Have been looking at cars and googling till I can't google anymore :help: Can people who use these fuels please let me know their pros/cons?

If you do lots of long journeys or travel a long way to work every day then diesel. If you mostly potter about, go to shops, drop kids off at school, drive in the countryside at weekends etc etc etc then petrol.

deisel is now more expencive than petrol

Originally posted by neeeeeeeeeek
If you do lots of long journeys or travel a long way to work every day then diesel. If you mostly potter about, go to shops, drop kids off at school, drive in the countryside at weekends etc etc etc then petrol.

Absolutely spot on. You have got to weigh up the extra price that you'll be paying for your diesel engined car in the first place, then the extra price at the pump that you pay for diesel too. Then work out what your average mileage will be each year. I'm not too sure of the figures (I can check with our transport department here at work if you like) but I think that you have to be doing around 15,000 miles per annum over 3 years to make any savings.
If you were intending to keep the car for longer then you would benefit in the long run, plus diesel engines tend to last a lot longer than petrol (when correctly maintained). :thumbsup:

Best not forget that the particles from burnt diesel are much heavier and have been linked with a bunch of nasty things such as the increase in child athsma.

It's a drop in the ocean compared to the number of nasties produced when actually manufacturing the car but I've always felt that petrol or, better still, LPG is a less destructive fuel.

That said, you can run most older diesels on 'bio diesel' or vegetable oil so long as it's not too cold out. And the taxman doesn't get you...

Thank you for the advice :thumbsup:

Though I would be making regular trips to London (say, at least once a fortnight) - from your advice, I'm thinking Unleaded is the more cost-effective, environmentally friendly option - but Diesel will last longer?

My neighbour at my old house used to have two diesel vehicles: a transit and a car. They put me off diesel vehicles for a number of reasons. Firstly, our bedroom window was next to their driveway, we often had the window open, and the fumes in a morning used to start me on an asthma attack, particularly when they started up the van and then went back into the house for a while (?what for??). Secondly, both vehicles seemed to be plagued with ignition problems. Thirdly, they were both much noiser than petrol engines.

This was about 5 years ago and maybe diesels have improved...

Originally posted by stars_gazing
Have been looking at cars and googling till I can't google anymore :help: Can people who use these fuels please let me know their pros/cons?

When I bought my car, I am a bit geeky, so I produced a spread sheet to calculate how many miles I would have to drive before the diesel engine would be paid for. This took into account the fuel economy and the extra cost and servicing of the diesel. I left out depreciation.

115,000 mile ! So I bought a petrol, but I still wished I'd bought a Diesel like the other cars in our family.

I used to drive a Citroen Xantia 1.9 turbo diesel when I lived in Sheffield and come rain or shine or snow she never got stuck.
One thing I will say is petrol or diesel look after your car and it will look after you.

We get 500 miles out of a full tank in our old VW golf - about £45 worth.

Originally posted by Zinger549
deisel is now more expencive than petrol
This is true but diesel gets you further