No brainer this one, 5,000 - 6,000 miles/year, then it should be petrol everytime.

I hate the oily pumps at the garage, always use the gloves otherwise it goes everywhere. I love the smell of petrol also, obviously driving the wrong fuelled car lol

OT, it must depend on the type of journey you do too? Short trips in a diesel is pointless, they take too long to warm up and it kills any mpg gain.

I have a Yeti 170 diesel and Fabia II VRs, the Yeti does lots of miles and usually fully loaded and flat out, in the first year it has done 50k miles, I have never reset the trip and the average on screen 2 is 43mpg, the Fabia on the other hand is 18 months old and about to clock 4k miles, it has an overall average of 37 mpg for short journeys and the odd weekend blast down the B roads.

So what I would say is this, if I drive the Fabia and keep the revs below 2500 it will easily achieve high 40's, if I drive the Yeti and keep the revs below 2,000 rpm the yeti gets high 50's mpg, so if you go steady and stick to 65mph on the motorway, keep the revs low and short shift you will get the best from whatever car you have, even the car you have now will return good mpg and if you keep it you will save the cost of a replacement car too.

So in a nut shell, if you treat the throttle very gently you will prevent your hard earned going up in smoke!

TBH I don't think the miles per year matters as much as the miles per journey.

Last time I owned a petrol car, it sat in the driveway and the diesels got driven. Because I kept remembering how much it cost to fill and how far it didn't go on that last tank. That was an economical japanese 1.8 and it only broke 40mpg once.

Whatever you pay extra for the diesel to buy it you'll get back at the other end (pretty much) so that extra you have to pay is pretty neutral only costing you in finance % or loss if interest.

At the moment petrol cars are arguably more reliable. Diesel have more components that are more likely to cause you larger bills. Perversely problems like the DPF are more likely to cause problem if you don't do a lot of miles at speed. So that strengthens the argument for only buying diesels for doing large high speed miles.

Petrols are also more efficient than they used to be. the 1.8TSI is a good example of an engine that is surprisingly economical relative to the size of car it's in and it's potential performance.

Small engines don't always equal high mpg in the real world. Lot's of people are finding that out with these supposedly super economical cars that then get pretty crap figures. So much of it is down to the driver

i.e. SWMBO has a 2.0 BMW 116i, if she drives to her folks she gets 32mpg. If I drive her car I can get 44mpg the difference in journey time is about 5min.

So I would say if you are doing journeys in town then petrol all the way, diesel is likely to cause trouble.

If you drive moderate distances it'll depend on you, if you've got a heavy foot and can't be bothered driving for economy then diesel, if you can drive carefully then petrol might be better.

Long distances on motorways diesel all the way.

Edited 13 August, 201213 yr by Aspman

I have used fuelly to monitor expenditure/economy on both my old 2 litre Ibiza Cupra Gti petrol and my current Fabia VRS.

In 12 months with the Ibiza I did 4447 mile at an average of 33.5mpg and a cost of 18p per mile

In the 6 months i've run the Fabia i've done 4802 miles at an average of 48.1mpg meaning a cost per mile of 13p per mile

As said above if the usage is high enough the savings are a no brainer.

the Ibiza was also £210 to tax rather than £125 for the Fabia.

That said the Ibiza was much more consistent econmically.

Iit dipped below the 30mpg mark a couple of times (when i did a couple of track days) and was nursed up and over 38mpg for one fill up was solidly around the 34/35 mark the rest of the time.

The Fabia is much the same although starts higher up the scale but the peaks and troughs are more extreme. It hovers around the 48/49 average mark most of the time while one fill up during a particualrly agresively driven week resulted in 43 mpg and a tank done completely at 70mph on the motorway gave 57mpg.

That said i found the cars sooo differnet to drive and gave me a completly different mind set.

The ibiza egged me on to wring it's neck to the red line and get home as fast as possible.

The Fabia i fine myself driving more sensibly seeing if i can get the trip comuter to say more than 60mpg

That's because there's no joy to wringing out a derv

I have used fuelly to monitor expenditure/economy on both my old 2 litre Ibiza Cupra Gti petrol ......

In 12 months with the Ibiza I did 4447 mile at an average of 33.5mpg and a cost of 18p per mile

I need to get me something like that. Would get about the same MPG as I do now for my mere 1.4l, 68 horses.

That's because there's no joy to wringing out a derv

Pffft! :p

That's because there's no joy to wringing out a derv

no but there is plenty of soot

With fuel tanks all plastic I dont think petrol is an issue for a fire

definitely is an issue - does matter what the tank is made of if it spills and there is an ignition source.

When did they start to make them plastic anyway?

Edited 13 August, 201213 yr by slider

I think as others have said if you do low mileage it's probably best to stick to a petrol engine, even our Fabia VRS doesn't much like loads of town driving and that is pre-DPF.

It's not just MPG but I also like the torque that modern diesels produce. Save for the top end, they feel like my old Saab 9000 Aero which kicked out 308lb of torque at 1800 rpm and I like that in a daily driver.

I also think you are more likely to use your car as you aren't forever worrying about the cost of filling it up - I've averaged 50mpg over the 3,300 miles (picked it up on 21st June) that I've had my car.

When did they start to make them plastic anyway?

Escort Cosworth's had plastic tank's, 1993. .

I'd like to offer an alternative perspective.

My wife's car is a second car. She changed from a 16v Mk2 GTI to a Mk3 1.9TDI five years ago. There was a £500 difference in outlay to make the change.

The immediate savings in fuel economy were startling. The car continues to do a daily commute of two miles each way to no ill effect. The GTI was filled up every two to three weeks and the TDI is filled up every five to six weeks.

It's all subjective really, but on a sub £2k car we have saved money hand over fist in the last five years by going from petrol to diesel.

The Mk3 won't set the world alight, but that's not what it's meant for, and it's comfortable and utterly dependable. We'll be hard pressed to replace it when the time comes, and it will be replace with diesel, not a petrol (or hybrid).

Gaz

I understand high mileage users doing a lot of motorway miles getting a diesel but if you enjoy driving and don't do a lot of miles then get a petrol, even the latest warm hatches like the swift sport do over 40mpg. A mate of mine has a 530d BMW, he does 6000 miles a year and struglles to get 30mp out of it - He's now getting an R32.

That's because there's no joy to wringing out a derv

Nope, but the wave of torque more than makes up for that.

It's not really a wave... more like a surge that's over far too quickly.

I understand high mileage users doing a lot of motorway miles getting a diesel but if you enjoy driving and don't do a lot of miles then get a petrol, even the latest warm hatches like the swift sport do over 40mpg. A mate of mine has a 530d BMW, he does 6000 miles a year and struglles to get 30mp out of it - He's now getting an R32.

Sells derv to get R32...

Escort Cosworth's had plastic tank's, 1993. .

Citroen BX - 1982

It's not really a wave... more like a surge that's over far too quickly.

Some engines have a shorter fuse than others.

My PD140 is a great car, but I can see what you mean about the fuse. You get a massive wall of torque at around 1750 and by 4000 it's pretty much all gone.

My mind keeps flitting between a 3.0TDI next or a 1.8TSI, I just can't decide. I do 10K per year, so it's not really diesel territory. My wife does 3K and I'm tempted to stick her in a Focus ST and have done with it!

Audi 2.7tdi is a sweet unit that gets good mpg and performance. The 3.0tdi is hard to get in anything except with auto and quattro pushing it into £400 tax.

Well if I wasn't convince that I hated poof power cars I am now!!

Just in from a 400 mile return journey to Inverness in a hire Astra 1.6.

In my own car - a measly 107 BHP TD I would have stuck in in top gear at Perth and never change gear again and would have done about 55 mpg. In the Astra with about 10 bhp more I was never done changing gear and got 38 mpg.

Long inclines - had to change down to maintain forward speed. Bumbling along in traffic at 50, had to change down at least 2 cogs to pass safely on the single carriageway section. Long Live DERV

Probably saved you £60 & points.

Did you spot many of the 'Safety Speed clampdown' unmarket vehicles & Camera vans on your journey?

The Blitz should be underway by now.

(maybe your Astra was being mistaken by locals as an unmarked)

http://www.bbc.co.uk...entral-19258832

george

My PD140 is a great car, but I can see what you mean about the fuse. You get a massive wall of torque at around 1750 and by 4000 it's pretty much all gone.

If you'd like to feel better about that. My 4wd starts to build boost at 1050rpm, can do 10psi by 1250rpm, peaking at 24psi around 2100rpm. The party is over and everyone has gone home by 2800.

I love it, drive it like a truck using the 1500-2500rpm wave when I need to get places.

For comparison I'll have an auto petrol version of the same vehicle in a week or two.