Petrol or diesel
Discussion
Hello folks. I'm considering buying a BMW 318i M sport plus touring. As its a petrol I'm concerned about the fuel comparison to my Audi A4 TDI 2 litre 143bhp. The BMW is a 2011 petrol 2 litre. I'm getting around 40mpg in the Audi. The salesman reckons I'll get that easily with the BMW. But he would say that wouldn't he ??? Any advice or info would be much appreciated.
I'm in the motor trade and, trust me on this, in my view diesel as a fuel is on the way out. OK, if (and that's IF!) you do over 30,000 miles a year then maybe it still makes sense but for most of us forget diesels built, or at least designed after 2008 especially if as most do it has a DPF. Don't blame the manufacturers though, it's all down to emissions legislation and I can't disagree with that. As part of my business I conduct MOT emissions tests on diesels and even my doctor says if I'm doing that then there's not much point in my trying to give up smoking.
Go for petrol, it kills fewer people, it's cheaper when you take the potential expense on DPF and so on failures into account and overall petrol cars are more fun anyway.
Go for petrol, it kills fewer people, it's cheaper when you take the potential expense on DPF and so on failures into account and overall petrol cars are more fun anyway.
cerb4.5lee said:
xRIEx said:
I'd suggest either accepting that you'll see 30-35mpg or go for something economy-centric.
Agree with this. I find diesels tend to always be economical even when driven hard, whereas with a petrol you need to make more of a conscious effort.
I would say also the 318i may feel a bit slower given its the same BHP but less torque.
va1o said:
I find diesels tend to always be economical even when driven hard, whereas with a petrol you need to make more of a conscious effort.
Agreed. Even when I'm pushing on a bit I rarely see below 30mpg. The worst I've seen is about 22mpg and that was solid traffic. (SLK 250 CDI).ffhard said:
if (and that's IF!) you do over 30,000 miles a year then maybe it still makes sense
Where does this mythical 30,000mls a year to break even come from ??Some quick maths.
BMW exclusive 318i.. £13000 (29k on the clock)
BMW exclusive 318d.. £14989 (29k on the clock)
318i average 35mpg
318d average 48mpg
12k a year....318i 342.8 gallons
12k a year....318d 250 gallons
cost per year....318i..£1930
cost per year....318d..£1452.5
Saving over 4 years ( average length of ownership of a car in UK ) £2020 ...making Diesel £31 cheaper, but .....
at 7 years old, the diesel would be worth approx £500 more with 80k on clock.
If you are doing 30k a year, the savings must be huge!!
On a driveabilty point of view, most "average" drivers would probably feel that the diesel is quicker mid range, which in the real world is the only place it really matters. The torque available makes for easier overtaking. That's why I drive a diesel.I'm just your average Joe Public.
Having said all that, if I could afford a much better car, would I choose a diesel.....no, not unless it was BMW 535D. Every other choice would be petrol. I guess that's why you don't see any top end supercar manufacturers ( Porsche and Maserati apart ) making diesel cars !!
thelawnet said:
I suggest you look at the total cost of ownership. Do a spreadsheet.
Absolutely.thelawnet said:
Fuel is a minority of the cost of owning a car, for most people.
Really? If you mean 'minority' in the sense that fuel is less than half the total then I agree, but I think fuel consumption is the right area to focus on. When I've done TCO spreadsheets fuel is often the biggest single cost, and sometimes not far off half. Granted, last time I did a batch of calculations it was on an annual mileage of 14,000, which I believe is higher than the national average so maybe a bit high to be representative of 'most people', but if you do less mileage it's not just the fuel cost that comes down - so do depreciation, maintenance and insurance. Unless you're doing very low mileage, the only element that I can see exceeding the cost of fuel is depreciation, and that's a personal choice. You can choose to have next to nothing depreciation if you buy the right car (although you might have to budget a bit more for maintenance 
).The element that disappears into insignificance is tax. I don't know why anyone would even look at the cost of tax unless, again, they were doing very low mileage (but of course tax correlates strongly with fuel consumption so, whilst choosing a car for it's low tax band makes little sense in the context of TCO, choosing a car with good fuel consumption - which makes a lot of sense - will probably give you lower tax too).
Edited by SK425 on Tuesday 18th November 22:19
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