Got round to watching a fifth gear last night - did anyone see when one of the presenters compared the petrol and diesel version of the Suzuki Splash? The petrol was the 1.2 version and the Diesel was the 1.3.

The result was that the petrol powered car was almost 5mpg better than the diesel version over the same chosen route!

It was a very unexpected result imo and the whole test just seemed to go against everthing that ive found with small petrols and diesel cars ie he said that the petrol was really responsive and that the diesel just felt sloooow. Surely the simple fact that the diesel has a turbo and therefore produces a fair bit more torque must make it quicker if driven right?!

I doubt the test could be described as scientific but the guy stated he drove them over the same route right after each other.

Looking now at the figures for the two different engines - my gut says I'd still want to take the diesel over the petrol!

1.2 Petrol BHP - 86 Torque - 84 lb/ft

1.3 Diesel BHP - 75 Torque - 140 lb/ft

Admittedly, this post is coming from a guy thats just as happy to jump into his 185lb/ft remapped Fiesta 1.6 TDCI than his 280bhp VRS in the mornings but back when I bought the Fiesta, the petrol version seemed totally gutless imo.

Did anyone else think the mpg and performance comments just didnt add up? :confused:

Lee

Diesels suck for short journeys. Petrols can be very economical, especially small engined ones. In the UK, derv is not financially economical these days, because you get shafted on all fronts, including fuel, so you have to do a lot of miles to make it worthwhile and in a car where the equivalent MPG is the right way round instead of finding a car where it isn't, like in this case

Worth checking the fuel figures

These 5th gear tests are nothing more than filler and although you can't deny the results you also can't help but feel he started out trying to prove the diesel was worse in the first place.

My wife has a Mk2 Punto JTD which returns a constant 45 MPG over the short daps and distance that she drives. Before that she had a Kalos (Which was brand new BTW) which would be lucky to see early 30's even after it had some miles under its belt). The JTD also goes far better despit on paper having 10 less BHP than the Kalos.

There is also the added advantage in that I can top the Punto up with very cheap veg oil

Another thing is the MPG of the Fab vRS sucked badly during the winter vs summer months, and add to that the car was not run in, which didnt help either.

Totally agree with you Decron, their tests are less than useful mostly unfortunately

Top Gear are so biased against diesels it comes as no surprise. I remember how they called it "a sad day for motoring" when the VRS beat the pants off the Mini Cooper.

Top Gear is about as scientific as a current bun. Remember how Clarkson pined for a Ford GT40, then had to sell it as is was a pile of sh!te

TG is just motoring fluff.

I totally agree that Fifth gear & top gear shouldnt be taken seriously as in factual - I look at them more as entertainment programmes but ignoring the cost of diesel arguement what the heck was he doing wrong with the Suzuki's to get 5mpg worse from the Diesel!

Ive never seen below 42mpg in my remapped Fiesta TDCi and im very confident that there would be a 10mpg+ difference, for the worse, if I was driving the petrol version in the same spirited manner. Besides, I wouldnt give up the ability to pull away from 2.0 litre petrol ST's in the mid range for anything. The fact im seeing probably 15mpg better whilst doing it is the icing on the cake!

As has been said though they did seem to appear to start from a point of trying to prove the diesel would be worse all round.

I have had diesel cars for years now and couldn't afford to have petrol cars as we live in the sticks and do a fare few miles a year. we had a fabia 1.4 petrol and that use to drink fuel like it was going out of fasion, i mean i wouldn't have minded if it was a 2 litre or something but it wasn't! however with the new petrol engines eg the new 1.4 thats going in most vag cars now i'm wonderiing if things are turning round to petrol again. i am tempted to test drive that 122 bhp 1.4 and keep and open mind.

Tom

Petrol has come a long way for sure, and if you drive it in an economical-ish way you can get pretty darn good fuel economy.

Going at NSL-ish speeds, my 1.1 petrol Rover 100 was killing me on fuel cost, and that was years ago when fuel was cheap relatively :P - the Fabia vRS would do at least 30% if not better mpg without even trying.

I would not generally recommend a derv to someone in the UK unless you do high mileage or can offset the initial high purchase cost of a derv though.

I didn't see the report myself but the result surprises me from what's written here. Although having had a quick look on Parkers: Suzuki Splash (08 on) - Facts & Figures - Parker's

it seems the diesel is 17% (170kg) heavier than the petrol model :eek:

If that's correct and they were doing a start/stop journey from cold and not being particularly careful in driving it "diesel-like" then you can start to see where they found the difference.

I didn't see the report myself but the result surprises me from what's written here. Although having had a quick look on Parkers: Suzuki Splash (08 on) - Facts & Figures - Parker's

it seems the diesel is 17% (170kg) heavier than the petrol model :eek:

If that's correct and they were doing a start/stop journey from cold and not being particularly careful in driving it "diesel-like" then you can start to see where they found the difference.

Blimey - that is a real weight difference, hadn't considered that aspect of it actually!