Should I go for a Diesel?

[Massimo Giovanni]

We have a diesel but will be buying electric once we change. Maybe a Tesla

My youngest daughter has a 530e BMW hybrid plug in, what a drive! super smooth in electric mode (for about 40 miles) and really hustles when petrol and electric motor given some throttle.
When the estate version of the 5 or 3 series hybrid come out I will be very tempted, especially if there is a 4x4 option.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

That's not entirely true. A friend of mine is an economist who works for the Treasury. He was part of the team that did the original research for Gordon Brown. He even told me at the time that the issue was that diesel was bad for the local environment since the particulates are heavier and don't blow around so much. The issue may be that the take up was greater than expected. (As an aside, speed bumps also cause pollution since people are continuously speeding up and slowing down which may also have contributed to the issue, at least in housing areas.)

Going back to the original point. My previous two cars were diesel but my current one is petrol. I came to the conclusion (after a small amount of research) that petrol is bad for the world environment, and diesel is bad for the local environment. You can't win either way so I went for the one that would be better for me financially. Given that petrol cars are cheaper to buy, but diesel itself is also cheaper I had some sums to do.

It worked out that I would have to do about 20,000 miles a year over 3/4 years (can't remember which for diesel to work out cheaper. I don't even manage 10,000 miles a year.

We do about 20,000 kilometres a year (mainly motorway driving) and bought a new diesel last September (after our old one died).We'd planned to buy a petrol car this time around but the salesman talked us into buying a one year old C4. Picasso.No complaints.[/QUOTE]

 

[GrumpyBlue]

Best comment yet !!!!!!

 

[Mad Cyril]

We have a diesel but will be buying electric once we change. Maybe a Tesla

Tesla?

*rubs thumb and forefingers together*

 

[Napster]

Tesla?

*rubs thumb and forefingers together*

Feeling flush.

 

[Ricey]

The new model they just released in the US is meant to be a reasonable price.

 

[SARF]

Diesel is finished for private transport. Big trucks, trains, agriculture fine . They are easily the best tool for those jobs.. I don’t know about the environmental impacts of Leccy cars, the batteries etc. But they are the future for the car.. I’d still currently go for a petrol motor at the moment though. The current sub 2 litre engines are superb, off great mpg or can be turboed up for some 0-60 if that’s your thing.

I also think the whole sports look, low profile tyres and rock hard sports suspensions are tomorrow’s dieselgate. What’s the point. You can’t hammer a car anywhere any more.

 

[RHB]

Our family car is on its last legs and we’ve been looking at changing it for a while. We’ve always said when it starts to cost us money we will trade it in. Well as the head is possibly on its way out time to trade the self combusting Zafira in.

As I have a big family I need a 7 Seater and we have narrowed it down to a couple. The one we are really fond of is the Nissan X-Trail. We won’t be buying new and just looking at second hand.

Question is should I go Diesel or petrol? We have found a great deal on a Diesel one but the wife is now concerned with all the bad press diesels are getting. Is this something that’s going to affect us over the period of ownership which could be 6-10 years?

What are the pros and cons. I’ve read a few articles and they don’t really give me much indication.

Been thinking on this @Ricey and I genuinely reckon that you should go for a pony. Think on it!

 

[Ricey]

Got a X-Trail being delivered in from Cambridge to the Chelmsford Glyn Hopkins for us to look at next week. If it’s nice then we will be buying it and it’s petrol. A lot of car for the money with bags of extras.

 

[Mr Plow]

I've ordered a Toyota RAV4 Design for my next company car, it's a PHEV and will be replacing my current BMW 120D which gets me about 50MPG doing 30K miles a year. Hopefully I'll be able to achieve a similar figure. Unfortunately being the most popular SUV in the world means the delivery ETA is end of May 2020.

I really wanted to go for an electric car and now the government have announced there'll be no BIK tax from 2020/21 on BEVs I'd save a shed load but fleet departments seem reluctant to offer this at the moment (no BEVs were on the list I could select from).

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

I've ordered a Toyota RAV4 Design for my next company car, it's a PHEV and will be replacing my current BMW 120D which gets me about 50MPG doing 30K miles a year. Hopefully I'll be able to achieve a similar figure. Unfortunately being the most popular SUV in the world means the delivery ETA is end of May 2020.

I really wanted to go for an electric car and now the government have announced there'll be no BIK tax from 2020/21 on BEVs I'd save a shed load but fleet departments seem reluctant to offer this at the moment (no BEVs were on the list I could select from).

I understand the wait for a VW Golf hybrid is longer!
And the price of a Mini Hybrid is bonkers.

 

[united we stand]

Diesel is finished for private transport. Big trucks, trains, agriculture fine . They are easily the best tool for those jobs.. I don’t know about the environmental impacts of Leccy cars, the batteries etc. But they are the future for the car.. I’d still currently go for a petrol motor at the moment though. The current sub 2 litre engines are superb, off great mpg or can be turboed up for some 0-60 if that’s your thing.

I also think the whole sports look, low profile tyres and rock hard sports suspensions are tomorrow’s dieselgate. What’s the point. You can’t hammer a car anywhere any more.

The next ”diseases gate” will be electric batteries, the govt acts as though they have zero environmental impact.

As an aside,We ran two LPG cars ( not at the same time), until 3 years ago. They are significantly cleaner than petrol cars, and the fuel (depending where you live) can be less than half price.

Unfortunately for whatever reasons they didn’t take off in the uk and BP owned BP petrol stations stoped selling LPG about 4 years ago.
LPG cars in some European countries (especially Poland) are not at all unusual

 

[Benfleet A1]

I met a couple of Polish lads who came over here to learn how to convert petrol cars to LPG, both making fortunes back home doing exactly that. Another boat I missed.

 

[Benfleet A1]

And why the hell did that post twice?

 

[united we stand]

I met a couple of Polish lads who came over here to learn how to convert petrol cars to LPG, both making fortunes back home doing exactly that. Another boat I missed.

depending on where you live lpg is as low as 53p a litre , maybe less.

 

[Ricey]

Thanks for the advice everyone, ended up going for the petrol X-Trail pick it up tomorrow.