars are made for longer open road journeys not short stop/start trips and don't let anyone try and tell you differently.

Consider the Auris, C'eed, i30 or Civic petrol models too. Don't limit yourself to just one make/model.

biko

Stay with petrol. Diesel are "only" for long distance commuters.





Threads merged

mickdw

cat81 wrote: »

Hi guys just want some opinions from you guys. Looking to get a new car maybe 2011- 2013
Have been looking at ford focus but they are all 1.6 diesel. Never had a diesel car before. Now I mostly drive just around town. So was wondering is a diesel car ok for this.

If you dont do a journey a couple of times a month where you can get a sustained cruise for 10 mins or so, don't buy a newish diesel.

bazz26

Where are you based as there 4 petrol Focus for sale on carzone?

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Ford/Focus/1.0-ECOBOOST/201114537415020420/

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Ford/Focus/1.0-Ecoboost/200714540865915580/

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Ford/Focus/1.0-125/201014538041630540/

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Ford/Focus/1.0T-100PS/201314543340111840/

cat81

I'm living in wexford town

cat81

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

No you need a petrol car. Diesel cars are made for longer open road journeys not short stop/start trips and don't let anyone try and tell you differently.

Consider the Auris, C'eed, i30 or Civic petrol models too. Don't limit yourself to just one make/model.

Thank you very much. It just seems every type of car in wexford is diesel. Just my luck

cat81

mickdw wrote: »

If you dont do a journey a couple of times a month where you can get a sustained cruise for 10 mins or so, don't buy a newish diesel.

At the weekend I'd have no problem going for a decent spin in the car. Would that make a difference

Sam Kade

cat81 wrote: »

At the weekend I'd have no problem going for a decent spin in the car. Would that make a difference

A diesel needs extra Maintainence so unless you are doing a lot of driving the maintainence costs will out weigh any savings.

stefanovich

Sam Kade wrote: »

A diesel needs extra Maintainence so unless you are doing a lot of driving the maintainence costs will out weigh any savings.

Plus they are filthy engines, spewing out poison and soot. Have some respect for pedestrians an other motorists and buy petrol.

ba_barabus

Sam Kade wrote: »

A diesel needs extra Maintainence

Can you tell me what extra maintenance it needs?

OP a petrol will suit your needs better or even a hybrid would be worth consideration. If you buy a diesel with the kind of driving you say you do you'll find you never get anywhere near the MPG claims, you'll suffer from a clogged up dpf and you'll initially pay extra for the privilege of that.

colm_mcm

given that petrol is so rare in the focus id just look at something else like a golf, i30, card, auris which come with decent petrol engines

glack

I've been looking for a focus also and like you, there's very few petrol available in my area. If do a lot of short journeys day to day but would have at least one of not 2 cross country journeys a month and clock up decent mileage each year. Not overly high but above average all the same. Would I be better would a petrol or a diesel?

CiniO

ba_barabus wrote: »

Can you tell me what extra maintenance it needs?

OP a petrol will suit your needs better or even a hybrid would be worth consideration. If you buy a diesel with the kind of driving you say you do you'll find you never get anywhere near the MPG claims, you'll suffer from a clogged up dpf and you'll initially pay extra for the privilege of that.

That's exactly the fact.
My 2.2 Civic can be fairly economical, on longer gentle commutes with constant speed at around 80 - 100 km/h speeds I can even do below 5 l/100km (above 56mpg).
On German autobahn travelling at 140-200km/h I still can do below 8 l/100km (above 35mpg).

But once this car was once used for 2 months only for short run (up to 2km few times a day around the town), average fuel consumption over that period was around 12 l/100km (23.5mpg).

Diesel is only economical on fuel when warmed up, and most diesels take around 20km drive (or 15 minutes in the town) to warm up properly.

If most of your journeys going to be lower than that, then you can forget about fuel economy.

colm_mcm

The mpg figures on my 1.8 petrol civic aren't far off that.
The diesel is much torqueier though, which is the only reason I'd get one.

CiniO

colm_mcm wrote: »

The mpg figures on my 1.8 petrol civic aren't far off that.
The diesel is much torqueier though, which is the only reason I'd get one.

I know petrol 1.8 civic is fairly economical.
Especially if you drive it gently.

But I'm sure you wouldn't go below 5 l/100km even if you tried very hard.
On everyday driving though around my area, a get about 6.5 l/100km and I really don't limit myself with having pedal to the metal. I'd imagine with petrol this would be about 8 l/100km with that driving style.
Not that much of a difference really.
And I'd probably even prefer petrol, but the reasons I bought diesel was because I found one at very good price, as well as I'm doing fairly big mileage, so even small difference in fuel consumption can give considerable savings.

colm_mcm

It is possible, but you have to be doing under 80kmph and life's too short for all that nonsense, I did an economy run a few years ago and IIRC was getting mid 50s mpg on a reasonably long journey driving very carefully.

If you're just driving about town I'd probably get a petrol. I drive about 45km to work each day with about 10 of those in heavy traffic, then tbf rest on motorway. In traffic I do over 7l/100km but on the motorway you can easily go below 5 if you drive between 100kmph-110kmph.

Someone in the thread said diesel will need extra maintenance, what extra maintenance is this?

CiniO

Jasiah Noisy Hoagie wrote: »

If you're just driving about town I'd probably get a petrol. I drive about 45km to work each day with about 10 of those in heavy traffic, then tbf rest on motorway. In traffic I do over 7l/100km but on the motorway you can easily go below 5 if you drive between 100kmph-110kmph.

Someone in the thread said diesel will need extra maintenance, what extra maintenance is this?

No, there's not much more for diesel in general servicing. Possibly only bit more oil in the sump and need for more expensive oil + need to change diesel filter nearly every service which petrol engines doesn't need.

However if something goes wrong, costs go skyhigh, including flywheel, dpf, injectors, turbo, egr, etc.

Lellostag

cat81 wrote: »

At the weekend I'd have no problem going for a decent spin in the car. Would that make a difference

It probably would be ok, but if you don't need to go for a good spin up the motorway for other reasons it doesn't make much sense to buy a diesel. It just wouldn't be fit for purpose and you'd soon get fed up with going for a long drive just because you "have to."

Perhaps a petrol hybrid such as the Prius or similar ones would be worth considering?

driver02

As a rule of thumb they used to say that you need to be doing 20k miles a year to get pay back on diesel. I have a Toyota 4D4 Corolla 55mpg would go Toyota or Kia if I were you best of luck

colm_mcm

maybe years.ago when diesel cars were way more expensive to buy. the break even point is much lower than 20k miles unless you're talking about really small cars.

take this thread for example. if the op actually finds a petrol focus, will it be cheaper to buy than all the diesels out there?

ba_barabus

colm_mcm wrote: »

take this thread for example. if the op actually finds a petrol focus, will it be cheaper to buy than all the diesels out there?

I'm convinced the used prices of newer petrol cars is staying high due to lack of supply. My mother's 131 1.2T Yeti sold for its asking price before it even got to the forecourt of the main dealer. 29k kms and mint condition and it sold for 17k even