Which fuel is best these days | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Fri 12 May 2017 21:24

Which fuel is best these days - Askl01

It's about time for me to buy a new car (not brand new) after 9 years with my current car.

I do around 12-14k miles a year and had been quite certain I'd buy a diesel engined car, but now it seems the government want to discourage the use of diesel.

Is diesel still a good idea? Does anyone have any experience of the new smaller petrol turbos that are coming onto the market? Really not sure what to do at the minute. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm likely to be buying a nissan pulsar or a vauxhall astra.

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Fri 12 May 2017 21:31

Which fuel is best these days - alan1302

If you are only doing that mileage then petrol is the way to go.

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Fri 12 May 2017 22:52

Which fuel is best these days - RaineMan

Conventional petrol engine. I would avoid the low capacity turbocharged ones until the technology is more proven!

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Fri 12 May 2017 22:58

Which fuel is best these days - Big John

I've gone from a Skoda Superb 1.9pd to a petrol Superb 1.4tsi to avoid a DPF on a long but rather slow commute to work and have no regrets. Fuel consumption is higher but not as much as I expected - on the same journey types , old Superb I 1.9pd 50mpg newer Superb II 1.4tsi 46mpg. I do about 14-15k. The petrol was much cheaper to buy as well.

Fuel economy recorded thus far:- www.spritmonitor.de/en/detail/720963.html

Performance wise. Petrol not quite as much tourque at low revs but it still pulls reasonably OK from 1500rpm however the pull keeps building as the revs rise. It's suprisingly responsive at motorway speeds even pulling 6th gear well which is a tall overdrive (60mph = just over 2000rpm).

The best bit - compared to my previous diesel it's very very quiet. There is hardly any difference in engine noise at 50mph in either 4th or 6th! If you turn the interior fan off it's silent at tickover (obviously with stop/start disabled and engine running!) - I sometimes hear the engine of the car behind me when sat in my usual traffic!

Next car petrol or diesel? :-It'l be a petrol or petrol hybrid if I buy to keep. The latest diesels are very complex with a full blown chemical factory attached to the hottest past of the car (Catalyst, EGR, DPF,SCR) with a million sensors.

Edited by Big John on 12/05/2017 at 23:04

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Sat 13 May 2017 00:25

Which fuel is best these days - SLO76

Depends a lot on budget but if you intend on longterm ownership I'd leave diesel and small capacity turbos to those who buy new motors on PCP every three years.

The Nissan Pulsar is just a Renault underneath. Renault engines, Renault gearboxes, Renault floorpan, suspension, electronics etc. The 1.5 dci engine is well tried and tested but the Pulsar is a cheaply built car that doesn't match its rivals.

The current Astra is a nice car but it's too early to tell how well the 1.0 Turbo will stand up and they've delisted the Isuzu 1.7 diesel in favour of a so called jointly developed 1.6 that was actually designed by Fiats engineers and is likely to be every bit as much of a pain as the previous Fiat diesels they've used. 1.3, 1.9 and 2.0. The 1.4 N/A, 1.4 and 1.6 petrol turbos should be fine though and the turbos have plenty of go.

I'd suggest the Mazda 3 2.0 and the Honda Civic 1.8 both petrol which are better made and less likely to go wrong over longterm ownership. The Mazda is the nicer drive but the Civic is a little more practical if harder to see out the rear.

Edited by SLO76 on 13/05/2017 at 00:34

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Sun 14 May 2017 13:21

Which fuel is best these days - Askl01

Thanks for all the replies, some useful information. I didn't realise that the astra used components from fiat! That's bad news.

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Sun 14 May 2017 13:54

Which fuel is best these days - Engineer Andy

Let us know what your budget is - the Pulsar is cheap (but very cheerful), especially when bought via brokers (25%+ discounts over list price can be achieved), but there may be some nearly new cars that are far better to drive and own that would be definitely worth a good look.

The broker route (do your homework first to check [as far as you can] that they're ok - lots of backroomers use them) for new cars or car supermarkets (nearly new cars and occasionally RHD new cars [mainly imports from Ireland or Cyprus [where mine came from]) is definitely worth exploring - as many are in the £11k - £16k bracket that the Pulsar and Astra (after discounts) is in.

Using main dealers can be more expensive, perhaps apart from just before/after the March/Sep reg change and the end of the calendar year, when they are very keen to shift cars to make sales targets, wherby they sometimes can offer better deals on run-out or low mileage (<1000 miles) pre-regged cars. I was sorely tempted to go for a showroom Mazda3 2.0 Sport Nav saloon (500 miles or under on the clock) about a year ago that was on sale for £15,750 (if I recall correctly - that's effectively a new car at 25% off before any negotiation at the dealership!) - I didn't becaue of the low profile tyres and it was white (not my fave colour).

Keep a keen eye peeled for deals everywhere - be careful though to weigh up cash deals against PCP deals, as with some PCP deals you can get the discount on the list price and pay off the finance with no or little penalty, others not. Always check the small print, and get advice on that score if the legal jargon is confusing - lots of people (I'm not great on that fron myself) here can help you decypher it.

Best of luck.

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Sun 14 May 2017 16:58

Which fuel is best these days - Stanb Sevento

I go against the fow to some degree with the petrol / diesel thing. As far as Im concerned its more what type of driving you do rather than what mileage. A lot of town driving favours petrol and hardly any town driving favours diesel. Diesels dont like lots of cold start short trips. I only do 8000 a year and my diesel works out great because its mainly open road driving at 50mph. A Sharan owner on Facebook has today stated his 2.0L Sharan has done 120000miles and the ash loading on the DPF is only 11% so its good for the same again at least.

Small super mini has little to gain with diesel where a big heavy car like my Sharan gaines a lot. So its horses for cources and if you look after eigther they can serve you well. The clamp down on diesel is for cars up to and including EURO4 so any car after 2009 has no planned restrictions or taxes. Central London my be the exception.

If you have never driven a small capacity petrol engine like the 1.4L TSi then you really should, your in for an eye opener.

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Sun 14 May 2017 17:47

Which fuel is best these days - Avant

"If you have never driven a small capacity petrol engine like the 1.4L TSi then you really should; you're in for an eye opener."

Seconded. I expected this engine (in SWMBO's Audi A1) to be lively and torquey: the bonus that I didn't expect was that it would be more economical than my diesel Volvo.

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Sun 14 May 2017 17:49

Which fuel is best these days - Manatee

I agree Stan.

I probably only do 9 or 10 thousand now and I have just bought another diesel. I use it for towing our caravan and a roughly once a week return trip of 125 miles to our daughters.

I do use it for local journeys if necessary, although more often than not I/we will use our petrol Roomster. Shops for us is 9 miles each way so even then it gets warm.

It's not as if we can easily avoid complexity now with petrols. Dual circuit cooling, exhaust gas recirculation, oil recovery, multijet direct injection, and turbocharging are now ubiquitous.

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Sun 14 May 2017 20:01

Which fuel is best these days - Engineer Andy

In many ways I agree with the type of usage being just as important as the number of miles, but would add that for new cars on low to medium mileage, the list price difference between petrol and diesel can easily offset the extra fuel economy of the diesel even if mostly used on longer trips, especially now that petrol engined cars have improved the real mpg of late more than diesels, especially those which need adblue or which needed the VAG update.

Needing a car to even occasionally lug heavy loads (caravans, etc) still needs a diesel for most people (otherwise a big V6/8 which is too expensive); there are some cars that don't have quite as much complex engine bits that are petrol driven, like Mazdas and some others. It'll be interesting to see whether the newer small turbo petrol engined cars do last over the longer term, compared to normally-aspirated versions.

The diesels are still less reliable than they were 10-15 years ago, so I wouldn't crow too much comparing reliability, as they just as much (if not more) three-lettered acronym complex engine components as turbo-petrol engined cars - the difference being that diesel engine fault often ersult in complete (and very expensive) engine failures - only the VAG chains issue has really caused the same problem in turbo-petrol engines. HJ himself has said so on several occasions.

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Sun 14 May 2017 21:39

Which fuel is best these days - Big John

It'll be interesting to see whether the newer small turbo petrol engined cars do last over the longer term, compared to normally-aspirated versions.

Indeed - One big difference between my tsi Superb and normally aspirated Octavia is the revs it does at motorway speed . Also you can achieve reasonable in gear performance without having to use the upper echelons of the rev range of the tsi (pulls well from1500rpm)

Long term - we shall see - but as with any engine types, regular oil changes are crutial. My old Octavia is now 16 years old and has an engine that is supposed to made of putty! 16 years, 123k miles , usually Vpower petrol and many short service intervals later - still going strong and burning no oil

Service intervals are way too long for many modern engines (diesel contamination because of active DPF regens, timing chains, cam operated high pressure pumps etc...)

I have a restricted choice of cars due to my heigh/size eg I find the Civic driving position a bit tight for me - however I'm 6ft4" and my son is 6ft5" . My wife usually drives a Panda - when I'm in it I do rather look like im in the film Mr Incredible

Edited by Big John on 14/05/2017 at 21:51

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Sun 14 May 2017 22:35

Which fuel is best these days - gordonbennet

Service intervals are way too long for many modern engines (diesel contamination because of active DPF regens, timing chains, cam operated high pressure pumps etc...)

Amen to that, and not forgetting the other parts that need a bit of looking after, namely the gearbox, diff too if it's not inside the gearbox, then brakes belts etc, a bit of sensible care is cost effective, and anyone with an ounce of sense and physically able can at least do their own interim services ridiculously cheaply.

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Mon 15 May 2017 00:29

Which fuel is best these days - Stanb Sevento

Complication I fear is with us to stay, non turbo petrol like non turbo diesel will be a thing of the past very soon, it just cant cut it in efficiency or emissions terms so we better get used to it. The latest VAG TSi engine has just gone on sale with a type of variable valve timing and a short compression stroke and long expansion stroke.It has a very high spec turbo with variable geometry. Ceramic coating on the cylinder walls to reduce friction and uses a particulat filter like diesel. VW at the moment but will be in Skoda and Seat in the next year or so.

Interestingly it is priced right in between the 1.6L and 2.0L TDi so a diesel is the cheaper option. Conventional wisdom is getting turned on its head.

Edited by Stanb Sevento on 15/05/2017 at 00:32

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Mon 15 May 2017 15:55

Which fuel is best these days - SteVee

OP says he is not buying new. If you are planning to buy a 2nd-hand diesel then you should be aware of the plans to introduce more charges against anything before Euro-6 diesels. I would not want to have a recent Euro5 diesel and then get hit with penalties for city use. If looking at diesel then new might be the way to go. The Honda 1.6 diesel looks attractive for that sort of mileage.

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