Prior Convictions: Fuelling the fire
In the petrol vs diesel debate, one factor is often overlooked: fun...
But still it seems diesel is in for a hard time, unfairly or not. Hakan Samuelsson, boss of Volvo, reckons that in a couple of years, his company won't release a new model with a diesel engine option. Not just because it can't meet air quality targets (though NOx versus CO2 seems like a conundrum for our time), but because by the time they've had to fit all of the ancillaries to a modern diesel - particular filters, urea solution, and so on - battery prices don't have to fall much further for a petrol hybrid to be cheaper to make.
It's not an opportunity I get that often, even in this game, and rarer still that it can happen with several different models. Without exception the petrol version of a given car was quieter, with a more broadly responsive powerband, it rode better, steered more sweetly and was more agile than its diesel equivalent. A petrol engine is generally lighter than a diesel equivalent, and although the kg differences might not be huge, you can really tell 'em apart on the road, where reduced weight takes less stopping, turning, and oomph to get going. It's not a PH car, but last week I tried pre-production Kia Ceeds in petrol and diesel form: the petrol manual was one of the sweetest-driving cars in the class. The diesel was anything but. Without exception the petrols were, in short, nicer things. If you like driving, much better things.
So, if we are to be disincentivised from buying diesels, and the market readjusts to a bigger petrol bias than its had over the past decade, maybe that won't be such a terrible thing after all...
3.5 years & 67k later I'm very glad I chose the petrol.
No difference in operation between which hydrocarbon powers vehicles in my mind - its just the ability of the squishy organism behind the wheel on how to get the most out of each technology, oh and Whitehall telling us what to think again...
I have no idea why anyone without having some specialist needs that only a diesel engine can cope with would want to drive one on a daily basis, the clatter alone is enough to say no, couple that with a vanishingly small power band and NOx emissions and why would you want to?
Every time I'm in LA I'm always astounded by the sound of the cars, everything is melodic and smooth even the old Japanese sheds sound great, walk through any major city in the UK and it's just an awful combination clatter and soot in the main.
I hope diesel dies.
If, on the other hand, you picked a diesel which could do 50 mpg and then had to find the petrol version which could also do 50 mpg (forgetting the fact that both figures will be lies and fabrication) you're going to end up with a crappy petrol version. It's for this reason I usually try to get diesel hire cars - the petrol ones are usually terrible.
I had an Ibiza FR for ten years (sold it four years ago) and I loved it. It was a challenge to drive quickly - really heavy nose so it understeered badly and you needed to always be in the right gear (having six of them helped). Driven properly it was very rewarding and quick too. I genuinely miss it and I knew I would when I sold it.
A diesel without a turbo is something else though.
Every time I'm in LA I'm always astounded by the sound of the cars, everything is melodic and smooth even the old Japanese sheds sound great, walk through any major city in the UK and it's just an awful combination clatter and soot in the main.
I hope diesel dies.
MPG
No really, outside of places like this, everyone and I mean everyone only cares about MPG, motoring conversations go round how any miles to the tank x person got.
If you happen to mention things like EGR, DMF, or DPF filter, peope look pityingly at you and dismiss it as an irrelevance. <shrug>
MPG trumps eVERYTHING to these people, even those who only go to the shops 1 mile down the road twice a week. I know I know. Personally I reckon in 3 years my next car will be PHEV, then in the 3 after that, most likely full Electric.
With any luck, tractors will be consigned back to the heavy lifting role rather than joe publics st box car.
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