Diesel

Diddums

Diddums

Diddums

Caporegime
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In need of some enlightenment here. First off, let me say that I am so biased against diesels it's unreal. I'd never even consider buying one, regardless of whether it's a Daihatsu Cuore or an A8.

With that out the way, I'm curious as to why they are so popular. They say that they get better empeegees which I suppose does help but I'd happily pay a bit more for a car to sound decent, even if it's a repmobile which covers a billion miles a year. Diesel belongs in trucks and tractors as far as I'm concerned as they're torquey engines and suit those applications.

Now here's my question. A diesel apparently emits less pollution which means that they incur a lower road tax. But this is a temporary thing isn't it? I've never seen a petrol car get floored onto a motorway and dump all that black soot all over the road, a trait synonymous with diesels when they regenerate their DPFs. Does this get taken in to account by VOSA?
 
"Although diesel emits less carbon dioxide, it gives off more nitrogen dioxide which causes local pollution and has been linked to thousands of premature deaths every year in the UK."
 
Diddums said:
In need of some enlightenment here. First off, let me say that I am so biased against diesels it's unreal. I'd never even consider buying one, regardless of whether it's a Daihatsu Cuore or an A8.

With that out the way, I'm curious as to why they are so popular. They say that they get better empeegees which I suppose does help but I'd happily pay a bit more for a car to sound decent, even if it's a repmobile which covers a billion miles a year. Diesel belongs in trucks and tractors as far as I'm concerned as they're torquey engines and suit those applications.

Now here's my question. A diesel apparently emits less pollution which means that they incur a lower road tax. But this is a temporary thing isn't it? I've never seen a petrol car get floored onto a motorway and dump all that black soot all over the road, a trait synonymous with diesels when they regenerate their DPFs. Does this get taken in to account by VOSA?
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I did 600/700 miles a week for work, which meant I made a decent amount off my fuel expenses due to getting 68MPG out of my diesel Corsa, that was reason enough for me.

I'd earn more money per hour driving on a motorway than I would actually doing my shift.
 
Price of petrol. Back in the 90's to mid 00's it was around 70p a litre. It has almost doubled in price so now everyone wants diesel for the mpg. The road tax change in 2001 didn't help either.
 
a lot of people always seem to ignore all the other running costs besides fuel and VED. Tried explaining to friends + family that to "save money" they should stick with the car they have, rather than blow £10k+ on a new diesel for the massive 5-10k a year miles they do. Never sinks in :(
 
mccarf said:
a lot of people always seem to ignore all the other running costs besides fuel and VED. Tried explaining to friends + family that to "save money" they should stick with the car they have, rather than blow £10k+ on a new diesel for the massive 5-10k a year miles they do. Never sinks in :(
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People that do that either consciously or subconsciously want a new car anyway.
 
Lot of people only see the MPG and VED and that is what's sold to them by the salesmen a lot of the time.

I'd say I'm a little biased myself but wouldn't be completely against one. As the most miles I've done in a year has been 14k and I do relatively few shorts journeys as well, I don't see myself saving an awful lot currently so stick to reasonable sized petrols.
 
I do 30-40k a year and while I do have a fuel card, getting 700-800 miles (825 is my record) out of a £70 ish tank of fuel makes a difference to how much tax I'll pay. Fuel card is used for business and personal miles. If I was ever in a position where my work would take fuel cards away I'd've able to handle it, unlike my co-workers with a 4.4 X5 and a 630i.
 
I think companies have 'driven' the boom in diesels, at a guess the majority of BMW, Audi and Mondeo diesels on the roads, are company cars.
 
I like the combination of the mid-range torque, 2000 rpm at the legal motorway limit and 55+mpg all at the same time.

I couldn't care less that it sounds a bit clanky when it's cold.

YMMV.

As to if I'd buy another? Probably not. DPFs and all the other stuff they're fitting to get modern diesels to pass emissions are a ticking timebomb of expensive repair costs.
 
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The only diesel I have ever driven was my driving instructor's 306 8 years ago or so. It was very odd- very "spongy" and, er, relaxed pedals and engine response, tiny and vague steering wheel and it drove at the same speed regardless of what gear or what rpm the engine was at. It gave the impression I only had vague, tenuous influence on where the car went and at what speed :D My petrol nissan almera flushed out all of the learning-to-drive habits like clunky gear changes etc much better than the diesel 306.
 
Some people (like myself) do actually prefer the lazy way a big diesel drives. I have a 530d, and if I didn't have that engine, I probably would have ordered the 535i (and sold it to Fox when I was finished since he spent ages looking for a petrol 5).

However, while the extra 50 bhp would have been nice, I get, I would think at least, on average 12 mpg more out of the 530d. Now if I was only doing 8-10k per year, this might have been fine. But the car is around 20 months old now, with 30k on the clock.

So the £5359.84 fuel cost in the 535i compared to the £3828.46 fuel cost of the 530d means I have saved around £1500 in this time. Or roughly one tank of fuel per month. The ~£75 per year VED difference means almost nothing to me though, but that is still an extra £150 cost.

Of course, the depreciation on the car vastly outweighs this saving in fuel costs, but regardless, for my daily driver, I'd rather save that money than not.

That said, my second car doesn't need to be economical, hence the V8 Range Rover, but then that car only does 8-10k per year.
 
adam cool dude said:
Price of petrol. Back in the 90's to mid 00's it was around 70p a litre. It has almost doubled in price so now everyone wants diesel for the mpg. The road tax change in 2001 didn't help either.
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The price of diesel has risen more than petrol over the same period, so that's not a great reason for it's popularity.

The Governments VED and BIK stupidity is almost certainly one of the strongest reasons. Company car owners can save quite a bit of money, and there are many private owners that are so stupid that they will gladly pay tens of thousands of pounds for a new diesel car to save £100-200 a year on VED, even if they don't do many miles per year.
 
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I prefer the way diesels drive, riding the crest of a relentless wave of low rpm torque. These are >3 litre automatics. I'm not really up to speed on modern small cars as I don't travel in them.
 
MPG for me and cheaper road tax, though if the Government have their way again we'll all be back in petrols.
 
snapdragon69 said:
I prefer the way diesels drive, riding the crest of a relentless wave of low rpm torque. These are >3 litre automatics. I'm not really up to speed on modern small cars as I don't travel in them.
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You mean you like a small turbo :p.
Diesels have an incredibly narrow power band ;).

I have a diesel Focus. I bought for trade in price from parents when they were getting something newer. At the time I did not do the mileage to warrant it but I knew all the history and it was (still is) in very good condition.
Then the DMF died as I was part way through buying a house. Yay!
One of the last non-DPF cars around. Even Ford databases seem to think it has one - It never has!

I now drive 80 miles per day for work alone, but to be honest there is not a lot of difference now between a 1.4 Turbo petrol and 2.0 turbo diesel in terms of power.
 
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snapdragon69 said:
I prefer the way diesels drive, riding the crest of a relentless wave of low rpm torque. These are >3 litre automatics. I'm not really up to speed on modern small cars as I don't travel in them.
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Over 3 litre petrol automatics are like that too, especially turbocharged ones of which most are these days.

The only thing my 3 litre turbo automatic diesel does better than the 3 litre turbo automatic petrol version is use a bit less fuel. That's it.
 
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