Low mileage drivers.
 

There have been several articles about the wisdom of low mileage users, which more often than not covers the disabled user, having diesel engined cars rather than petrol engined, mainly due to the fact that the deisel cars are invariably more expensive to buy, and diesel fuel has also been more expensive.

So, do low mileage users benefit from diesel or not, and this question is now even more relevant as diesel prices drop at the pumps,

Any thoughts/comments?

If you do low mileages in a modern diesel (particularly urban driving) then the the particulate filter will clog up and add another 2000-3000 pounds to the already increased cost of diesel ownership. Just google blocked DPF for a lot of scare stories. I used to swear by diesel, but not after two friends have forked out thousands on DPF replacements. Petrol and LPG all the way for me.

I can't see why having a DPF would put people off buying a diesel? Surely if you are aware of its existence and take steps accordingly to ensure that it functions correctly i.e a longish run every week or so, what is the problem?

With respect, I think you're missing the point. Some people simply don't have any reason to do regular long trips by car. That's my father's case, for example: he is retired and uses his (petrol-engined) car for short trips locally, but probably only does a trip of more than 10 miles two or three times a year. He has a trickle charger to keep his car's battery topped up, but a diesel with DPF wouldn't work for him.
I write as a very satisfied D4 owner, having come from another DPF-equipped diesel before. My use is quite the opposite of my father's: long trips nearly every weekend, but no short trips or town use at all, as I work from home and use public transport, cycle or walk in my home city. Horses for courses!

all depends on your journey's

If you use the car say 3 times a week then once a MONTH go for a drive over 30 miles ..this will give a chance to get the ENGINE warm/ hot and Burn off all the rubbish ..
I now nip to mates house about 25 mile away for coffee / chat so a round trip of say 50 mile ...works fine ...:thumbs_up:

diesel disabled.
 

being disabled I have more time when well enough to get away with my caravan so a diesel makes more sense. Like another said a short burst up an open road clears the filter. As I have 2 shogun 4x4's I have yet to do any real towing of caravan with the v70. The only tow was from off road storage to house and all went very well, even the door mirrors gave enough view behind without the extended mirrors.

Diesels cost a premium to buy and if you are pootling locally petrol is a better idea.

LPG is a liability, google valve seats and lpg. On the rare occasions that lpg functions ok they are basically ruining your valve seats etc.

Never having owned a DERV 'Mike 700', I am unable comment upon their suitability or otherwise. We once considered a diesel 700, but it had been sold when we went back for a second look. On the other hand, we have driven over 800,000 miles since buying our first Volvo in 1984.

I would also be interested in what you consider a 'low' mileage user. Like you, in the past I've driven upwards of 40K p.a. on business, and for years averaged around 20K. These days, we drive around 10K spread fairly evenly over three cars, so around 3 - 4K per car per year. I consider that 'low', but even that is high in relation to my late MIL, who only averaged 1 - 2K p.a. latterly.

For me, it is not the fuel costs so much as the fixed costs that hurt. At 3K p.a., fuel cost is a very small part of my motoring budget. My fixed costs on the other hand have risen from 20% of my total motoring bill to over half of it! There is more to economy than the price of fuel!

Regards, John.

low millage
 

My V70 R Design has just passed the 49000 point. not much for a 2010 model.

Hi John,

I guess it depends a lot on which make & model of car you have as much as whether or not it runs on petrol or diesel, for example, the purchase price premium on a diesel model of my particular car is around £820 only, and as the difference in Insurance ( 16E for diesel, 21E for petrol ) is likely to neutralise this premium over a 3 or 4 year period, we are left with mpg only, and the difference here over the petrol model is around 11 mpg..

With diesel , at the pump, being a little more expensive than petrol this also is likely to neutralises the gain in mpg, so it is quite likely, that costs over say 3 or 4 years are not really much different?

It maybe that the difference will begin to show at high mileage’s, it certainly did when I was doing 45000 ish a year, but at my current mileage of around 10,000 pa. I doubt that I will see a difference.

As far as performance is concerned the petrol model has a top speed of 130 against the diesel’s 131, but has a 0-62 time of 7.7 sec. compared to the diesel which comes in at 7.9 sec ( both 7 speed auto boxes ), but the torque of the diesel is quite a bit more, and having tried them both, I decided to go for the diesel.

I have had 4 Volvo D5’s and 1 Volvo D2 since 2005, together with one 1200cc petrol engined Qashqai, so I guess that I am just used to Diesel engines, and this may have influenced my decision to go back to diesel for the VW!

All bar one of these cars has been leased ( I paid cash for the XC 90 - redundancy money ) on a personal lease basis, and deposits and monthly payments have been very similar for both petrol & diesel, so depreciation hasn’t really affected me, but it is possible that a diesel car will depreciate more , nowadays?