Cost isn't the only factor for me in always buying diesels. I much prefer the driving style of a diesel and it is much better for towing. Drove my best mates Impreza the other week, not nearly as nice to drive as my vRS.

it's simple choice really, if you are wanting mp pound petrol is the way to go at the moment. Simple as

I think i must be getting very good MPG out of my furby VRS compared to others in this thread, £55 fills my tank and i get 550 miles out of that no probs, that even giving it some beans now and again to!

Currentley paying 120.9 for derv at shell but i have a drivers club card so get an extra 1p off that!

Iv only killed one DMF and one Clutch and my remap was the cause of that!

I personally love the way the PD derv delivers power, lots of fun!

Plus with the price of tax going up, im glad i dont have a petrol with similar power.

Really good thread by the way

Well, I did an economy drive in my vRS the other day to just to see what

I could get on a run to work and managed 42.7 MPG.

Just goes to show what can be done, but sod that, will not do it again

it's simple choice really, if you are wanting mp pound petrol is the way to go at the moment. Simple as

Did you fail maths at school?

Did you fail maths at school?

no "a" o level actually. Cant understand people who bitch about cost of running a car, fun=petrol, think your cheap=oilburner.Cost of running oilburner dont know but bet its more than running a FUN car :rofl::rofl::rofl:

If your that worried about ecomony buy a bloody bike

no "a" o level actually. Cant understand people who bitch about cost of running a car, fun=petrol, think your cheap=oilburner.Cost of running oilburner dont know but bet its more than running a FUN car :rofl::rofl::rofl:

And they say exam standards have dropped....

Next you'll be claiming an A in English as well.

My PD140 costs less to run than a 2.0 FSI with equivalent performance would have done.

A VRS would have been a lot more to run and I didn't want to spend that money - I find my bike far more fun than a car would have been.

And they say exam standards have dropped....

Next you'll be claiming an A in English as well.

My PD140 costs less to run than a 2.0 FSI with equivalent performance would have done.

A VRS would have been a lot more to run and I didn't want to spend that money - I find my bike far more fun than a car would have been.

OK "DR",

My vRS with various mods ACTUALLY costs myself nothing to keep on the bloody road, so come on beat that smart ****

Alex, simple question for you.When were the "O"Levels" dropped?

Long time before the standards were dropped.

STICK TO YOUR BIKE

... Cant understand people who bitch about cost of running a car, fun=petrol, think your cheap=oilburner.Cost of running oilburner dont know but bet its more than running a FUN car :rofl::rofl::rofl:

...

Doubt it, if it's anything like the rest of the world's commonrails. DMF, EGR, swirl flaps, and DPF. Crap, all of them.

That's a bit harsh! I switched to petrol for my vRS (and still not regretting it), but before that did over 80k miles in 2 consecutive common rail diesel mondeos without a sniff of trouble. That's a PSA engine isn't it? Maybe it's just the VAG ones that are problematic?

Ford's lose their DMFs, they have EGR issues, and DPFs are a nightmare. Vauxhall/GM/Alfa/Fiat's JTD/CDTI engines, again with DMFs and DPFs.

Really, commonrail is a fantastic idea, totally gimped by unnessecary emission controls which clog up.

Europe says we must have flowers coming out our exhaust pipes, so we'll pump our dirty, sooty and tar laden exhaust gases back through a pipe and pump it back into the inlet tract just infront of the delicate swirl flaps, just so they get gummed up, jam or fall off. Oh, and the exhaust gases do a great job of totally negating the point of the intercooler, by pumping 600C gases back into the inlet tract after the air has come out of the turbo, through the intercooler, only to be heated again.

A few sums, just taking the fuel cost into consideration (not road tax or purchase cost)

Our household has a PD100 Octavia, and a 1.6 (100bhp) Petrol Beetle - both Golf derived cars so similar weights.

We get 55mpg from the Octavia, 40mpg in the Beetle - that's 37% better economy in the Skoda.

We're paying 114p for unleaded, diesel would need cost 156p for the 2 to be even - as it is, its costing me 125p - so on fuel alone, diesel's still miles better value.

Ford's lose their DMFs, they have EGR issues, and DPFs are a nightmare. Vauxhall/GM/Alfa/Fiat's JTD/CDTI engines, again with DMFs and DPFs.

Really, commonrail is a fantastic idea, totally gimped by unnessecary emission controls which clog up.

Europe says we must have flowers coming out our exhaust pipes, so we'll pump our dirty, sooty and tar laden exhaust gases back through a pipe and pump it back into the inlet tract just infront of the delicate swirl flaps, just so they get gummed up, jam or fall off. Oh, and the exhaust gases do a great job of totally negating the point of the intercooler, by pumping 600C gases back into the inlet tract after the air has come out of the turbo, through the intercooler, only to be heated again.

get your EGR blanked off then :P

We must protest in droves about this outrage!!. Seriously though, Diesel is a by-product from the petrol making process and therefore is far cheaper to produce than Petrol - about 30% so in fact. If you do the math (as the yanks say) then we should be paying less for diesel than petrol as used to be the case. We must protest!

Seriously though, Diesel is a by-product from the petrol making process and therefore is far cheaper to produce than Petrol - about 30% so in fact. If you do the math (as the yanks say) then we should be paying less for diesel than petrol as used to be the case. We must protest!

Not 100% true that it is a by-product - they are different fractions of crude oil. Petrol is the C5 to C12 fraction, diesel is the C10 to C15.

Problem with diesel is that LFO (=light fuel oil = heating oil) is a similar fraction so as demand for LFO rises diesel supply falls, so price goes up. In UK many companies (mine included) get natural gas (used for steam raising) on an interruptible contract to reduce cost. This means that at times of hgh demand for gas the gas supply company can telephone us and give 24hrs notice that they are cutting off our supply to maintain the pressure in the system. As a result our boilers need to run on dual fuel and that second fuel is LFO. Our boilers are pretty small but they burn around 1000 litres per hour.

Production costs of diesel have risen over the last few years because of the need for low sulphur content. Not only does it cost to remove the sulphur but because sulphur provided some of the lubricating properties of diesel, it has to be replaced with other additives - again at a cost.

At the end of the day the cost comparison is really complex - here are 3 things nobody has considered:

• Diesel is denser than petrol - 1 litre of diesel weighs 0.85kg, petrol is only 0.72kg. This is part of the reason why a diesel is more economical than a petrol (in mpg). Around here diesel is £1.25 per litre = £1.47 per kg; petrol is £1.12 per litre = £1.55 per kg. So diesel is 8p per kg cheaper than petrol.
  
• company car drivers pay less tax on a diesel
  
• If a diesel costs £1000 more than the petrol then yes, you do get some back when you trade in but you have paid extra interest on your loan and lost investment interest on the £1000 (if you paid cash) or lost investment interest on the additional loan payment (assuming you didn't spend it!)

For me the choice for my Octavia was between a 1.6 petrol and 1.9 diesel. At 1 year old the price difference was around £1000 IIRC. At my mileage the 1.6 was the obvious choice but I just liked the way the diesel delivered its power! I also enjoy the big grin factor every time I fill up after getting 550+ out of a tank. Another factor was the availability of 1.9 diesel Elegance - so many about I could choose my colour from the entire range - the 1.6 was not so abundant or rather SWMBO liked the stone grey and they didn't have a stone grey 1.6 in stock:(

My god this is a ramble!! I need to get a life :rofl:

Thank you to all who have responded thus far - some interesting views and ideas .

I guess it is , as always , down to demand and supply and the markets .

Any advantage is always going to be seized upon eventually , by either by the manufacturer , oil company or government .

In the case of a diesel or petrol engine , from a users point of view as many people have suggested , ultimately it is down to driving style preference .

Diesel is denser than petrol - 1 litre of diesel weighs 0.85kg, petrol is only 0.72kg. This is part of the reason why a diesel is more economical than a petrol (in mpg). Around here diesel is £1.25 per litre = £1.47 per kg; petrol is £1.12 per litre = £1.55 per kg. So diesel is 8p per kg cheaper than petrol.My god this is a ramble!! I need to get a life :rofl:

Don't understand the density thing.....

Diesel engines are generally more efficient because of the combustion cycle when compared to petrol spark ignition. Diesel is able to run at very high Air to Fuel Ratio's (AFR) whereas petrol spark ignition has to run pretty close to 14.7:1 AFR all the time. Most of the time you drive at very small part load cycles which is when disesel engines are very efficent.

That said, there are developments under test that make petrol spark ignition engines nearly as fuel efficient as turbo deisels.....

Don't understand the density thing.....

Diesel engines are generally more efficient because of the combustion cycle when compared to petrol spark ignition. Diesel is able to run at very high Air to Fuel Ratio's (AFR) whereas petrol spark ignition has to run pretty close to 14.7:1 AFR all the time. Most of the time you drive at very small part load cycles which is when disesel engines are very efficent.

That said, there are developments under test that make petrol spark ignition engines nearly as fuel efficient as turbo deisels.....

I thought it was 'energy density' rather than 'mass density' (or indeed sub-stoichiometric running) that made diesel efficient? :confused: The longer molecules mean more C-H bonds to break per unit volume / unit mass AIUI, and thus more energy released on combustion. I thought the lean running was more to stop you towing a small raincloud behind you all the time...

I thought it was 'energy density' rather than 'mass density' (or indeed sub-stoichiometric running) that made diesel efficient? :confused: The longer molecules mean more C-H bonds to break per unit volume / unit mass AIUI, and thus more energy released on combustion. I thought the lean running was more to stop you towing a small raincloud behind you all the time...

dunno about why it is but I always thought the petrol had a higher calorific value than diesel (43.5MJ/kg vs. 42.5MJ/kg) although there's more energy in a litre of diesel than a litre of petrol because of the density issue.

Funny thing is that hydrogen has an even higher calorific value but you try getting enough mass of hydrogen to drive 400miles into something smaller than a blimp. The hydrogen economy isn't as simple as they would have you believe.

we should be paying less for diesel than petrol as used to be the case. We must protest!

I remember it well; it came about a month after I had bought my Golf TDI. Although the Chancellor was the first to move diesel above petrol, the main increase came immediately after the lorry drivers' protests impacted the oil companies. Funny that.

Funny thing is that hydrogen has an even higher calorific value but you try getting enough mass of hydrogen to drive 400miles into something smaller than a blimp. The hydrogen economy is as simple as they would have you believe.

Don't I know it - I remember reading an article (a little while ago, admittedly) where the best anyone could come up with was to impinge hydrogen onto pellets, which were fed into your tank and gently heated to get the hydrogen off. I think acceptable mileages could be achieved that way, but they couldn't explain how to get the 'dead' pellets out easily!

Then of course there's the issue of the provenance of the hydrogen... Steam reformation of methane? That's sustainable!

I remember it well; it came about a month after I had bought my Golf TDI. Although the Chancellor was the first to move diesel above petrol, the main increase came immediately after the lorry drivers' protests impacted the oil companies. Funny that.

DUTY IS EXACTLY THE SAME ON DIESEL AND UNLEADED

DUTY IS EXACTLY THE SAME ON DIESEL AND UNLEADED

Sorry, didn't quite catch that?!

I worked out the cost difference with my new 2.0TFSI compared to my modded 221bhp TDI. I do 600 miles a week and compared to the TDI it's costing me circa 30 euro more to run a week which is 120 a month or 1440 euro a year which is a lot.