Is diesel in decline?

[white_goodman]

I was just curious as to what effect the new legislation coming in to place in 2017 will have on the sale of diesel vehicles and how the manufacturer's will react to this. Up until recently, if I was buying a new mid-range family car, I would have almost certainly chosen the diesel version. Better mpg, lower CO2 emissions so lower RFL, better residual values and let's be honest, I know not many of us love the sound of a diesel at idle/low speed but the driveability and torque available from low rpms have traditionally (performance models aside) made turbodiesels much nicer to drive than your average gutless NA 1.4-2 litre petrol engine.

Now I'm really not so sure. Two experiences recently have made me doubt the worth of diesel and even my dad, who has driven diesels for over 20 years and likes them is thinking that he will probably buy a petrol car next time. One was a Golf S 1.2 TSI rental. I believe that it only had about 85bhp but felt like so much more than that (much better than the old 1.4 NA petrol in the Golf, which had similar power) and over 1000 miles, it averaged 45mpg. Not that it had much character but perfectly acceptable and petrol was considerably cheaper than diesel at the time, so I don't feel that not having a diesel dented my wallet any worse. In terms of ownership, the petrol should be more reliable too without the hassle of potentially expensive DMF and DPF failures.

The other was in my two year old 1.8 NA petrol Honda Civic. On a recent longer motorway journey, I averaged 49mpg and it costs peanuts to fill up! I guess part of the attraction of diesel is the consistency though, as I usually average more like 38-40mpg on a daily basis.

So, if you were going out to buy a mid-range family car today (Focus, Mondeo, 3-Series) etc, would you buy the petrol or the diesel version? I believe that VW do not offer a non-diesel option in the Passat. Will manufacturers that have invested heavily in diesel technology (VW/Audi, BMW) be hurt by the changes in legislation?

I imagine that diesel will still be the mainstay in larger cars (5-Series/7-Series) and SUVs though, where the petrol V6/V8 option will be considerably less efficient?

[white_goodman]

750turbo said:

Sorry, but you are wrong ref the "other cities follow suit ". London, in itself, lives in its own little (big) bubble, what happens there, will not happen in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow etc in the near future, (Glasgow has its own agenda IMO)

It may come, but it is in the distant future, all IMO of course

Haha. I lived in Manchester when they had a referendum about introducing a congestion charge. The citizens of Manchester told them what they could do in no uncertain terms, so that idea didn't get far!

[white_goodman]

laters said:

I drove a older diesel merc for the last 9 years and never thought I would go back to petrol for my everyday car but....

I have gone back to petrol.

When looking for me current car I kept coming across the nightmare stories of modern diesel engines having issues when used for shorter journeys etc etc.
A lot of the use my car gets is shorter around town stuff.

Using basic maths I worked out my current petrol car is costing me more to run than a diesel but if I had bought a diesel and it had gone wrong it could cost me more than I saved by running a diesel.

I know not all diesels go wrong doing shorter journeys but thought I would have a change and go back to petrol & hedge my bets.

I am not missing the diesel other than going to the fuel station once every 2 weeks instead of once every 3 weeks otherwise I am more than happy with the change.

Those old C250TDs are awesome though. I briefly had a 1999 with over 200k on the clock and still going strong and wish that I had kept it. Yours was barely run in!