Buying a diesel

sovietspybob · 11 Jul 2019 at 14:06

I've been driving the works van for 2 weeks which is a 16 plate VW caddy with the 2.0 TDI and my god was i glad to get back in our Suzuki Swift afterwards, the engine is so much more flexible, refined and quiet.

200sols · 11 Jul 2019 at 14:42

sovietspybob said:
my god was i glad to get back in our Suzuki Swift

Something I never thought I would hear

sovietspybob · 11 Jul 2019 at 15:11

200sols said:
Something I never thought I would hear

Swift sports are great little cars! There's a reason they chose them to rent out for the Nurburgring and you see so many smashing around at track days!

Crizzy · 12 Jul 2019 at 10:48

I think I'm going to hold out for a petrol, it's more appropriate to what we need and I'm in no rush to buy so I might as well bide my time with it.

Cheers all.

flea.rider · 12 Jul 2019 at 10:55

we have a 64 plate c-max titanium diesel 1.8 had it 3 months .. £35 tax low insurance £21 a month f/c and it sips diesel maybe £15 every 2 weeks . it's even better than the corsa with fuel
but you have to take it out on a 50-60 mile jaunt every week or so just to give the engine and exhaust a good clean out ....

matthab · 12 Jul 2019 at 12:32

flea.rider said:
we have a 64 plate c-max titanium diesel 1.8 had it 3 months .. £35 tax low insurance £21 a month f/c and it sips diesel maybe £15 every 2 weeks . it's even better than the corsa with fuel
but you have to take it out on a 50-60 mile jaunt every week or so just to give the engine and exhaust a good clean out ....

So every week your burning 60 miles extra just to keep it running? :rolleyes:

iaind · 12 Jul 2019 at 12:46

Why do people quote how much fuel they use a week? Its totally meaningless. I use about £60 per week of diesel, does that mean my car is 8 times less efficient than that C Max? No, it just means I do more miles...

If you're doing such low mileage that your'e spending 15 quid every 2 weeks, there's no way in hell you're doing enough miles to warrant a diesel

ADT · 12 Jul 2019 at 12:53

iaind said:
Why do people quote how much fuel they use a week? Its totally meaningless. I use about £60 per week of diesel, does that mean my car is 8 times less efficient than that C Max? No, it just means I do more miles...

If you're doing such low mileage that your'e spending 15 quid every 2 weeks, there's no way in hell you're doing enough miles to warrant a diesel

Out of curiosity how many miles do you get out of roughly £60 of diesel?

HangTime · 12 Jul 2019 at 13:03

Bring the discussion back around to the prospect of buying a used car, you do need to consider that there may be a bigger supply of diesel variants in the used market compared to petrol (for the Quashqai+2, Autotrader suggest more than double the number of diesel compared to petrol). What this means is that, engine aside, there is more chance of finding a suitable Diesel than a suitable Petrol and hence the prices you have to pay tend to even out more. Or in simple terms, effectively the fact that diesels normally cost slightly more than the petrol equivalent is negated somewhat by what is effectively slightly more depreciation. So say a diesel with a list price of £22k may end up costing the same in the used market as a Petrol with a list price of £20k. If they were registered before April 2017 they typically have very low tax as well.

The reason I highlight this is that typically diesels don't make sense as a new purchase - especially given the tax changes - unless you do a lot of miles but this isn't necessarily the case in the used market, where I think the mileage threshold is lower.

vanpeebles · 12 Jul 2019 at 13:06

Good time to buy a used diesel, loads of choice and all kinds

iaind · 12 Jul 2019 at 13:06

ADT said:
Out of curiosity how many miles do you get out of roughly £60 of diesel?

About a week

400-450, tend to float around 50mpg average

To be honest I bought the diesel because I wanted the newer shape Mazda3 and there were more diesels around than the higher powered petrol - my mileage was high enough that it wasnt a stupid choice. The 2.0 petrol does 60 in about 10s, the 2.2D is 8.something - its quite a big difference

Am selling it as starting a new job in a few weeks and mileage will drop significantly

HangTime said:
Bring the discussion back around to the prospect of buying a used car, you do need to consider that there may be a bigger supply of diesel variants in the used market compared to petrol (for the Quashqai+2, Autotrader suggest more than double the number of diesel compared to petrol). What this means is that, engine aside, there is more chance of finding a suitable Diesel than a suitable Petrol and hence the prices you have to pay tend to even out more. Or in simple terms, effectively the fact that diesels normally cost slightly more than the petrol equivalent is negated somewhat by what is effectively slightly more depreciation. So say a diesel with a list price of £22k may end up costing the same in the used market as a Petrol with a list price of £20k. If they were registered before April 2017 they typically have very low tax as well.

The reason I highlight this is that typically diesels don't make sense as a new purchase - especially given the tax changes - unless you do a lot of miles but this isn't necessarily the case in the used market, where I think the mileage threshold is lower.

Yep when I was looking at values for mine (4-5 years old), there are a lot more diesels and the petrols seem to be worth MORE with the same age/mileage/spec. With modern Euro6 diesels unlikely to be a problem in most cities for a while and still really low tax, they're not a bad option if your mileage justifies it

vanpeebles · 12 Jul 2019 at 13:07

£110 of diesel lasts me around two months

Semple · 12 Jul 2019 at 13:17

flea.rider said:
we have a 64 plate c-max titanium diesel 1.8 had it 3 months .. £35 tax low insurance £21 a month f/c and it sips diesel maybe £15 every 2 weeks . it's even better than the corsa with fuel
but you have to take it out on a 50-60 mile jaunt every week or so just to give the engine and exhaust a good clean out ....

Yeah that sounds like you've got bigger problems on your hand, the DPF shouldn't need a regen that frequently!

Mine performs a regen about every 475 miles, i can get maybe 750 out of a tank. Back when i was doing a lot of driving i'd easily be getting a regen once a week, now i'd be lucky to see a regen every 6 weeks.

flea.rider · 12 Jul 2019 at 16:33

matthab said:
So every week your burning 60 miles extra just to keep it running?

lol no my daughter lives almost that away and we go down every 10 days or so

iaind said:
Why do people quote how much fuel they use a week? Its totally meaningless. I use about £60 per week of diesel, does that mean my car is 8 times less efficient than that C Max? No, it just means I do more miles...
If you're doing such low mileage that your'e spending 15 quid every 2 weeks, there's no way in hell you're doing enough miles to warrant a diesel

I beg to differ but if I'm spending less on fuel with a larger car(old one a corsa) with a bigger engine .... then I can't see a problem ....
and like I said gets a good run every week or so ...

so what in your view warrants a diesel ?

flea.rider · 12 Jul 2019 at 17:02

Semple said:
Yeah that sounds like you've got bigger problems on your hand, the DPF shouldn't need a regen that frequently!

Mine performs a regen about every 475 miles, i can get maybe 750 out of a tank. Back when i was doing a lot of driving i'd easily be getting a regen once a week, now i'd be lucky to see a regen every 6 weeks.

I'm not saying it does a regen then just saying that's what we do ... a long run every so often

iaind · 12 Jul 2019 at 17:28

If you’re spending 15 quid on fuel every 2 weeks, you’re probably saving a fiver a month having a diesel. For the complexity and potential reliability issues, those sums do not add up whatsoever

You could run it for 25 years and only just be able to pay for a replacement DPF with the savings lol

flea.rider · 12 Jul 2019 at 18:07

iaind said:
If you’re spending 15 quid on fuel every 2 weeks, you’re probably saving a fiver a month having a diesel. For the complexity and potential reliability issues, those sums do not add up whatsoever

You could run it for 25 years and only just be able to pay for a replacement DPF with the savings lol

or nothing would go wrong ? I don't see where all the negativity comes from ...
the car had 20k miles on it we got it for £7k .. if it lasts 4 yrs+ it's paid for itself ..

Rroff · 12 Jul 2019 at 18:10

sovietspybob said:
I've been driving the works van for 2 weeks which is a 16 plate VW caddy with the 2.0 TDI and my god was i glad to get back in our Suzuki Swift afterwards, the engine is so much more flexible, refined and quiet.

I have no idea what the Caddy are like but my parents have/had a fair few vehicles with VW 2.0 TDIs and they are generally reasonably refined, quiet and smooth.

vanpeebles said:
£110 of diesel lasts me around two months

Driving a 3L V6 ~2 ton pickup you don't want to know how long £110 of diesel doesn't last me

NickK · 12 Jul 2019 at 20:52

tamzzy said:
if you're going to do short, start-stop journeys, i suspect a hefty DPF bill is on the horizon...

This - you will be required to drive for 30mins at 40+mph when the car needs to regenerate.

I use the car infrequently for short trips then have long 200+ mile trips.

Unless your doing long trips every 250miles of short journeys then go petrol.

vanpeebles · 12 Jul 2019 at 21:28

Rroff said:
I have no idea what the Caddy are like but my parents have/had a fair few vehicles with VW 2.0 TDIs and they are generally reasonably refined, quiet and smooth.

Driving a 3L V6 ~2 ton pickup you don't want to know how long £110 of diesel doesn't last me

Mine is also a v6 and weighs more