Is a diesel definitely a no-no?

dl8860

dl8860

dl8860

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Looking into replacing my 62 plate Focus Estate (petrol) which I wonder may start to become uneconomical due to maintenance and repairs, and also a slightly bigger car would be nice for growing family.

Just wondering if, given current usage patterns, we should rule out a diesel for sure. If it wasn't for the fact that the vast majority of cars we're looking at - mid-range estates between around 2016 - were diesel, giving much more choice, I would definitely go for a petrol, as I'd prefer to drive them anyway. But when you're searching and see 50 diesels to each petrol in some circumstances, it's made me wonder.

So usage pattern is, typically 6 journeys throughout the week of 1-2 miles (nursery pickup and drop off). I know the cardinal sin for diesels is short journeys at low speed, but are these journeys almost short enough that just say one decent longer drive a week will be enough to regenerate the DPF?

We normally do at least one longer drive each week (e.g. 30 mins each way at decent speed) or sometimes much longer to see family, motorway/dual carriage way for 120 miles maybe once a month.

The lower road tax is also nice, and at the moment not too fussed about bans from Bristol city centre or other similar upcoming regulations.
 
Your Focus must have had a hard life if it is becoming a liability at 7 years old!
Post 2008 diesels to the best of my knowledge all have a DPF (DPF itself not mandatory, it is the emission limits that are) and as such do not repeated short trips.

Buy a petrol turbo. Pfft road tax....will make £10 per month difference at most :p. One DPF fault and you'd have blown 5 years worth of savings.....at least.
DPF can't go wrong if you haven't got one :D.
 
Seems I didn't place enough emphasis on the fact that I know diesels aren't ideal for my situation, and I'm only even considering them because they are more available and therefore cheaper than equivalent petrols - so are they a total no go?

An answer of "buy a petrol, they are better suited for your usage" doesn't help, but an answer of "buy a petrol, diesel is a really bad idea and you'll almost certainly run into DPF issues with that issues" would be more helpful. I just don't know if that's the case or not.
 
I don't think you're in diesel territory with your usage pattern. Weigh up the price difference between a petrol and a diesel with a very possible dpf issue.
 
What is the price difference between an equivalent diesel and petrol model? Even though diesel is a potential liability in terms of future reliability for me it would depend on the level of the initial saving.
 
dl8860 said:
I am very clearly not asking for benefits, I'm saying the market is totally flooded with them and there's slim pickings for petrols, so given the cheaper price against comparative petrols, might they be feasible.


Thanks
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Market is flooded because everyone is trying to get rid of them and there is a shortage of petrol cars. There is good reason for this :D
 
Only get diesel if it's new, where you live might be like Glasgow. next year theyre bringing in a city centre LEZ where any diesel older than 2016 has to pay, any petrol newer than 2006 is ok.
 
smilertoo said:
Only get diesel if it's new, where you live might be like Glasgow. next year theyre bringing in a city centre LEZ where any diesel older than 2016 has to pay, any petrol newer than 2006 is ok.
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The biggest issue with diesel is random opinion being spread as fact - people are convinced all sorts of things are happening. Like the post above - the Glasgow LEZ is for pre Euro 6 compliant vehicles, not anything pre 2016.
 
[TW]Fox said:
The biggest issue with diesel is random opinion being spread as fact - people are convinced all sorts of things are happening. Like the post above - the Glasgow LEZ is for pre Euro 6 compliant vehicles, not anything pre 2016.
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2015, not much different...
 
People overplay diesel issues IMO - my household have run multiple diesels over the years under many different use cases and same at work where we run a fleet of diesel vehicles over a large variety of different use cases and generally issues (other than ones caused by the way people tend to treat vehicles that aren't their own) are rare - I've seen more EGR problems than DPF ones (neither of which I've seen much of).

EDIT: Though that said I've found big engine diesels (3-4L V6s - light commercial/bigger car rather than truck/lorry) aren't the happiest if used regularly in slow speed stop start traffic especially if cold - which I think is the source of the EGR issues I've encountered but not 100% on that.
 
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It came in to force in 2015 but there might be cars registered after which don't meet it. Won't be many though.

It's not a great way to do it though. There are "euro 6" car which are just as bad or worse than some older ones :/
 
smilertoo said:
Only get diesel if it's new, where you live might be like Glasgow. next year theyre bringing in a city centre LEZ where any diesel older than 2016 has to pay, any petrol newer than 2006 is ok.
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Yep, I'll stop taking the 1.5 Dci Clio in and take the 2.0 Mx5... I know its all about emissions, but it feels a bit crazy!
 
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