My wife drives about 8000 miles a year so we went for the petrol. In fact the petrol engines (especially) the 1.6 THP are economical enough that they are probably a good choice even if you cover high mileages. The 110bhp diesel we tried seemed very flat compared with the 155THP - but as the petrol does have 50% more power, pretty similar torque and a wider power band that is to be expected.
One point that I'd like to make is that manufacturers sell thousands of cars. A few vociferous individuals may choose to post (some endlessly) about a particular problem but that rarely means there is a catastrophic or systemic problem with a marque, model, engine or gearbox (etc..). It's like the sweeping generalisations about French or Italian cars - at one time French cars were idiosyncratic. Personally I think things like the GS and CX were fantastic, but to others they were plain wierd. Were they REALLY any less relaible than the peer group? Same with Italian cars, if there was such a thing as a latter day Alfasud then I'd have one like a shot, even though my original rusted before my very eyes back in the day.
Come to think of it, a DS with the turbo petrol engine ain't so far from that concept.
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