Petrol or Diesel?

When looking at purchasing a new vehicle, as well as the make, model and colour, you also need to consider if you would prefer to opt for a petrol or diesel engine. Both are extremely different and both have pro’s and con’s however choosing the engine that is right for you could be the best financial decision you can make.

There are a number of factors you need to consider when deciding if you are going to go for a petrol or diesel vehicle. A lot of the decision will depend on the amount of miles you complete every year, the higher your mileage the better off you will be by opting for a diesel engine vehicle.

One thing you will have noticed is that a diesel car is more expensive than a petrol, as to why this is we don’t understand. The difference in cost can be from as little as £500 up to £6,000 or even greater. If you are to pay the extra for a diesel car then below are a few more points to help you make up your mind.

Mileage

Historically a diesel vehicle delivers a greater level of Miles Per Gallon (MPG) than its petrol equivalent, it is not uncommon for a diesel vehicle to deliver over 55 MPG, when this is compared with the same model in petrol the MPG for the petrol vehicle can be more in the region of 35 MPG. This means you will be able to travel much further on a single tank of fuel.

Petrol engine vehicles are slowly catching up, whilst some petrol cars such as the Peugeot 107 can easily deliver 60 MPG. An important factor to bear in mind is that diesel is approximately 10p per litre more expensive, therefore although you are getting better MPG, a gallon of diesel is more expensive than petrol.

Performance

A petrol vehicle will usually have greater acceleration and be more responsive than a diesel vehicle, that’s why rally cars are always petrol, the steady petrol performance can make a petrol vehicle extremely fun to drive.

A modern diesel engine has a much greater level of Torque, this means that the power is transferred to the wheels at an excellent pace meaning acceleration is smooth, this along with the benefits of a Turbo on the diesel engine can make the vehicle both economical and sporty.

Reliability

Both the petrol and diesel engine on a modern car should be just as robust as one another. However if you are to be completing a high level of mileage a year, say 15,000, then a diesel engine car will honour that mileage better than a petrol, this is because a diesel engine is seen as being more robust. It is not unusual to see a diesel engine vehicle build up 200,000 trouble free miles with the engine still running perfectly, that’s why most Taxi’s are diesel.

Ongoing Costs

Both petrol and diesel cars have require a good service to keep them in peak condition, a petrol car normally requires a service every 10,000 miles or 12 months and can cost around £150 - £200 pound.

A diesel vehicle is normally on a variable service, meaning it is serviced in accordance with the way you drive the vehicle, an indicator will appear on the dashboard to tell you to book it in for a service. If it does not have a variable service feature, the normal servicing will be every 18months – 2 years or around 20,000 miles, the servicing cost will be slightly higher at around £200 - £300 pound.

There is very little in terms of additional ongoing costs and the cost of any repairs to the engine will also be pretty much similar. Also the cost of Tax and insurance will be very similar.

Re-sale

Eventually it will come to the point where you want to upgrade to a new vehicle and as such you will need as much for your car as you can possibly get. If you have a petrol vehicle with 90,000 miles on the clock, it will deter many people from purchasing your vehicle and it will be just the excuse the garage needs if you are trading in the vehicle for them to tell you it iis worth next to nothing.

If an equivalent diesel car has 90,000 miles on the clock it will not be much of an issue as people accept the car has plenty of life left in it yet.

Taking all of these factors into mind it will be down to you to decide which engine is best for you, it would be worth test driving both models before taking the plunge as many people prefer the drivability of one over another.