Justifying changing from Turbo-Diesel
Discussion
stargazer30 said:
+1. I've owned the 1.8 Petrol and driven the 2.2D. Assuming the 2.2D is not remapped and you actually drive the petrol, its the quicker car. Plus the petrol car is more fun and handles better. It also return very good MPG for a petrol 1.8 too, not as good as the Diesel on a run but not a massive extra cost in fuel for 15,000 miles per year I'd say. A fault DMF on the 2.2D or injector fault would wipe out any savings and then some.
I'd still prefer the petrol even if the diesel was faster 'on paper' tbh. Obviously I'm talking about like for like, and not a 1.8 4 cyl versus some of the recent and admittedly very good BMW 6 cyl diesels. 
Ignore my name I should add fun on to it but. I really do like the dirty derv Octavia we have. It sits on the motorway for 100 miles 5 days a week and regular european jaunts. Returning 65mpg on the missus commute. It's quitre refined and enough poke. But boring enough so you can't be arsed to thrash it.
Derv has its place for company car 20k plus PA drivers.
Nothing like getting in the mazda and giving a good thrashing through the gears. Or opening the windows to listen to the straight six in the BMW
Derv has its place for company car 20k plus PA drivers.
Nothing like getting in the mazda and giving a good thrashing through the gears. Or opening the windows to listen to the straight six in the BMW
Recently got a 6 year old Honda FRV 2.2D as I could not find a suitable 1.8 petrol.
For my 13K per year, the petrol made sense, and I was desperate to find a petrol in the right spec, but the only one was 400 miles away. Diesel is better than I thought, but I average about 42mpg (mix of 20 mile commute 3 days a week, and short trips). The petrol would have been mid 30's and £1k cheaper.
Break even would have been nearly 3 years, assuming no big (DMF, injector, etc) failures on the diesel.
Get a petrol, and consider a turbo, as it makes little difference to fuel economy, so long as you don't cane it all the time.
Sparks
For my 13K per year, the petrol made sense, and I was desperate to find a petrol in the right spec, but the only one was 400 miles away. Diesel is better than I thought, but I average about 42mpg (mix of 20 mile commute 3 days a week, and short trips). The petrol would have been mid 30's and £1k cheaper.
Break even would have been nearly 3 years, assuming no big (DMF, injector, etc) failures on the diesel.
Get a petrol, and consider a turbo, as it makes little difference to fuel economy, so long as you don't cane it all the time.
Sparks
My diesel can be entertaining, but not as much fun as I could have in an admitedly slower petrol.
My colleague suggested we flog the Mrs' Kia Picanto (worth ~£3.5k) and get her something bigger, so I can get something smaller and petrol-powered. Annoyingly he may have a very good point.
Doing 36 miles a day I need something which will return 35+ mpg, so no 6-cylinder beasts unfortunately. My Autotrader-browsing led me to a Polo GTI 1.6 16v, which claims to get 39mpg on average. Even taking 10% off that's still very decent for what could be a fun car to live with? Or were these similar to the Golf of the same era in the handling department?
I'm not bothered about flat-out speed, just something entertaining and simple. The Civic is quite big which is why the reviewers often favoured the torquey diesel engine.
My colleague suggested we flog the Mrs' Kia Picanto (worth ~£3.5k) and get her something bigger, so I can get something smaller and petrol-powered. Annoyingly he may have a very good point.
Doing 36 miles a day I need something which will return 35+ mpg, so no 6-cylinder beasts unfortunately. My Autotrader-browsing led me to a Polo GTI 1.6 16v, which claims to get 39mpg on average. Even taking 10% off that's still very decent for what could be a fun car to live with? Or were these similar to the Golf of the same era in the handling department?
I'm not bothered about flat-out speed, just something entertaining and simple. The Civic is quite big which is why the reviewers often favoured the torquey diesel engine.
Recently changed from a Seat Leon TDI to an old E36 BMW 325i.
I could justify it because I don't need a car for work or to get to work, so my driving is mostly discretionary.
Furthermore, the outgoing car cost me about £3.5k in the 3 years I ran it, with quite a lot of that going on maintenance and repairs, so I figure any fuel saving I derived from driving a diesel was totally wiped out by other bills.
Other justifications included the fact that the new (old) car is much simpler and easier to work on than the old (newer) car, so I can save money on maintenance by doing it myself. Depreciation is also lower-to-non-existent.
The car was also cheap, at £2.6k, which helps to offset a higher spend on fuel and which in turn has allowed me to spend another £1250 or so getting common fault areas sorted which will hopefully make the car reliable in future, and still have a cheap car.
Petrol is cheaper than diesel, and both are cheaper than they've been for a few years.
Oh, and the engine is much smoother and nicer to listen to than a rough diesel four-banger.
The main obstacle I found was that a petrol engine can feel pretty gutless initially after the torque-heavy delivery of a remapped diesel and I'm having to relearn how to drive a petrol...
I could justify it because I don't need a car for work or to get to work, so my driving is mostly discretionary.
Furthermore, the outgoing car cost me about £3.5k in the 3 years I ran it, with quite a lot of that going on maintenance and repairs, so I figure any fuel saving I derived from driving a diesel was totally wiped out by other bills.
Other justifications included the fact that the new (old) car is much simpler and easier to work on than the old (newer) car, so I can save money on maintenance by doing it myself. Depreciation is also lower-to-non-existent.
The car was also cheap, at £2.6k, which helps to offset a higher spend on fuel and which in turn has allowed me to spend another £1250 or so getting common fault areas sorted which will hopefully make the car reliable in future, and still have a cheap car.
Petrol is cheaper than diesel, and both are cheaper than they've been for a few years.
Oh, and the engine is much smoother and nicer to listen to than a rough diesel four-banger.
The main obstacle I found was that a petrol engine can feel pretty gutless initially after the torque-heavy delivery of a remapped diesel and I'm having to relearn how to drive a petrol...
I went from a 2 litre diesel to a 3 litre petrol recently. Over 15000 miles a year it probably costs me about an extra grand a year in fuel and about 80 quid extra in tax, so about 20 quid a week. Other running costs are about the same and there is no lingering threat of turbo/dmf/injector/fuel pump failure. For the enjoyment it adds to the car I think it's well worth it.
5k miles back in a petrol 1.4TSI ACT Golf. It's averaging 43 MPG calculated on a spreadsheet so factually it isn't as good as my diesels. Does it make sense for 20-25k per annum, no. But it's SO much smoother, quieter & despite being a modern petrol ie diesel like in its delivery you can rev it. I'm much happier, if you can afford it, do.
PanzerCommander said:
y2blade said:
Captain Muppet said:
I just bought a 350Z.
I was going to justify it using logic, but I was too busy doing the thing I wanted to do.
This^^^^ with bells on I was going to justify it using logic, but I was too busy doing the thing I wanted to do.
- You hate your current car
- Getting another run of the mill diesel will make you unhappier still.
If a petrol car did cost you £500 more a year..that's £9.61 per week to justify to the wife. I'm sure some man maths can bring that under £5pw and there you have it, You've got a car that's good for your soul and you enjoy driving.
Happy to help
adingley84 said:
PanzerCommander said:
y2blade said:
Captain Muppet said:
I just bought a 350Z.
I was going to justify it using logic, but I was too busy doing the thing I wanted to do.
This^^^^ with bells on I was going to justify it using logic, but I was too busy doing the thing I wanted to do.
- You hate your current car
- Getting another run of the mill diesel will make you unhappier still.
If a petrol car did cost you £500 more a year..that's £9.61 per week to justify to the wife. I'm sure some man maths can bring that under £5pw and there you have it, You've got a car that's good for your soul and you enjoy driving.
Happy to help
2010/2014 E350CGI vs 350CDI costs: Petrol 120.9/£5.50 per gallon Diesel 123.9/£5.68 per gallon
Fuel over 12000 miles:
Petrol: £2012.40/£1683.67 Road Tax: £285.00/£205.00
Diesel: £1642.40/£1374.19 Road Tax: £225.00/£145.00
He chose the diesel as I found a great 2011 spec'd car for £610.00 more than the petrol but most of that will be eaten up in the first year of driving plus the servicing costs are cheaper by around £160.00 per year all in all for high mileage the diesel is the better choice.
Oh the Diesel had 6300 miles more than the Petrol.
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