Petrol or Diesel?

[dockot]

After 10 years and 120k miles , it is time to change my D5awd DL, I am looking at going for a B4 diesel or B5 petrol. It would be nice to get the hybrid but not for the extra £8k…. Will have to wait a few years for improved eco credentials…
I have had diesel for 30 years and like the torque and relaxed driving. Will probably be doing 12k miles per year, so can tolerate increased expense of petrol if necessary. My question is how people find the B5, is it a better choice than the diesel?

[isleaiw]

I ran diesel pretty much constantly from 1993 to 2015, and then moved to petrol. If all that matters is fuel consumption and you drive in a way to get in to the highest gear possible at all times.... then buy diesel.

If you like smoothness and refinement then buy petrol. Its less than £600 more on fuel (40mpg v 30mpg, £1.28 a litre for both) but so much smoother.

But it is a slightly different driving technique and if you only ever try to get early change up the petrol will annoy. I dont, and it doesnt...

[VOLVOL0VER]

Originally Posted by dockot

After 10 years and 120k miles , it is time to change my D5awd DL, I am looking at going for a B4 diesel or B5 petrol. It would be nice to get the hybrid but not for the extra £8k…. Will have to wait a few years for improved eco credentials…
I have had diesel for 30 years and like the torque and relaxed driving. Will probably be doing 12k miles per year, so can tolerate increased expense of petrol if necessary. My question is how people find the B5, is it a better choice than the diesel?

It all comes to how much miles you do per year. It seems that you do around 20 000 km per year.(120k miles = +/- 194 000 kms ÷ 10= around 20 000kms/year) Go for the petrol. Easy and wise choice.

[Laird Scooby]

Petrol, no question. Diesel is likely to continue rising in price Vs petrol so any fuel economy saving will be offset by the increased cost.
Petrol burns much more cleanly, no DPF problems to worry about, better engine braking and faster warm-up - your neighbours will prefer it too if you have early starts!

[Quacker]

Diesel is unlikely to rise in price more than petrol. Everything you buy and own is and was and will continue to be delivered by diesel vehicles well into the future and government cannot tax this fuel more than it currently does relatively speaking. As its use declines the price is likely to fall if anything, but demand will rise as economies recover so that both fuels will increase in price in the medium term.

The choice of car purchase comes down to many things, annual mileage being only one. You would be daft to buy a small to medium size diesel car for use in large towns for instance where an electric car would perhaps be the ideal with a petrol being the more popular and practical choice for most currently. You would probably not be inclined to buy a petrol car if you lived out in the sticks, miles from a convenient fuel station retailer. Indeed you might be inclined to buy your own bulk storage tank with dispenser, as I and many others do for convenient diesel filling at home. You can't do that with petrol in the UK.

There is less to recommend Diesel engines than there used to be. Part of the reason is the ridiculous demonisation of diesel fuel in some towns. Another part is the increasing complexity of the engines, to meet today and tomorrow's increased emission regulations. While Diesel engine efficiency continues to rise, petrol engine efficiency has risen faster in recent years, mainly due to emissions regulations again causing some increased complexity such as direct petrol injection and almost universal turbocharging of downsized engines. Any small to medium size car up to day a Volvo 60 series that doesn't do a very high annual milage with a Diesel engine is becoming very difficult to justify financially or any other way. Bigger, heavier cars doing higher mileage out in the sticks, yes, diesel is still the sensible new car choice.

[XC90Mk1]

I find petrols totally anemic and gutless after my diesels so I will stick with diesel.

Now of course in some instances you can get the nice V6 and V8 petrols which are acceptable but cost an absolute fortune.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Quacker

Diesel is unlikely to rise in price more than petrol. Everything you buy and own is and was and will continue to be delivered by diesel vehicles well into the future and government cannot tax this fuel more than it currently does relatively speaking. As its use declines the price is likely to fall if anything, but demand will rise as economies recover so that both fuels will increase in price in the medium term.

The choice of car purchase comes down to many things, annual mileage being only one. You would be daft to buy a small to medium size diesel car for use in large towns for instance where an electric car would perhaps be the ideal with a petrol being the more popular and practical choice for most currently. You would probably not be inclined to buy a petrol car if you lived out in the sticks, miles from a convenient fuel station retailer. Indeed you might be inclined to buy your own bulk storage tank with dispenser, as I and many others do for convenient diesel filling at home. You can't do that with petrol in the UK.

There is less to recommend Diesel engines than there used to be. Part of the reason is the ridiculous demonisation of diesel fuel in some towns. Another part is the increasing complexity of the engines, to meet today and tomorrow's increased emission regulations.

Prices at my local BP station for petrol and diesel :

Unleaded 131.9p Diesel 134.9p
Ultimate U/L 141.9p Ultimate Dsl 144.9p

As you can see, that's 10p/L more for the diesel variant of the petrol (normal and Ultimate) so diesel is already more expensive than petrol. Hauliers will no doubt get some sort of tax relief to prevent rampant inflation but for the average motorist, diesel will almost certainly continue to rise in price.
Diesel used to be cheaper than the comparable petrol.

As for the demonisation as you call it of diesel, it's well founded. It has serious health implications and should never have been adopted by any governement, much less our own, as a "green" fuel. Our own government were warned against doing it by a representative of a large fuel producer as well in about 1984.

I live out in the sticks and wouldn't give a diesel driveway space. Not so far out i need my own bulk storage but not far off - i usually keep at least a gallon of petrol so i can get to the nearest petrol station.

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Prices at my local BP station for petrol and diesel :

Unleaded 131.9p Diesel 134.9p
Ultimate U/L 141.9p Ultimate Dsl 144.9p

As you can see, that's 10p/L more for the diesel variant of the petrol (normal and Ultimate) so diesel is already more expensive than petrol. Hauliers will no doubt get some sort of tax relief to prevent rampant inflation but for the average motorist, diesel will almost certainly continue to rise in price.
Diesel used to be cheaper than the comparable petrol.

As for the demonisation as you call it of diesel, it's well founded. It has serious health implications and should never have been adopted by any governement, much less our own, as a "green" fuel. Our own government were warned against doing it by a representative of a large fuel producer as well in about 1984.

I live out in the sticks and wouldn't give a diesel driveway space. Not so far out i need my own bulk storage but not far off - i usually keep at least a gallon of petrol so i can get to the nearest petrol station.

Emissions from current Diesel engines are no worse than for petrol engines, including NOx and particulates and while petrol engines tend to get worse as they age, diesels do not. Those are the facts.
Also that's 3ppl difference in price from your figures, not 10p. This varies over time from zero difference to 3ppl and has done for many years.

The reason for a warning about diesel had absolutely nothing to do with emissions. Indeed diesels tend to still produce about 20% less CO2 per mile than petrol engines and are now equal for other pollutants. The reason was that refineries have a set proportion of fuels that they can refine by design and back then they did not have the capacity to increase diesel production much in proportion to diesel. This has changed due to refineries in the UK being uncompetitive and a high proportion of refined diesel fuel now being literally shipped in to meet demand. For instance the Murco refinery at Milford Haven is no longer a refinery and instead of shipping in crude they now ship in refined fuel and store it, in the volume required to meet current and strategic demand.

[ThomasC91]

Diesel for me and I do less than 10,000 miles per year and live in the countryside.

Relatively short journeys of up to half an hour. £30 road tax (mines a 2016 any older and I’d be paying £150 I think) a year and on average 45mpg in an s90 D4. Longer journeys and I’ll get into the 50mpg.

DPF has never been an issue for me. Very happy my two previous Volvo diesels.

[Zebster]

Diesel for me too. Far better economy and the power available without having to rev the nuts off. As said, petrol and diesel both have to now meet the same emission spec and many petrol models now come with a particulate filter (which is a little irrelevant, as DPF/GPFs are now reliable technology). £20 VED is a bonus!