Diesel -v- Petrol

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Feb 2003
Posts
29,640
Location
Chelmsford
I'm in the market for a new MPV and looking at the S-max. However, I'm not sure whether to go for a Petrol or Diesel version. Petrol is cheaper at the moment but obviously the encomony of the diesel is much better. I noticed this morning that a litre of Diesel in a Chelmsford garage was £1.28. so it would seem that there's nothing not much between them really.

With sales of diesel cars increasing over the years, it would seem the goverment are exploiting this.

Thoughts?
 
Uhoh, not another one...:p

Unless you do BIG miles, the consensus is to stick to petrol.

Have a quick search through the many many threads on this.
 
Drive both, see which you prefer, the overall cost differences aren't likely to be that significant unless the S-Max petrol falls into a stupid tax band, fuel economy difference is huge and you're doing a lot of miles.
 
I do 22K a year in my 200sx i get 30 MPG on average, would i get a diesel only if i were doing double that mileage. Im a petrol head always will be :)
 
wasnt there a statistic about the additional cost of a diesel car and fuel v's petrol car and fuel where it took something like 100,000 miles before there was financial benefit?

maybe im dreaming it but i'd say go for a petrol.
 
I would go with petrol because the price of the car will be cheaper, the fuel will be cheaper and if you find yourself doing mega miles you could always convert to lpg! The gap between the price of petorl and DERV is only getting worse at the moment.
 
If you're doing it for financial reasons and do low lieage, stick with a petrol.
If you're doing it to look cool and get loads of women, get a derv :)

I am in no way biased.

Honest.
 
mattpc said:
The gap between the price of petorl and DERV is only getting worse at the moment.
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That's the issue. We have had the petrol V diesel discussion many timeas before but the difference in price has never been as big as it is now. Diesel would seem to be consistently ~10p per litre more expensive which reduces the anticipated saving even more.

As the difference in price increases, the amount of miles required to make a diesel worthwhile for economy, increases.
 
Surely diesel is miles better value......sure its 10p a litre more but you get so many more miles per tank than a petrol. My Gf's mum has a golf estate, 2 litre TDI and gets 500-600 miles per tank in it. No petrol car I know will get anywhere near that (my dads gets 300-400). That definately offsets the price difference - £5 more to fill up but gets you a lot further than £5 of petrol will
 
thecremeegg said:
Surely diesel is miles better value......sure its 10p a litre more but you get so many more miles per tank than a petrol. My Gf's mum has a golf estate, 2 litre TDI and gets 500-600 miles per tank in it. No petrol car I know will get anywhere near that (my dads gets 300-400). That definately offsets the price difference - £5 more to fill up but gets you a lot further than £5 of petrol will
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Not really. The economy of modern petrol engines is quite outstanding compared to what they used to be. Some of them are getting better economy than diesel engines were only a few years ago.

Diesel cars are also significantly more expensive to buy due to increased demand. Servicing and repair can also be considerably more expensive. This added expense can wipe out any savings made with fuel economy.
 
Having had the last 2 cars I've owned be diesel, coupled with the insane price of the fuel. My next car will be petrol/wafer-powered.

I'd go for petrol.
 
Scuzi said:
Not really. The economy of modern petrol engines is quite outstanding compared to what they used to be. Some of them are getting better economy than diesel engines were only a few years ago.

Diesel cars are also significantly more expensive to buy due to increased demand. Servicing and repair can also be considerably more expensive. This added expense can wipe out any savings made with fuel economy.
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Ah fair enough. Would say a 2 litre mondeo get 600 miles to a tank nowadays then? I'm goin on my dads 8 year old Pug estate for my stats :D
 
Ignoring any costs/mpg etc I would have thought in a S-Max the diesel would be the best engine due to the low down torque and most of the petrol engines being rubbish in a heavy S-Max, although think you can get the 2.5 T petrol out of the Focus ST although expect mpg in the teens.
 
thecremeegg said:
Ah fair enough. Would say a 2 litre mondeo get 600 miles to a tank nowadays then? I'm goin on my dads 8 year old Pug estate for my stats :D
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That depends on the size of the tank. My S3 and our Micra get similar miles (within 50 miles with the Micra getting more) to the tank, but filling the tank in the micra is half the cost cos it's half the size.
 
Confused said:
I made a quick and dirty little script to calculate the cost differences, and how long it would take at current fuel prices, for the savings with a diesel to be made.

http://www.my105e.com/fuelpricecomparison.php

Plug the purchase price of the two cars, their fuel consumption, cost-per-litre and annual mileage, and hit Submit.
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Nice one, that's really quite helpful :)
 
assuming petrol costs £1.10 per litre. 1 Gallon Of petrol costs £4.95
assuming Diesel Costs £1.20 pet litre. 1 Gallon of Diesel costs £5.40

Assuming roughly 12 gallons of petrol per tank.

Diesel tank will get you 576 miles for £64.80. Petrol tank will get you 456 miles for £59.40

So the Tank of Diesel costs you £5.40 extra, or 1 gallon of petrol extra. And gets you 120 miles extra. Extra Gallon of petrol would have got you an extra 38 miles. So effectively your saving 3 gallons of petrol for every tank of diesel you use. Saving of just under £15 per tank.

Diesel itself is always going to be cheaper, no matter what the price difference.

But you have to factor in extra servicing costs (diesel service interval will be shorter). More frequent component failures (Turbos etc..) And the fact the ford diesel sounds like a tractor engine and is relatively unrefined compared with other marques.

Draw your own conclusions.


edit DAMN YOU confused. Just took me ages to compose the above post :p
 
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