Owning a diesel for the first time

[Acuity30]

I've never owned a diesel car largely because of vague rumours of more expensive repairs, how they hate short journeys and how they need a regular Italian tuneup to keep the system clean. How true is this? My work commute is 6 miles each way but I do 100+ mile motorway journeys sometimes too. Would a white good diesel be a good option? What should I avoid?

[Panda nero]

6 miles isn't enough for a modern diesel with a DPF ,diesel particulate filter , which clogs up and can get very expensive to put right .

Buy petrol or electric or an older diesel without DPF .

[Percy Cushion]

Short journeys will kill it, and whatever car you get, don’t get white.

[757]

100+ miles isn't alot for a petrol, I routinely do 400miles+ in my petrol - think you may potentially get problems running a diesel only 6 miles daily (won't be getting good economy in that mileage while cold), it won't even be getting slightly warmed up....

Diesels can be a false economy, having ran diesels for 15 years, was pretty happy to go back to petrol.

Edited by 757 on Wednesday 26th October 23:21

[ghost83]

Don’t think you do enough to warrant diesel, unless you’re looking at the road tax benefits and mpg

[Acuity30]

ghost83 said:

Don’t think you do enough to warrant diesel, unless you’re looking at the road tax benefits and mpg

The MPG not so much but the tax alone would save me £300 a year

[14]

As long as you go for an hours drive every 3 weeks or so you’ll be fine. I know because I also own a diesel with a DPF, and that’s what I do. My commute is around 2.5 miles, and for the 2 years that I’ve owned it I’ve never had a problem with it.

[ghost83]

Don’t think you do enough to warrant diesel, unless you’re looking at the road tax benefits and mpg

[2xChevrons]

Acuity30 said:

ghost83 said:

Don’t think you do enough to warrant diesel, unless you’re looking at the road tax benefits and mpg

The MPG not so much but the tax alone would save me £300 a year

That £300/year saving could easily be used up (or exceeded) if you have to keep having the DPF cleaned - and replacement if it clogs up completely could wipe out ten years' worth of tax savings. You could just be assiduous about taking the car for a good run every week or getting it to do a regen cycle as soon as the warning light comes on, but you may decide the faff isn't worth £300/year.

12 miles per day (six miles from a cold start twice a day) really isn't what diesel engines are good at, especially modern ones with loads of potentially janky emissions control systems.

[stevemcs]

Mine does 6 miles a day a gets a good run every few weeks, I avoid supermarket fuel and add an additive every so often.

It does depend on the car though, I don’t do it for cost savings, if I could I’d buy petrol but there are not many large petrol estates about. Mine averages 25mpg, a petrol - something like a vw up would double that

[Mr Tidy]

It probably depends how often you do 100+ miles trips.

I did 81K miles in six and a half years in a diesel and never had an issue with the DPF but I would next year as although my sister lives 30ish miles away she is in a London Borough, and it wouldn't be ULEZ compliant now!

[Muddle238]

For a 6 mile commute, honestly I’d just get a 1.0 petrol Aygo.

[Haltamer]

6 Mile commute will be very unpleasant in any diesel:- It won't get warm at all, so you'll have a frigid drive in winter.

The Tax savings will be offset by the fuel cost - Magic MPG Doesn't happen until you're warm and settled at a cruise. (That's before we start on the DPF...)

If you can get a plug in hybrid in budget, do that - Electric commute, pre-heating / cooling on most, and tax savings galore.

[anonymous-user]

I also have a 6 mile each way commute. Not traveling at traffic times.

Previous car was a 2.0 diesel shed. It was averaging 37mpg. It just wasn't ideal for it.

So I replaced it with a petrol V8

[keo]

MuddyK said:

I also have a 6 mile each way commute. Not traveling at traffic times.

Previous car was a 2.0 diesel shed. It was averaging 37mpg. It just wasn't ideal for it.

So I replaced it with a petrol V8

I like your style!

I can’t see the sense in a diesel for 12 miles a day. I do 18/20k a year and when i replace my daily I will probably go petrol. Diesels have their place. Mainly wagons and trains!

[mikal83]

They will tell you that you just have to do 12,000 miles a day to warrant owning a diesel.

[parabolica]

Are you looking at brand/nearly new, or used OP?

My V60 was a year old and diesel when I bought it in 2019 and my commute was 30 miles round trip. I wanted an estate but trying to find a petrol variant at the time was like a needle in a haystack, and when they did come up the spec was pretty dire. Ended up with a fully loaded diesel and despite doing less than 8k a year (change to wfh) but it never once gave me any issues. It's gone back now as I've moved overseas.

Older cars will start to give dpf issues at some point, it's inevitable, but not insurmountable.

[PurpleTurtle]

How often is 'sometimes' for these motorway trips?

Your mileage sounds similar to ours. We do lots of short local trips then once a month visit family 100 miles away, plus a few holidays too but never more than 600 miles for the round trip.

We've done all that putting 135,000 miles on a Honda FR-V with very few issues.

I've often contemplated a diesel, but for me the numbers just don't stack up when you factor in the increased cost of diesel, and the likelihood of a DPF, DMF or EGR to throw a wobbler at any time.

I'd stick with an economical petrol or a PHEV. To be honest you sound like the perfect candidate for a full BEV if this is the limit of your mileage, a diesel is the last thing I would be considering because of the the potential for low use bork-age.

[ghost83]

Have you considered electric?

[Roger Irrelevant]

Your usage sounds pretty similar to mine OP, depending on exactly how often you do these 100+ mile journeys. The majority of trips our Volvo diesel does are under 10 miles, taking the kids to nursery/going shopping/wife going to work. It might sometimes go a month or so without doing more than 25 miles in one go. However we do 100+ miles journeys fairly regularly and we rack up 16-17k miles per year in total. In three years and 50k miles (the car's now on 110k) I've had not a hint of DPF trouble (or any other trouble for that matter), and the economy has been quite a bit better than any comparable petrol car I've ever had, even when doing just the shorter journeys. So in my opinion there's a right load of old tosh talked about diesels and short journeys.