whats your preference and why

[tweetypie/8]

i dont know if this thread has been done before and if so my apoligies, i am asking for your opinion on the pros and cons on petrol v diesel engine cars.i got my first diesel car a 2.0ltr for cmax it 19 months old now and has 52000 miles on the clock and touch wood has been 100% reliable, whats your views on the fuel types ?:D

[Graham M]

*bang!*

[mrmistoffelees]

ethanol :p:

[Nidge]

i dont know if this thread has been done before and if so my apoligies, i am asking for your opinion on the pros and cons on petrol v diesel engine cars.i got my first diesel car a 2.0ltr for cmax it 19 months old now and has 52000 miles on the clock and touch wood has been 100% reliable, whats your views on the fuel types ?:D

You'll not go far wrong with a diesel mate as long as you service it regular, I know people who have diesels with over 300,000 on the clock, one guy has got an old K reg Vauxhall Cavalier with 400,000+ on the clock with the same engine and it's an Ex Taxi but it's been serviced every 10,000 miles on the dot, he's been all over the place in that car, he's been to France, Germany, Spain to name a few and it's never missed a beat.

[Chris]

Vegetable oil. :D Which, to be pedantic, is a diesel fuel, because 'Diesel' is the engine, not what you run it on.

</pedant>

I got my first diesel-engined vehicle over a year ago and I don't expect ever to go back to petrol. The oomph is useful on our windy, hilly local roads, especially for frequent, low-speed uphill stretches. The economy is essential due to the high mileage we do and, of course, there are the seemingly limitless homebrew options when it comes to fuelling the thing, which are saving me a small fortune.

Which reminds me, I'm due another trip to Asda. :D

[Hom3r]

I'm on my 5th car the previous 4 where petrol.

My last car was a J reg Sapphire 2.0 GLX petrol. which I had to fill up every 9 days. (25MPG)

My lastest car (bought 11 May 07) is a 55 reg Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X TDCi 130PS goes like S*** of a fan. I must admist I didn't expect it to a as fast as it was, also a full tank last around 20 days (46.3MPG according to the trip computer).

I dought I'll go back to petrol.

[homealone]

Modern diesels are so much better than what used to be available, my favourite was the early turbo chargers that would suddenly cut in all at once - nice for a bit of torque steer going round a greasy roundabout if you got the revs wrong ;)

My current car is a petrol engine with VTEC, which gets about 38mpg round town with the air-con switched on, and a bit better on a run with it off (allegedly ;) ) . I think that the quicker 'pickup' of a petrol engine from low revs is better round town, but diesel can be better where you need some mid range 'grunt'.

Good question, difficult choice - atm I like my 1.8 petrol VTEC :)

[Halcyon]

Since driving my girlfriends petrol car I find that it has a lot quicker acceleration.

[lostandconfused]

petrol, they sound better

[punky]

Depends on the vehicle. Diesel is slower, dirtier, noiser, and needs a turbocharger to match petrol's performance. Petrol has low efficiency though.

If I was buying, I'd say:

Supermini (Smart/Lupo/106) - compact (106/Focus/Golf): Petrol
Saloon (406/Mondeo/Vectra/5, 7 Series) - Full-size estates (Volvo V50/BMW 5e): Diesel
Performance (Evo/Scooby/RS): Petrol
Prestige (Bentley, Rolls Royce): Petrol
Vans/commercial: Diesel

[AbyssUnderground]

I have an L reg Peugeot 306 diesel, runs like a dream and gets 45-50MPG no problem at all. I stick £15-20 a week in and it gets me to work and back 5 times (10mi each way) and does me for social outings etc which comes to about 100mi a week itself.

[Jules]

The next car I get will be Diesel, loved one has one and it does loads of miles to the gallon.

[lostandconfused]

i always thought that desiels were only more efficent than petrol over long journeys,s if your just using it to go down the road all the time you would be better with a petrol.
dont know how true that is though

[Jules]

Loved ones driving is mainly about town and he gets a lot of milage per tank far more than in a petrol car

[jonifen]

We've had a few petrol cars, but our last car and our current car are both diesel and I'd never go back to petrol, as our new car (07 plate Zafira SRi XP cdti 150ps) has so much power (and the sport button adds some extra enjoyment if needed - not that I'm a fast driver - those days are long gone (and I'm only 25!) lol)

I think petrol is best for small cars (supermini type - like a Toyota Yaris etc) and performance cars (as someone said above) but for anything else, I'd always get a diesel.

[RUSTY]

`Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X TDCi 130PS goes like S*** of a fan`......yes I`ll second that, 40mpg local, 50mpg manchester airport full load, (and you really can load an estate) climate con. on all the time. son just got rid of his Pug 306 diesel estate 185000mls was still doing around 50mpg with m/bike trailer. diesel for me.

[keithwalton]

I've been running a diesel xantia for the last 21 months or so now, its the old type 'XUD' diesel engine which means it doesnt have all that much power but it all comes at once when the turbo spools up :)
because its the old type it can run on many of the 'home brew' fuels as described earlier, on derv i get ~45mpg, on derv/rapeseed oil 50/50 mix i get ~50mpg and an appetite for chips.

new diesel really are coming along nicely now, with most of the big players producing ~170BHP 2 litre engines. which is nearly twice what my 1.9 turbo d ever produced! and more than most 2 litre petrols and even some of these turbo petrols.

As much as I like them though i dont do enough miles to warrent the economy! my next car is most likely to be a petrol.

Simply as i want somthing abit quicker, and my budget will be low so i'll be looking at 10 year old cars when there were far more petrols around and diesels were well not much better than i've got already as it was around ~1998 or so that common rail's first started to appear and werent that good.

[Shaun]

whats your preference

I'm a leg man!

[tweetypie/8]

`Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X TDCi 130PS goes like S*** of a fan`......yes I`ll second that, 40mpg local, 50mpg manchester airport full load, (and you really can load an estate) climate con. on all the time. son just got rid of his Pug 306 diesel estate 185000mls was still doing around 50mpg with m/bike trailer. diesel for me.


have to say i agree and disagree with a few of the comments,i dont think diesels are slow dirty at least not the new common rail ones,i find my 2.0 diesel goes like the clappers and there are quite a few petrols out there would be hard pressed to keep up,plus there are not too many cars will accelerate in 4th gear going uphill add these benefits to top rate mpg plus the ability to do hundreds of thousand miles on the original engine sews it up for me ill stick to diesel :tu: