Swapping a petrol to diesel, what are the costs.

[Snoopcousins]

Can I make another point in this argument....on average I can only get 42 mpg maximum from my FR TDI and that is with a lot of Granny-driving. If I did more mototway miles with more cruising then id expect that to increase to around 46mpg.
So from that, i dont think you will 'half' your fuel Bill!

 

[Reg]

In a bit of a mood today, Reg?

Not at all matey, didn't mean it to come across like that.

Just a little tired a seeing the same old (wrong) things trotted out. I expect there will be a flurry of 'what brake pads/tyres/bigger wheels slow me down threads later too


And Snoop, that surprises me. Diesel owners I have spoken to all talk about 45-50 around town and as much as 60 mpg doing a steady run on the motorway. Compared to our LCR, for which I have never seen more than 32mpg under any circumstances, that represents a massive difference!

 

[Snoopcousins]

Only diesel I have seen >50mpg was in my Ibiza FR TDI.
Around town in the Leon FR TDI 40mpg is more likely.
A longer journey might help i suppose. My daily commute takes me around 50 mins and only gets into mid-40's at end of journey. And I use BP Ultimate but no difference noticed.

 

[LiCkWiD]

Had my LC up to 38MPG on a 9 hour drive, behaving and not exeeding 70 at any point. Very surprised by the average.

My all time average MPG is 29.8MPG, according to mode 2 average MPG on trip 'puter.

 

[Reg]

38 is pretty amazing. I don't go buy the computer because I don't trust it, but doing the maths sees our LCR doing around 27-29 back and forth to work, with my wife using it. It tends to drop when I have it. But as I said, it doesn't seem significantly better on a run.

Just as a comparison, my old E36 M3 would do 18-20 mpg around town, less if I gave it some stick, yet put it on the motorway for a few hours on a run and it would regularly return 36mpg, which really couldn't be sniffed at.

 

[LiCkWiD]

Straight-6 for ya mate Bags of cruising potential. One of the banes of the 4 cyl engines :<

I can affect the trip puters average massively.. coasting for half a mile while approaching a 40/50mph slow down zone on the motorway is a sure fire way to bring my MPG to 33+

I can't complain though, really. Work is a £55 a week trip for me.. it's killing me but there ya go.. gotta die of something!

 

[Reg]

Same for us, thats why the LCR has to go. Going to buy a Beemer diesel for my wife to use for work, then that leaves more funds for my toys (or at least, what might be left as we are trying to move house at the moment).

 

[bazibbo]

I've just bought a diesel after looking at all the diesel - petrol issues and doing all the sums.

A few bits to note...

My 10k budget bought me a 60k 53 04 plate tdi, that was about £1500 more than an equivalent petrol. So add the extra cost into your sums. Try both, I love diesels (chipped 130tdi bora previously) but some people hate the initial power delivery.

Fuel wise I get 35 - 45mpg depending how I drive (its remapped but I don't thrash it everywhere) (well not always!), but I mostly do short trips so I could probably better that over long distances.

I bet diesels eat tyres compared to the petrol.

Oh and my mates shout taxi at me.

my 2p worth

 

[swissrebel]

In the end, it's what you prefer - If money was so tight I needed that extra (on average) 10MPG, I wouldn't be driving anything expensive in the first place.

If you wanna save money on anything, try saving it on insurance - My insurance company quoted me £500(!) less than any other provider for this year's insurance on my 1.6 (which for the record, was 900 quid for a 21-year-old with absolutely no no-claims)

 

[jtmac]

The other big difference that no-one mentioned yet is what you'll get for it when you've finished with it.

if a 3 year old diesel with 60K is £1500 more than the equivalent petrol what would each of those sell for when thay are 6 years old with 90/120/150K miles miles on the clock (depending on how much you are going to do in it).

You are not going to halve you fuel bils without going for a smaller car or drastically changing your driving but you should save a quarter of the money on fuel I reckon (40-45mpg vs low 30s).

I think diesel buyers are less put off by 6 figure mileages when you come to sell it. so you'll always get back the extra you paid for it. (that's what I'm hoping because i'm going to have 130K on the clock when mine is 5 years old)

 

[swissrebel]

diesel and 95 unleaded are now the same price at my local stations.