Cost Comparison - Diesel or Petrol?
 

Petrol vs Diesel | Running costs - Parker's interesting stats.

I guess it all depends really.

I went from a a 22mpg (taking it easy) Subaru STI to 38mpg (booting it everywhere) Golf GT Sports 170 TDI.

My fuel bills have halved. Insurance halved. Tax reduced.

Plus, now the powerful TDI's are faster than the equivalent Petrol versions. Apart from 0-60, I bet the in-gear acceleration times of an Audi A5 3.0 TDI are better than an Audi S5. Yet the S5 will be more expensive to buy, Tax, Insure, Fill-up, service.

Same as my Golf. Bet apart from 0-60, in-gear times are better than the GTI.

On the other side. I helped my sister buy a new Focus. She wanted a 1.8TDI while I advised Petrol. Because she does very little miles, and saved £2k on purchase price. Exact same spec apart from engine.

Interesting, it's cheaper to buy and run a BMW 335i than a 335d and would take nearly 85,000 miles to break even on the derv.

It'd be more interesting to compare buying secondhand and doing your own servicing (of the car that is !!!!!) ....

Dave

That site is pointless!!
I entered my last 3 cars and the mpg listed is no where near realistic. My old A3TDi 170 is listed at 54mpg which is sheer fantasy as I never got over 44mpg.

The reality is that mopdern, small light petrol cars are on a par economy wise with their diesel counterparts.

Bigger, heavier cars like a Mondeo, A4/A6 and Passat will go 25 to 30% further on a gallon of diesel compared to petrol and will be far cheaper to run.

5th Gear and magazines are making general observation to grab headlines as usual.

It is rubbish, not enough flexibility. You have to be fairly clueless to not do the maths before you buy a car?

It's based purely on buying a new car at list price.

If you can buy a diesel for the same price as the equivalent petrol then you are laughing.

When it comes down to it, if you use a car to get to work and back there is nothing better than putting say £25 in the tank a week vs £50, which is what we had before when the Mrs had a petrol Focus and we swapped to the diesel Civic.

Just had a quick look as I was bored.

80-120 in S5 (4th) - 4.7s
80-120 in 535d (4th) - 5.6s

Couldn't immediately find a 80-120 for the A5 TDi and I CBA enough to look any more.