Would you still buy a diesel now?

[alpha channel]

Monty Python said:

Sorry - 30 miles each way, so ~300 miles per week.

I've a similar commute miles wise (averages 295 miles a week), the majority of the commute is free flowing dual carriage with a bit of A road at the beginning, again largely free flowing (it be a bit more free flowing if the road between Metal Bridge and Thinford was open eastbound). I've just swapped my 159Ti diesel for a 2006+ XK.

[wemorgan]

How much extra are you now spending on fuel?

[alpha channel]

It's working out to about £20-£25 extra on Momentum99, it's averaged £55 a week so far. A small price to get out of a diesel I think (even a very pretty one at that).

[anonymous-user]

Just decided to ditch a 320d for an M140, so, no!

[Buff Mchugelarge]

I recently bought an old (2004) Vectra DTi as I'm doing 850 miles over the weekends now, a big comfy 50mpg is what I need.
A big V8 petrol is what I want though.

[valiant]

HoHoHo said:

A500leroy said:

Depends if you go into a city regularly, if your thinking of using in London I'd go petrol now

But the additional charge to drive into london only affects cars older than 2005 so why worry?

A year old BMW or any diesel is Euro 6 compliant which makes a huge difference.

This maybe changing though. Mayor Khan wants to extend the ULEZ to the North/South Circular borders within the next couple of years and your car will have to be Euro 6 to avoid the charge (although the op's car will meet this).

Whether he has the budget/ inclination to do this remains to be seen but TfL's central grant is being withdrawn in the next few years (£500m annually) and they have to make the shortfall up from somewhere...

[anonymous-user]

I would

[ChrisR99]

No, you know you want the 340i.

[HoHoHo]

valiant said:

HoHoHo said:

A500leroy said:

Depends if you go into a city regularly, if your thinking of using in London I'd go petrol now

But the additional charge to drive into london only affects cars older than 2005 so why worry?

A year old BMW or any diesel is Euro 6 compliant which makes a huge difference.

This maybe changing though. Mayor Khan wants to extend the ULEZ to the North/South Circular borders within the next couple of years and your car will have to be Euro 6 to avoid the charge (although the op's car will meet this).

Whether he has the budget/ inclination to do this remains to be seen but TfL's central grant is being withdrawn in the next few years (£500m annually) and they have to make the shortfall up from somewhere...

Interesting the grant is being taken away.

My current X5 50d is Euro 6 and my wee most mornings has more contaminants in it, perhaps there should be a wee charge

[cuprabob]

HoHoHo said:

... perhaps there should be a wee charge

A "wee charge" is common up here in Scotland....

[ChemicalChaos]

hairyben said:

Frustrating for me as I really need a new van but want to fit it out and cost it over ~ten years - but no sensible/practical non-diesel vans are really out there. Any number of supercars, hypercars, suvs, luxury sedans and virtue-signalling mobils etc but nothing people who y'know, have an actual unarguable need for a vehicle in a city centre.

There are a lot of petrol/lpg 2 litre Ford Transits in and around London.....

[Alex_225]

Would I buy a new/nearly new diesel? No as I have a feeling with their values will take a hit in the next few years with diesel now being demonised where once it was fuel of the green folk.

But, the 3/4 of my year mileage is on the motorway and for my daily driver I want four doors, comfy seats, decent power and good fuel economy, all around the £4-5k mark. In that price bracket purchase prices don't vary enough to worry about diesel vs petrol and with 45-50mpg being totally achievable from a big engine/car it makes sense for me.

If my driving habits changed to town driving I would ditch the diesel in a heartbeat though. My other half went from 50 miles motorway commuting daily to 7 miles an sold her diesel almost immediately.

[hairyben]

ChemicalChaos said:

There are a lot of petrol/lpg 2 litre Ford Transits in and around London.....

I would have bought one ten years ago instead of diesel but felt they'd probably close the loophole/up the lpg tax. Either way they're no longer sold and as they're not part electric are unlikely to meet future low emission requirements.

I realise its incredibly wastefull of me to want a van i can keep for ten+ years and i should be more environmentally friendly and lease something new and throw it in the bin after a bit when emission fashion changes.

[f1nn]

I would have reservations about parting with a big chunk of my own money today for a diesel personally.

If my use suited diesel, then I'd be happier taking one on a lease/PCP etc where the residual value was someone else's problem. The government could kick the st out of diesel cars over the next three to four years and. I could hand it back, relatively unaffected.

[Loyly]

It depends on how long you'll keep it for. I have a Civic i-Dtec at home that my wife bought kast year. It'll never go into a congestion charge city (we don't have them up here, yet!). We're planning on keeping it for ten years, and then swapping it after that, by which time it'll be 13 years old.

It is safe to say that she bought it with her use in mind, not the next owner's. If you only plan on keeping the car for a short period and recovering a good portion of it's value on resale then diesel might not be for you as the backlash is starting to hit now.

I have often said to my wife that in 2026, when we come to replace her Civic, there won't be anything like the amount of diesels for sale that there are now.

[aeropilot]

Monty Python said:

So here's the dilemma - I have 2 cars in mind - an 18-month old 340i and a 12-month old 330d X-drive, both almost identical in terms of colour, spec and price. The 340i has more power (but poorer fuel economy), while the 330d can be remapped to the same power as the 340i while giving better economy (plus the extra traction from AWD).

Question is, with all the focus on diesel emissions, would you still buy one today?

With a 60 mile per day commute 2/3rd on M-ways, I'd be still tempted towards the 340i....just.

I used to do an almost identical 30 mile each way commute on the A40/M25 in my 135i, and I used to average 29mpg in that doing that commute, and that wasn't driving like a granny either, as the noise from the BMW Performance exhaust was too addictive
You'll likely get mid to high 30's out of the 330d (X-drive will knock some back over a rwd 330d though) but I wouldn't go near a remap on such a modern 330d nowadays as BMW are better at picking this up during services now...and I wouldn't want the risk of a 'tuned' flag marker against the car in BMW's system just in case, and I know of someone that has had their car 'flagged' as such.

Saying that, I've just replaced the 135i with a X5 40d, which after nearly 40 years driving is my first ever diesel, and for such a big and heavy car to be so frugal on the fuel is quite remarkable, and it even sounds quite nice when giving the pedal a bit of a prod!

[nottyash]

My diesel days are over.
I no longer do the miles, and they are dirty, its a matter of time until the government realises the huge mistake its made encouraging diesel sales through false claims of being green with CO2 figures.
There is evidence to show they rot buildings and cause cancer in kids, but still they are taxed on a CO2 figure. Its madness.

[Regiment]

I think people's love affair with diesel is over. A disgusting, dirty fuel that doesn't belong on the roads.

[Mammasaid]

Regiment said:

I think people's love affair with diesel is over. A disgusting, dirty fuel that doesn't belong on the roads.

So what are you going to replace all the HGVs and LCVs with?

Diesel's not going away anytime soon, tried buying a petrol pick-up or van bigger than a Transit Connect?

[TartanPaint]

I swore I wouldn't, but for a larger family wagon or 4x4 it seems there is still little choice.

I'm shocked how many models don't even have petrol engines in the range. We've all gone diesel mad until there's no choice any more. The reversal can't come soon enough for me. It is starting to come back... e.g. F-Pace 2.0 petrol option is a very welcome sight. You can't have a petrol Disco Sport though. Doesn't exist. Barstewards...