New petrol vs. diesel prices

roosterman71

Anyone know why the price of new petrol cars are higher than the equivalent diesel? I would have expected to see the petrols cheaper due to higher fuel, worse economy and higher tax, plus the NOx extra on the diesel. Is it the engine making it more expensive due to manufacture cost or something

mickdw

Diesel were traditionally more expensive but once tax and vrt was based on co2, diiesel cars became cheaper.

Of course they were then massively in favour - cheaper to buy, cheaper to tax and cheaper to run.

Diesel is now no longer the environmental choice and petrol hybrids and EV are more in favour and even though vrt and nox is tiny on those, they are still working out expensive.

At the end of the day its demand in my opinion.

2ndcoming

Diesel on the way out at the end of the day. Won't be sold by 2030 more than likely.

bazz26

Petrol won't be sold beyond 2030 either if the lofty claims are to be believed so that's not the reason.

Some of the reasons I can think of why diesel cars might be cheaper now are that diesel has been demonised over the last few years as the devil's juice responsible for all the world's climate change problems so demand has dropped. Another reason is that since the pandemic people have changed their driving habits and many no longer do long commutes so petrol/hybrids and electric are more viable options that would not have been. So increased demand attracts higher prices.

Milk the suckers really. Look at the price of a battery car

Summitatem

Cheapest Octavia is a 110bhp 1.0tsi that's almost 3k less than the 116bhp 2.0tdi.

If you're doing low miles the diesel wouldn't suit so in this particular case the petrol is cheaper.

Equivalent is very subjective of course.

With wfh etc I reckon lots of diesels have rarely gotten to operating temp over the last 2 years.

roosterman71

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403120#Comment_118403120

The vRS is the opposite. Nearly 5k more for the petrol

bazz26

Petrol RS was always dearer new than the diesel one.

roosterman71

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403338#Comment_118403338

Why is that though? Why would petrol, with all the additional costs over diesel be more expensive on day one? Pure gouging, or tax, or manufacturing costs?

The VW GTI is cheaper than the GTD. Which is the opposite of what Skoda do with the Octavia.

Summitatem

I'd consider the golf GTD being priced prohibitively high TBH. The Octavia diesel is great value in comparison.

Leonard Hofstadter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403369#Comment_118403369

Probably because the petrol has a lot more power. I don't know the exact figures now but at one point you got 245 PS from a petrol one, but 184 from the diesel