Consumers Choose Diesel

Dabbles said:
Do most consumers drive fleet cars? Do they replace them every 4 years with a brand new car to save on a bit of fuel? :o
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The only people I personally know who drive *new* cars don't actually buy them. They're either company cars, leases paid for with a car allowance or personal contract hire.
 
Nightglow said:
Why do have this image that a diesel will fail more often, even petrol engines can fail.
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It isn't the enignes that fail - engine failure these days is very rare. It's the ancilliary components that fail and cause problems and until recently (Petrol engines are now going the same way) the average petrol engine was largely free from the troublesome ancilliary components fitted to the diesel equivilents.

It's not that diesel is unreliable, its that particulate filters, turbochargers, high pressure direct injection systems etc etc can be problematic. Almost every diesel has all of these features fitted - whereas until recently the majority of petrol engines did not.

Once you start fitting this stuff to petrol engines they inherit the same problems - ie the N53 direct injection petrol engine from BMW.
 
paradigm said:
Surely, given that Diesel is a by-product of producing petrol, it will never be a case of increasing Diesel production, anywhere, especially a nation that now has higher diesel use than petrol. Unless of course we can find a market to export more petrol to.

We must be importing our Diesel from nations that still have higher petrol over diesel usage?
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Both the design of the refinery and feedstock used influence the proportions of different fuels and other oil products produced. Europe's refineries are generally old and were designed to maximise petrol production as that was the primary fuel used at the time.

We currently import substantial volumes of diesel, jet fuel and heating oil. Our excess petrol is mainly exported to America (I believe).
 
The worst car-conversions are with people trying to justify diesels

It appears to have turned car buyers into bigger retards
 
Do you know what imminent problem is going to arise from this?

Giving it a quick thought, I'm pretty sure that a majority of these vehicles will be company cars and will be covering vast stretches of British motorways. However once they've done their stint, they will be on the 2nd hand market in fact their will be a plethora of them on autotrader, pistonheads and etc.

The problem is that people are slowly starting to realise that diesels are not suitable for short journeys (DPF, ERG valves and so forth) so when it comes to buying a 5/6 year old BMW 3 series, the choice of petrol variants will be very limited and subsequently will be reflected in it's price (Hold it's value much better).

Ultimately the price of 2nd hand diesels will be much lower than the equivalent capacity petrol counterpart.
 
One thing to add, the resale or desirability is often better on diesels. If people are choosing diesels new then it filters down to used car sales.

I have a petrol and a diesel so I am not biased either way. They both do different jobs to me.

If my diesel car was petrol (now 6 years old) it would be worth £1000-£1500 less. Awhile ago we were going to p/ex it and the dealer said he would not have taken it if it was petrol as they had too many and they didn't sell as well as the diesels.

It has done 65k, no DPF, DMF or injection problems. I am well aware these can fail and be very expensive. Even though I am not doing the mileage I was when I bought it, I would still keep it above the petrol model even with the risk of the above failures.
 
flibbage0 said:
Do you know what imminent problem is going to arise from this?

Giving it a quick thought, I'm pretty sure that a majority of these vehicles will be company cars and will be covering vast stretches of British motorways. However once they've done their stint, they will be on the 2nd hand market in fact their will be a plethora of them on autotrader, pistonheads and etc.

The problem is that people are slowly starting to realise that diesels are not suitable for short journeys (DPF, ERG valves and so forth) so when it comes to buying a 5/6 year old BMW 3 series, the choice of petrol variants will be very limited and subsequently will be reflected in it's price (Hold it's value much better).

Ultimately the price of 2nd hand diesels will be much lower than the equivalent capacity petrol counterpart.
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You think that be true but "the people" are morons i doubt we will ever see this happen. trade dealers sell up cost of second hand diesels now for no other as they manged to sell them for more from new on pretense they will be worth more second hand.....
 
This is not surprising. My father-in-law is a typical example. He's buying a new Golf but only wants a diesel because it will return 60mpg around town (:o) so it will save him loads on the 6000 miles a year he does.
 
Dandle said:
It doesnt really work like that diesel and the heavier oils can be converted form one thing to another i.e kerosene can be converted to diesel. Petrol is only one of many products from the refining process and really sits on its own as you cant do anything with it. In the scheme of oil, petrol isnt the money maker for the oil industries.
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Diesel is heavier than, kerosene which is in turn heavier than petrol (in general). The 'conversion' is when you 'crack' heavier components into lighter more valuable ones (such as diesel, petrol, kerosene).
As most refineries weren't geared up to produce diesel due to their age, they tend to lack the hydrocracking ability to produce significantly more diesel than they used to. Unfortunately hydrocrackers tend to be very expensive so it's hard to justify the upgrade.
 
I get this all the time from various people, we were on our way back from London the other day and after seeing numerous Q7's etc pootling around, i commented to the GF that I don't understand why someone who can afford a Q7 would get a TDI to pootle around town in.

Her mum said "because diesels are more reliable" :(
 
Someone at work looking to save a few £££ a year by getting a diesel, a 520d of all things, but spending £10k doing it.............

He was trying to say how a petrol was not comparable, even though it costs loads less, is a nicer engine and had a much improved fuel cost over his current car (ie half way between current and 520d).... totally overlooking the diesel component failure costs.

i totally give up

although, current 330d estate does 0-200kph in 22s
 
Id have no problem recommending a TDI to a friend of member of family. typically quicker and less mpg than a petrol car of the same age.

If I wanted a blandmobile i'd consider it.
 
As much as it might make sense for me to get one I just can't bring myself to do it

having said that my mate brought his brand new SLK250 CDi round last night and regardlss of it suiting the rest of the car the engine was very impressive
 
I couldn't persuade the parents to stick with a petrol this time around. They'll learn all about the problems with doing under 10 miles a day in a diesel soon enough.

I'll be going slightly more fuel efficient with my next car I think. Then again, coming from an RX8, I can go for a 6 litre v8 and save money. :D
 
Vita said:
It's all about them torks innit bruvs.
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Not quite the way I would put it, but effectively the reason I have a diesel.
It was always going to be a fairly standard hatch, but I prefer the driving and performance characteristics of a diesel.
Economy is an advantage compared to the previous petrol I had, but wasn't the deciding factor.
 
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