Petrol or Diesel

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by StockholmSyndrome

That's an excellent point, although thinking along the same lines, I wonder how that weighs up against the long term guarantee of diesel based on the vast needs of commercial and marine engines?

There are many EV commercial vehicle solutions already, i have to confess that depite having an electrical/electronic background, i don't favour the current crop of EVs and don't thik they've been thought through well enough.

As for marine diesels, many of the larger ships use what is often referred to as "Heavy diesel", much thicker than the normal pump diesel you'd buy for your car. It's more like a thin treacle in consistency, horrible stuff to deal with. Given the high cost of converting the majority of marine vessels to electric power i suspect the heavy diesel for them will be around for a fair while yet but that doesn't necessarily mean the thinner diesel for cars will, especially with the health considerations of so many cars all land-locked.

[StockholmSyndrome]

We're starting to deal with a lot of gas powered HGV's and buses at work, but only a handful of hybrids, and most of them are riddled with teething problems.

I didn't know that marine engines used a thicker visc. fuel!

[Dippydog]

Diesels are generally accepted as being better tow cars[because of their low down torque] depends how often you pull the tin tent.Also the VED/Road tax/call it what you will may be higher on a petrol than diesel[?] I think pump diesel will be about a fair while longer yet as there are too many diesel cars running about for it not to be.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by StockholmSyndrome

We're starting to deal with a lot of gas powered HGV's and buses at work, but only a handful of hybrids, and most of them are riddled with teething problems.

I didn't know that marine engines used a thicker visc. fuel!

I don't know much about those diesel/LPG hybrids other than they seem to be an assisted-burn system where part of the diesel is replaced with LPG to provide a more complete burn and reduce the amount of diesel needed. Not even sure that's right to be honest but apparently they are a nightmare to set-up tuning wise and just as bad to keep in tune.

I was quite surprised when i learned about this heavy diesel, it's not something you get to know about on normal diesels.

I found out in Tilbury docks one sunny Spetember afternoon about 18-20 years ago.

The company i worked for had hired a 1MW generator to a Russian ship that was unloading a load of containers there.

The Russians thought they'd save money by not using the supplied 2200L diesel bowser supplied as part of the hire agreement (which meant they'd already paid for the diesel anyway) so hooked the supply lines up to the ships diesel tanks.

This gen-set was powered by a V16 Cummins and it was shooting diesel out of the IP hard and fast enough to put a neat slit in the piece of carboard i pushed down there to locate the leak!

Nearest IP gasket was in Canterbury and the ship sailed at 6pm local time. It was about 130pm when i found the fault so no time to get another set out on hire as the driver that did the deliveries was in another part of the country.

That left it to me to drive to Canterbury and back, picking up the gasket and then fitting and testing it all in time for them to sail on time. Managed it somehow and even managed to find the Russian Chief spoke/understood enough English to not put it back on the ships supply but use the diesel bowser instead.

One of those sort of interesting "fun facts" you pick up in the strangest ways!

[Forg]

What's the intended use of this car?

It can't be just for fun, or diesel would be off the table from the get-go.

If it's only for transport, then from a cost-of-ownership POV, the car will be 30 years old by the time new ICE cars aren't being sold (let alone all the remaining infrastructure to support all the existing ones). From a purely financial POV that's so far in the future then the choice between petrol or diesel is the same as the choice between red or black.

But - there could be another reason? If so, mebbe knowing that reason will allow others to give you a few more opinions?

[Welton]

To be fair; a good plodder and workhorse would be a (dare I say) VAG 1.9 PD engine'd car without DPF etc.

Trouble with 2000's petrol engines is, although simple, they are mostly NA, not very flexible to drive, and suffer poor-ish mpg unlike the new crop of small petrol turbo's which deliver diesel-like performance and decent mpg.

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by StockholmSyndrome

My annual mileage is around 12-15k, 40 miles daily on the motorway during the week, and occasionally towing a small caravan (1100kg) My experience of petrols is that they're generally cheaper to repair, but I have no experience of Volvo diesels so I'm open to be converted if they're worth a shot.

I have my heart set on a 2004- facelifted V70 manual, but I haven't yet decided which engine to opt for, which led me to wonder everyone's thoughts on the future of IC engines generally.

Based upon this, I would consider a well-looked-after example of the early facelifted D5 manual, with the non-DPF 163hp engine. It combines the good looks of the facelifted model with the simplicity and robustness of the first version of the D5 engine. That D5 engine is just a delight, with a unique sound.

I had a manual 2003 V70 D5 S, and it was a superb car. When I sold it with 190k on the clock - so as to avoid a couple of anticipated big bills - it was a huge mistake. The replacement cars (a Skoda Superb that I didn’t really like, and a Mondeo that I did like but that needed a new clutch and air con heat exchanger) drained my wallet over the next two years.

Having said that, good examples of the P2 D5 are rare these days, so you might need to be patient.

[jor]

Consensus would appear to be get what you want.
Presumably your commute does not end in a large town which would mean extra diesel fees in the near future and the chancellor will also need to bring in motorway charging with perhaps differing rates.

jor

[DaveNP]

The tone I get from the start of the thread is 'which will suffer the least political intervention?' We've seen petrol being slated in favour of diesels with their fuel economy, and then the pendulum swung and diesels were slated for their emissions, quite which way it will go in future is anyone's guess.
I'd go with Jor's opening line 'get what you want' if you're going to be driving it for 10 or 20 years you don't want to be driving around in a regret, especially if you find you've guessed the 10 year political outlook wrong.

[StockholmSyndrome]

Originally Posted by DaveNP

The tone I get from the start of the thread is 'which will suffer the least political intervention?'

Effectively, yes. Aside from my own natterings about what engine I personally want, it did get me wondering what everyone else's views were on the twilight years of the mass produced IC engine and which (if any) you would all recommend investing in now.