thanks to you both!

A Diesel estate is likely to cost noticeably less over the term depending on discount. I'll possibly be looking at used estates next time but the management didn't like the look of the previous model when I suggested it last time.

A diesel estate to the exact same spec as the one I have on order would have been an extra £2000. Based on HJ's Real MPG figures I would save about £325 in fuel costs so not worth considering. Would I get another £1675 when I sell it it 3 years time, I doubt it.

But in the meantime I could possibly have DPF issues since I only do about 8000 miles a year, any problems would make the cost gap far wider.

But having had a 1.4 TSi for almost 4 years I would tell anyone its a better drive than any diesel I have owned and for 20 years I was a massive fan of diesels due to their low down torque. The much wider powerband of the TSi more than makes up for the loss of torque compared to the diesel plus the lower gearing of the petrol also makes the car feel quicker.

As for turbo lag, our 140PS has none, pulls from 1500 rpm. The Superb we test drove felt exactly the same but its fair to say the larger sizeweight did dull the performance slightly.

All cars depreciate and large cars depreciate faster. But I find that if you buy from the sweetspot of the range you can minimise your losses and personally I think the SE trim is the sweespot and either the 150 petrol or diesel are the engines to have depending on your usage.

Feel sorry for the loony's on the Superb forum who are spending the best part of £40,000 on full kitted out L & K petrols. They are going to take a massive hit.

I haven't looked but the contract hire rates will be interesting. On our CRV the more costly 1.6 diesel was cheaper to lease than the 2.0 petrol when we were last car shopping because of those stronger residuals larger cars command with a Diesel engine.

Business contract hire rates (3 payments upfront + 35 monthly payments @ 10K miles per year) are around £260 per month for a 1.4TSI 150bhp in SE trim, and £240 for a 2.0TDI 150bhp in SE trim.

That's very cheap for a car with that spec. Also makes them quite efficient on BIK tax for the driver too: under £1K per year for a 20% taxpayer, under £2K for a 40% taxpayer. The diesel costs more in tax because it falls in a higher tax band.

This site leaves me very confused sometimes. The constant theme from many (sensible) posters is if you do only low annual mileage don't buy a modern diesel, a view I subscribe to. Yet on this thread the advice appears to be buy the diesel, it will save you money not only on fuel but also on deprciation.

Whilst I accept that the diesel will be worth more at 3 years I doubt it will recoup the £2000 purchase price difference. But even if it performed vastly better over 3 years any advantage could be lost with costly DPF issues.

So whilst past performasnce is no gaurantee of will happen in the future I have investigated used values of 3 years old Superb petrol and diesel models. Back then the petrol was the 125 PS model and the diesel was the 140 PS and to do a direct comparison I have had to use the S trim for both (no petrol 1.4 SE).

So in March 2014 a Superb diesel woul have cost £1800 more than the identical trim 1.4 TSi. With 30,000 miles the diesel is now worth £1450 more as a PX.

Thus in pure depreciation terms the 1.4 TSi would ahve save the owner £350 but that would have probably have been spent in extra fuel over those miles.

So based on that over 3 years for a private owner its pretty much identical.

Guess its down to personal preference and acceptance of the DPF risk over low annual milages.

Might be different for bussiness leasing customers but having done some investigations its nothing like the difference quoted above.

Using the same company, some mileage (10,000 pa), same deposit the diesel was £210 pm whereas the petrol was £224 pm. But from the users viewpoint the petrol is cheaper. BIK for a basic rate taxpayer is £74 for the petrol and £81 for the diesel.

Personally I think its an honorable draw.