New car advice - is diesel a good choice?

[paradigm]

At 15K annual mileage, arguably he won't be using it for it's intended use though.

It’s definitely borderline. Though as alluded to by Fox, if his 15k miles is made up of longer journeys then I’d be getting something bigger than a Fabia/Ibiza.

 

[Nasher]

15k miles I'd go petrol these days.

If you want max reliability then a decent sized NA petrol with a manual box (very limited choices for new cars though). Or any Honda, Toyota or Lexus

 

[marl]

Thanks for suggestions - I'll keep you posted!