Opinions on the Current Diesel Vs. Petrol Situation?

[PaulAr]

Mug maybe is a bit strong, but Subaru owners aren't, generally, my favourite people in the whole world...

RRRRRRRR
Fttttssssssssssssssssssh chirp
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Fttttssssh chirp...

Repeat until umpteenth trip to the petrol station in one week.

Most are slower than book figures too.
Primarily due the amount of Gold worn by the occupants.........

 

[motorbikez]

I put £67 in my sportback last week and have covered 531 miles on that with 15 miles of fuel left according to DIS will fill up tommorow.Varried roads A,B motorway,town driving varried speeds 80-90 motorway 50-70 A roads including one 120mph blast I won't say where it was, a track honest.

Now can anyone with a petrol sportback driving the same way cover that distance on £67?

 

[PNH80]

Most are slower than book figures too.
Primarily due the amount of Gold worn by the occupants.........

LOL, it's funny because sadly it's true...

 

[Evolve]

Taking all points into account so far i can feel a 335d M-Sport coupe coming. It's just ticking all boxes at the moment, performance and economy wise. Not only that but i fancy Alpine white. Yes that would probably be very flash and make me look like, how can we say.... w@nker? But it looks amazing and less of a rep mobile.

Alpine White with Carbon bits....

 

[PNH80]

Alpine White with Carbon bits....

Not to everyone's taste and some people may even get angry at the sight of it but my word, it's not a bad looker for an oil burner...

 

[Amchlolor]

Gets my vote, PNH80.
Even in white.

 

[Evolve]

Not to everyone's taste and some people may even get angry at the sight of it but my word, it's not a bad looker for an oil burner...

Not bad at all....

White just looks so good on new car's.

 

[PNH80]

I'm usually not a massive fan of white but the 3 series coupe carries it so well. Better than an A5 anyway. I saw an A6 in Ibis yesterday...Looked like the Ghostbusters car!!

 

[stoakseya4]

White looks just right, on the right car. On a 'nice & sporty' car it's great. On a 'nice and sensible' car it looks rubbish.

Probably just as bad as black for keeping clean though...

 

[Amchlolor]

It's not going to show small scratches/swirls like black though.
There's an old Audi coupe (80 or 90?) up the road from me.
Lovely off white colour.
Sort of like mother-of-pearl.
Turns my head every time.

 

[Matt]

Only thing that I potentially wouldn't like with the 335d is it being an auto. Maybe it doesn't matter though, not driven one.

 

[cliveywolves]

i just purchased my 1st diesel car ever, getting over 40mpg and more on a motorway run... also lower emmisions so cheaper road tax and a shed load quicker than my old 320i bmw......

 

[lil_coz]

I love my oil burner to bits. Had a little play with an R32 and a Megane Sport yesterday and she stayed with them till silly speeds! Was well chuffed with the speed of the thing. However I think my next car will be a petrol and I know I'm going to miss the torque. Its going to be hard to go to petrol again... never though I'd say it but I just know I'll miss the diesel.

Coss

 

[cliveywolves]

what megane sport was it ?????
and what is silly speed mate????
lad here at work got a r22 megane i know it is quick just wondered how my baby would go against it......

 

[Amchlolor]

It's all to do with thrust (ooh-err)
Bike magazines tend to go into this more than car mags.
In the lower gears, you'll find that a lower powered bike actually has as much thrust as a higher powered bike.
It's only in the higher gears that the greater thrust makes a difference.

 

[lil_coz]

what megane sport was it ?????
and what is silly speed mate????
lad here at work got a r22 megane i know it is quick just wondered how my baby would go against it......

No idea which one. Didn't quite catch what it was. It blasted past me with the R32 on his rear bumper so I joined in

When the roads cleared up we all went for it. Cant say exactly how I compared to the Megane because he was infront of the R32 and I was behind him. But when I saw the Golf nail it, I went for it too and the distance between us stayed the same up until *30 when he was only just slowly eeking away from me. I didn't see the Megan pull away from the Golf so guessing it was about the same.

 

[benw123]

But you're evidently not better off with petrol.
You're better off with petrol combined with electric power.
It's an irrelevant comparison.
If you were comparing petrol/electric hybrids with diesel/electric hybrids, you'd be better off with diesel/electric, no doubt.

I agree in part, Bowfer - it's not a correct, direct comparison to make - but at the end of the day, the Prius still needs petrol to run like any other car.

Did you see Top Gear last night with the Prius/BMW M3 test around the track? If you didn't, the Stig was pushing the Prius as hard as he could around the track and all Clarkson was doing was keeping up in the M3....The M3 returned a better MPG. Obviously it's a very tongue in cheek test but interesting none the less!!

Yes I did see that - and fell about laughing too! Well-pleased to see Top Gear back on our screens I might add. Clarkson was very quick after the piece to point out that it is how you drive a car that can make a big difference to fuel economy. I didn't take it too seriously though; I reckon I could achieve three times the economy of a V8 M3 on my daily commute!

 

[Spin140]

Not to everyone's taste and some people may even get angry at the sight of it but my word, it's not a bad looker for an oil burner...

I'm in a similar predicament really as considering a BMW 335i Coupe M Sport, my head shouts 335D even with the £2K price difference but I only do max 7,000 miles per year and the sound of the V6 twin turbo is orgasmic so I'm pretty sure the heart will win in the end, I can live with @ 26mpg for my daily drive rather than approx 36mpg if opting for the black stuff. I'm a real diesel fan having owned a fair few but the sound of the petrol car has to be heard. The Diesel may hold slightly more value over a 3 year period but equally bigger discounts are available from purchase so it swings in roundabouts really.

I would say have a lengthy test drive in both and do the maths, over 12 months with minmal mileage it's not a great deal of money, I personally would rather cut back in other areas as the car is still something I buy for enjoyment, if you want to be practical but a Smart car or similar and bank the difference.

There is one other option due out later this year and exclusive to Alpina - the 3 series Coupe with the 123D engine tuned in excess of 200 bhp offering a very unique and sporty look plus 50+ mpg plus low 6's 0-60, approx £34K

 

[Markm49]

Also with the new diesel engines fitted with DPF, just dont bother getting one if its mainly for town driving as the DPF simply cant heat up enough to burn off the soot in the filter through normal town driving. This pretty much resulted in repeated DPF warning lights and return to dealer trips for alot of diesel owners to get the problem rectify.

I honestly believe Audi have this sorted now - the numbers of people complaining abut this has dropped dramatically. I and many others on this forum have the 170 TDI and have not had any issues.

 

[SteveTDCi]

If you cover less than 15k per year then petrol is the way forward, i'm getting to the stage now where i'm considering going back to a smaller petrol engine, somethng like a 1.8tfsi. I'm sure they are better when stuck in traffic warmng up and the cost difference between car and also fuel is swinging towards petrol. I think it takes something like 60k + 7 years for a diesel to recover its cost on normal annual mileage. Obviously the more you cover the the better option a diesel becomes.

 

[PNH80]

If you cover less than 15k per year then petrol is the way forward, i'm getting to the stage now where i'm considering going back to a smaller petrol engine, somethng like a 1.8tfsi. I'm sure they are better when stuck in traffic warmng up and the cost difference between car and also fuel is swinging towards petrol. I think it takes something like 60k + 7 years for a diesel to recover its cost on normal annual mileage. Obviously the more you cover the the better option a diesel becomes.

I know what you're saying but i'm not talking about small engines. I'm looking at either the 335i or 335d. Both have a lot going for them and are quite different cars, both great for different reasons. I'm starting to think covering less than 10k a year i might be better off with the 335i and think ball to it, on the other hand with the 335d it's a phenomenal car and there'd be no need to worry about economy whatsoever.

I'm just going to have to get an extended test drive in both. I know i'd be over the moon with either to be honest. It's almost impossible to make the 'wrong choice'.

 

[Gti Jazz Blue]

Just to throw a third option in, have you considered an LPG conversion ?

One of the guys on the UK-MKIVS.net site runs a remapped Golf GTi (1.8T) on LPG.

Runs very well and is only slightly down on power when running on LPG when compared to 98 RON Petrol.

Just another option.

Diesel all the way for me, I'm a convert, though I do miss the exhaust note and higher revving of a Petrol engine.

Can't argue with 48MPG though.

Paul

 

[PNH80]

My dad used to have a Mitsubishi Shogun which ran on LPG as well as petrol. I have no idea how good and how neat LPG conversions are these days or how freely available it is but if it still means having a whopping great steel cannister in the boot....count me out.

 

[john_cook]

sounds like you are looking at the 335i and 335d. Test drive them both and see what you think. Why not look at the A5 3.0TDI also, lovely car too. None of the 3 of these cars is bad!

think this is an S-line (which may not be out in the Uk yet), looks the dogs to me

 

[bacardi]

My dad used to have a Mitsubishi Shogun which ran on LPG as well as petrol. I have no idea how good and how neat LPG conversions are these days or how freely available it is but if it still means having a whopping great steel cannister in the boot....count me out.

Aren't LPG cars still banned from some carparks, I know our underground one at work doens't allow them

 

[PNH80]

john_cook: Don't start me on the S-Line topic again!! I'm still awaiting an e-mail from Jeremy Hicks explaining Audi's position on if it will ever get a UK release. I'm not holding my breath though. From what i understand it's all to do with the more economical S-Line models killing S5 sales (which judging by what happened to the S4 and S6 they would). It's Audi's fault. Out of the 3.0TDI S-Line, S5 and RS5...which is the odd one out for the UK market given current petrol costs? The S5 obviously.
Anyway, i have test driven a 3.0TDI A5 and it's a lovely cruiser, very refined to drive and rapid. It's not as much of a drivers car as a 3 series coupe, there's no arguing that, it's bigger and more 'flabby'. Looks great though in the right colour.

It's just the S-Line issue which has now put me off and Audi's inability to be honest with potential buyers. S-Line is my minimum spec for an Audi so i'm not touching a Sport if there's even half a chance of an S-Line next year.

 

[Dandle]

I know what you're saying but i'm not talking about small engines. I'm looking at either the 335i or 335d. Both have a lot going for them and are quite different cars, both great for different reasons. I'm starting to think covering less than 10k a year i might be better off with the 335i and think ball to it, on the other hand with the 335d it's a phenomenal car and there'd be no need to worry about economy whatsoever.

I'm just going to have to get an extended test drive in both. I know i'd be over the moon with either to be honest. It's almost impossible to make the 'wrong choice'.

If your doing less than 10k a year get the petrol it will warm up quicker. The big BMW deisels arent really that economical until they have done 10+ miles and are fully warm. Even then dont expext 40+ out of a 335d unless its a very gentle long run, around town its about 25ish mpg which isnt cheap with the price of deisel.

 

[missviper]

sounds like you are looking at the 335i and 335d. Test drive them both and see what you think. Why not look at the A5 3.0TDI also, lovely car too. None of the 3 of these cars is bad!

think this is an S-line (which may not be out in the Uk yet), looks the dogs to me

Now that it is a nice car.
Looks very sexy

 

[PNH80]

Audi have now made the new RS6 wheels available on the A5 in Germany. Looks a bit tasty.
Note the side blades, chrome rimmed fogs, deeper scooped front spoiler, black grill slats, s-line badges on front wings and a mesh rear valance (which you can't see obviously)...All S-Line featues which us UK residents aren't allowed.

 

[dultanur]

mmm... very tough chioce. i'd probably flip a coin

nope, tbh the interior of the beamers is the deal breaker for me. i'd go with the A5 and but some FSD's on.

 

[d3fy]

Intresting thread, I'm also looking at buying a derv, not in quite in the same price bracket, but I've so far yet to be impressed. 1.9tdi Avant was gutless, and 150bhp SAAB was not that great.

 

[SteveTDCi]

335i v 335d ... on 10k go for the petrol, or that A5, i'm sure my 2.0tdi struggles because of short journeys. You could always hire one from somewhere like AVIS prestige, it isn't cheap, probably £500 for a weekend but its cheaper than making the wrong decision and buying the wrong car.