Age old question question Petrol or Diesel

inflames · 12 Jan 2023 at 19:46

Looking at changing my car in next couple of months, I currently do between 10-12k miles a year, now that I found a shorter route for my commute. My commute is 5 miles city driving and 10 miles of major A road each way. I currently drive a dirty diesel.
I am happy to get a car that uses either fuel, I prefer petrol but do like the torque of a diesel.
When it comes to a car, I have a short list that I have worked out roughly what my cost will be etc. It would need to be 4 doors, 6 pots minimum and 200bhp minimum. Budget 15k absolute tops that’s taking into consideration with trading in my current car. I would rather keep a bit below that.

At the minute I am considering:

diesel
530d
640d
XF
E350cdi
cls350cdi

pertol
Seriously looking at a JDM Toyota crown athlete GRS204.

Left field choices
Infiniti
M30d or m37 these seem to be good value for money.
Qx30d or QX37 (don’t know why but I really like these.)

Anyone got anything else that I should considered, don’t want another VAG nothing against them, I would just like something different.

Hyburnate · 12 Jan 2023 at 19:53

Petrol for that mix of driving and mileage any day of the week.

inflames · 12 Jan 2023 at 19:58

Hyburnate said:
Petrol for that mix of driving and mileage any day of the week.

That’s what I keep coming back to, a couple of years ago was doing about 15k miles a year and that would have been a no brainier and stuck with diesel.

Rroff · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:01

At that mileage I wouldn't get to worried about petrol or diesel unless stuff like ULEZ comes into it - at [very] higher mileages on a diesel turbo or DPF might come into the equation, but in my experience it is more likely to be EGR issues if anything. I'd go for the car you like before worrying too much about the type of fuel.

Left field choice wise tax, MPG and emissions you'd want to make sure you were on top of - the M30d especially though a nice engine IIRC is only Euro 5 compliant.

EDIT: Though saying that who knows what is going to happen with the price of diesel this year - rumours are it could increase quite a bit which would make petrol more attractive.

inflames · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:12

Rroff said:
At that mileage I wouldn't get to worried about petrol or diesel unless stuff like ULEZ comes into it - at [very] higher mileages on a diesel turbo or DPF might come into the equation, but in my experience it is more likely to be EGR issues if anything. I'd go for the car you like before worrying too much about the type of fuel.

Left field choice wise tax, MPG and emissions you'd want to make sure you were on top of - the M30d especially though a nice engine IIRC is only Euro 5 compliant.

EDIT: Though saying that who knows what is going to happen with the price of diesel this year - rumours are it could increase quite a bit which would make petrol more attractive.

Yes there are lots of rumours that diesel is about to go back up again.

[TW]Fox · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:23

Hyburnate said:
Petrol for that mix of driving and mileage any day of the week.

Looking at the type of car he wants and his budget, he is going to be looking at 2012-2016 cars.

Almost every car of this type bought new around this time was diesel. It will be very difficult to find a good petrol car, especially if he has a particular specification or colour in mind.

inflames · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:26

[TW]Fox said:
Looking at the type of car he wants and his budget, he is going to be looking at 2012-2016 cars.

Almost every car of this type bought new around this time was diesel. It will be very difficult to find a good petrol car, especially if he has a particular specification or colour in mind.

Yep, that certainly is the case, try finding 530i in that age range.

[TW]Fox · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:33

inflames said:
Yep, that certainly is the case, try finding 530i in that age range.

They stopped making them in 2013.

inflames · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:39

[TW]Fox said:
They stopped making them in 2013.

I know, was using that as an example, Petrol cars in this class are rare. Unless your buying something very powerful

Hyburnate · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:40

[TW]Fox said:
Looking at the type of car he wants and his budget, he is going to be looking at 2012-2016 cars.

Almost every car of this type bought new around this time was diesel. It will be very difficult to find a good petrol car, especially if he has a particular specification or colour in mind.

You're not wrong, but, OP isn't exactly in a rush to buy, so why not just keep an ear close to the ground and jump when the right car at the right price point comes up?

BUDFORCE · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:48

Petrol.

ncncore · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:50

As others have said I would chose petrol too.

[TW]Fox · 12 Jan 2023 at 20:56

Hyburnate said:
You're not wrong, but, OP isn't exactly in a rush to buy, so why not just keep an ear close to the ground and jump when the right car at the right price point comes up?

Because it'll probably never happen.

I spent 6 months trying to find a good petrol one back in 2016 when these cars were virtually new and therefore at least things like condition were not a concern. I ended up with another 530d.

Even finding a nice 530d was difficult, most cars were 520d.

The 535i is rarer still - there are about 20 530d for every 1 535i. Now you've got the added difficulty that if you do find one its probably owned by somebody who thinks its worth £25k because its a rare petrol model so it'll be over budget anyway.

You may have more luck finding a 640i as the larger petrol engine was a bit more popular in the 6 Series, but it'll be quite old for the budget.

Quartz · 12 Jan 2023 at 21:22

Are second-hand EVs in your price range? Don't forget to include the cost of a charger at home.

inflames · 12 Jan 2023 at 21:35

Quartz said:
Are second-hand EVs in your price range? Don't forget to include the cost of a charger at home.

Not really interested in a EV at the minute, specially anything in that price range. I will admit I have looked at a couple on PCP, but they still silly expensive and I don’t have anywhere at home to charge one, without running the cable across a path and road.

Quartz · 12 Jan 2023 at 22:13

inflames said:
without running the cable across a path and road.

This is similar to what is stopping me from getting an EV

inflames · 12 Jan 2023 at 22:42

Quartz said:
This is similar to what is stopping me from getting an EV

I have looked some hybrids, as a stepping stone before moving to EV, like a IS300h but they still just more than I am willing to pay.

theone8181 · 13 Jan 2023 at 06:11

Quartz said:
This is similar to what is stopping me from getting an EV

Imo it's going to be an issue for a massive amount of the population. What about dropping down to a small car. I'd imagine finding a petrol 3/4 wouldn't be too hard (and of course always the m3/4 route

). Just to be clear is that 15k including your current car, or as well as?

inflames · 13 Jan 2023 at 07:37

theone8181 said:
Imo it's going to be an issue for a massive amount of the population. What about dropping down to a small car. I'd imagine finding a petrol 3/4 wouldn't be too hard (and of course always the m3/4 route ). Just to be clear is that 15k including your current car, or as well as?

15k including trading in my current car, so budget without trading in my car is 13.5k.
Regarding getting a smaller car, I could go down to a 3 series/ C class size car. But I would prefer some a little bigger.

[TW]Fox · 13 Jan 2023 at 08:46

To be honest if you don't actually dislike diesel then there isn't much wrong with the cars in your list. I don't particularly like diesels but I've really enjoyed the 530d, it's a great car and the engine really suits it.