What is the problem, if any, of buying a 2nd hand diesel car?

banjobongo

hi guys
looking for some advice....I’m not very knowledgeable about cars. Looking to buy a 2nd hand car, family sized, in Limerick area and budget around 12 – 14K. Most of my car journeys are short. My mechanic has recommend I only buy a petrol car and I have been looking for a while but there is nothing available in petrol, only small cars like Micra etc or much older cars than I would like. As soon as I include my search on the major websites like donedeal to include diesel the results are so much better, much better cars, much more choice.
Would I be crazy to consider buying a 2nd hand diesel car? What is the big problem with running a diesel car?
thanks in advance
- BB!

biko

Why do you assume there is a problem?

bazz26

He is probably talking about potential DPF problems as a result of constant short journeys, diesel cars are not designed for that sort of usage so his mechanic has a very valid point.

OP, have you considered looking beyond Limerick for a car? Looking only in Limerick is severely limiting your options. With some brands if you buy a used car from any of that brand's main dealers then the warranty is valid at any of that brand's dealerships nationwide. I know Toyota do this and most of the other big brands do to.

I'd imagine Skoda would do the same for example but you would have to get an answer from them:
https://www.carsireland.ie/2523674

PaulRyan97

OP you've hit the unfortunate result the complete dominance of diesel in the sales of new cars during the last decade (75% share in 2016 at it's peak). Anything larger than a Ford Fiesta was usually sold as a diesel meaning there are very few petrol cars from that time currently on the used market.

With the general unpopularity of diesel and the surge in demand for used cars over the last year or so, most petrol options have been either snapped up or gone up in price significantly whilst there's just a glut of diesel vehicles available on the market. I myself traded in a 2016 petrol Golf earlier this year for more than what I paid for it in 2019. Absolutely crazy.

For a family petrol car within budget, you should be able to find a few Skoda Octavia's like bazz has linked above. There's possibly some luck with Focus saloons, maybe take a look towards the Opel Astra/Insignia.

blackbox

Have you considered a hybrid?

You can get decent sized cars with hybrid powertrains.

bazz26

PaulRyan97 wrote: »

OP you've hit the unfortunate result the complete dominance of diesel in the sales of new cars during the last decade (75% share in 2016 at it's peak). Anything larger than a Ford Fiesta was usually sold as a diesel meaning there are very few petrol cars from that time currently on the used market.

With the general unpopularity of diesel and the surge in demand for used cars over the last year or so, most petrol options have been either snapped up or gone up in price significantly whilst there's just a glut of diesel vehicles available on the market. I myself traded in a 2016 petrol Golf earlier this year for more than what I paid for it in 2019. Absolutely crazy.

For a family petrol car within budget, you should be able to find a few Skoda Octavia's like bazz has linked above. There's possibly some luck with Focus saloons, maybe take a look towards the Opel Astra/Insignia.

Have you any official figures or source to quantify that diesels are now unloved and there are a glut of them on the market? From what I can tell due to the option of importing not being as viable as it was last year and the long lead times on brand new cars due to semiconductor shortages, used cars (any fuel type) are flying out the door of dealerships even at inflated prices. I don't see anything to suggest dealers are lumbered with a glut of unsold diesel cars on their forecourts.

Allinall

bazz26 wrote: »

Have you any official figures or source to quantify that diesels are now unloved and there are a glut of them on the market? From what I can tell due to the option of importing not being as viable as it was last year and the long lead times on brand new cars due to semiconductor shortages, used cars (any fuel type) are flying out the door of dealerships even at inflated prices. I don't see anything to suggest dealers are lumbered with a glut of unsold diesel cars on their forecourts.

This.

I got lucky around the end of March. Bought a four year old diesel import from a dealer. Reckon it was from the north, or imported on the old system.

Same car now is €3,000+ dearer.

PaulRyan97

bazz26 wrote: »

Have you any official figures or source to quantify that diesels are now unloved and there are a glut of them on the market? From what I can tell due to the option of importing not being as viable as it was last year and the long lead times on brand new cars due to semiconductor shortages, used cars (any fuel type) are flying out the door of dealerships even at inflated prices. I don't see anything to suggest dealers are lumbered with a glut of unsold diesel cars on their forecourts.

Yeah that's a fair point, obviously there's no figures for what cars are being sold on the used market here, none that are made public anyway.

Used diesel's are definitely still selling handily enough but there's just so much supply in the country. Used imports are still coming in, 20k used diesels so far this year alone. If you look at carzone for the years 2014-2018 for example, (just taking those years as they're probably what most people buying used now are looking at), available diesels easily outnumber petrols 3:1. This is despite the fact that the number of new diesels registers over that time span was less than that ratio. You can conclude from that shift that petrols cars of that era are either selling better on the used market today or that their owners have kept them for far longer than their diesel counterparts did.

If you look at specific cars too you can see that spec for spec, the diesels are being sold for less than their petrol versions, despite the fact the diesels were more expensive to buy in the first place.