6 or 4 cylinder diesel?

[Krikkit]

My old man keeps reminding me that he gets about 45mpg combined from his Sportbrake V6S, and that's booting it on a regular basis too. Magnificent machine.

[jamieduff1981]

andyalan10 said:

For those of you saying "buy the petrol" or "buy the six", a quick reality check.

XF Sportbrake 2.2d from 31945, 3.0d from 38365, petrol from 82495 (XF-RS only petrol)

Interestingly E-Class does have low cost petrols, and the premium for a six cylinder diesel is less.

Andy

There are varying incentives on different models and not much to add in the way of options on many of them unlike some competitors. I wouldn't pay too much attention to list prices to be honest.

[johnbanks]

My six month old A8 with 3500 miles was less than £35k, not the top spec, not the class leader, but air suspension that rides and handles well with 19s, lovely interior with lots of toys, Quattro, 8 speed ZF, nav, "base" audio but still 180W amplified with sub that is better than Bose I've had in other cars so very acceptable, parking camera, electric boot, 3.0 TDI single turbo 250 PS, 43mpg on a run, 0-60 in 6, cheap to tax and insure. Shop around, look beyond the obvious. Jags and Mercs are expensive, as are lower spec Audis and BMWs, with people not out for a bargain paying similar for rattly four cylinder models as they don't look beyond the obvious. I wanted AWD (and have winter tyres/wheels too) and auto, so apart from SUVs not much choice otherwise, and I don't need the weight or size of SUVs. You'd need a V8 in an SUV with similar interior space to accelerate similarly with all that involves with economy and tax.

Edited by johnbanks on Wednesday 23 July 14:26

[CYMR0]

Fair point - brand new 730ds and A8 3.0 TDis can be had for £38k or so.

By comparison an E220 with a similar deal is about £10k less though, so it depends what you value.

[Limpet]

My old boss used to get 38 mpg average from an XF V6 diesel (240) on a mixed road 50 mile commute. Silky smooth and quiet though. No four cylinder diesel would get close in terms of refinement.

[TheInsanity1234]

If they can afford it, go for as many cylinders as possible, as you find that more cylinders give you a smoother running, as you have more 'bangs' per revolution which results in less vibration, as there's shorter gaps between each 'bang'.

So go for the 6cyl if your parents can.

You find that on diesels, regardless of what you do, and what the engine size is, they will do 35-45 mpg without much difficulty.

But if your parents are going to do lots of short journeys with start-stopping, then you're better off with a 6cyl petrol, which shouldn't drop too far below 30 mpg, and will be much cheaper in the long run as the price of petrol is lower, and you won't have any clogged up DPFs to spend money on sorting out.