Diesel vs Petrol

[Ashley Davis]

I'm looking to get a new car and have got my heart set on the A3.

I have a budget of between £8000-9000. I freelance over the country as a cameraman so occasionally will do a lot of miles, because of this I have been looking at the efficient diesels engines, maybe a 2 litre 2010 TDI with about 80,000 miles.

I read a thread the other day saying though the diesels are incredibly efficient and money saving on fuel, they can be extremely expensive if the engine fails so are best to stick with petrol. Do you all agree with this? I'm starting to think I don't do as many miles as I initially thought and obviously will vary from week to week.. though would still love the savings on fuel but in your opinions am I better getting a petrol with less miles that wouldn't cost as much if something went wrong?

 

[Sayam]

how many miles are you expecting to drive in a year? that's what matters - then you can weight up running costs and decide?

personally i love diesels and apart from my first car, have always had diesels...can't drive a petrol anymore, there's no torque...and i'm lazy and don't like changing gear where it's a manual gearbox

 

[Ashley Davis]

how many miles are you expecting to drive in a year? that's what matters - then you can weight up running costs and decide?

personally i love diesels and apart from my first car, have always had diesels...can't drive a petrol anymore, there's no torque...and i'm lazy and don't like changing gear where it's a manual gearbox

It's hard to work out as it changes week to week. Some months I'm in the car constsntly others I'm working from home quite a bit.

Personally I would prefer a diesel but if I were to get one with 80000 miles, is there a higher chance something could go wrong with the engine, more so than a petrol?

 

[leeds2592]

Be careful, buying a diesel can be quite a bit more than buying a petrol of the same age, mileage, spec etc which straight away sratches out the 'saving' of buying a diesel.

As @Sayam has said, work out roughly how many miles you'll be doing per year, how long you'll be keeping the car, servicing costs, how much a diesel is compared to a petrol etc and take it from there.

 

[Ashley Davis]

I read somewhere that if you do more than 14-16,000 miles per year you should go for a diesel and generally I would do more than that so I think I will stick with the diesel.

I've also just read that in some of the A3 TDI's they are prone to oil pump drive failures in the BKD engines but the later BRE engines should be okay?

I was looking at the 2010 TDI's either the 1.6 or 2.0. Anyone know what engines they have or whether they're prone to any failures?

 

[Sayam]

The 2010 engines are common rail where as the older BKD, BXE engines are PD so anything you read about the head cracking, oil pump failure doesn't apply.

To be honest if you are doing less than about 14,000 miles per year petrol (over a 3-year period including buying the car and then also the resale value) is the way to go. unless of course you prefer the drive of a diesel like i do and then you just have to live with the added cost involved.

the reason your mileage matters is because generally a petrol engined car will be cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, petrol is cheaper to buy than diesel too, but then you get reduced MPG depending on what engines you're comparing and hence doing 14k miles or more per year will mean you benefit from diesel.

at 80,000 check the timing belt and water pump has been changed (depending on the car you look at the interval this is due will be different) and there is an argument out there that says the turbo will last 100k and anything over is bonus. having said that there are probably people on here with cars that have much higher mileages and are still running the factory turbo, its all about how you drive and treat it and obviously to some extent luck.

at 100k or above the dual mass flywheel may need to be changed when it starts to knock along with the clutch kit. again depending on your driving style these items may last miles longer.

without trying to sound like i'm teaching you to suck eggs here, have you driven both? which one do you prefer?

 

[Ashley Davis]

The 2010 engines are common rail where as the older BKD, BXE engines are PD so anything you read about the head cracking, oil pump failure doesn't apply.

To be honest if you are doing less than about 14,000 miles per year petrol (over a 3-year period including buying the car and then also the resale value) is the way to go. unless of course you prefer the drive of a diesel like i do and then you just have to live with the added cost involved.

the reason your mileage matters is because generally a petrol engined car will be cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, petrol is cheaper to buy than diesel too, but then you get reduced MPG depending on what engines you're comparing and hence doing 14k miles or more per year will mean you benefit from diesel.

at 80,000 check the timing belt and water pump has been changed (depending on the car you look at the interval this is due will be different) and there is an argument out there that says the turbo will last 100k and anything over is bonus. having said that there are probably people on here with cars that have much higher mileages and are still running the factory turbo, its all about how you drive and treat it and obviously to some extent luck.

at 100k or above the dual mass flywheel may need to be changed when it starts to knock along with the clutch kit. again depending on your driving style these items may last miles longer.

without trying to sound like i'm teaching you to suck eggs here, have you driven both? which one do you prefer?

Thanks for the advice. Its hard to work out an average yearly mileage as it differs greatly week to week but generally I think it will be around 15,000 and likely go over that over the coming years so for the time being I think I will opt for a diesel and pay the bit extra in up front costs which I prefer the drive of anyway.

I just inquired on auto trader about a nice looking 2010 2.0 TDI with just shy of 80,000 miles on the clock which also comes with warranty. Should I check when the timing belt and water pump was changed?

As you mentioned about the turbo likely to give out after 100,000 miles, should I look at selling it when I hit that mileage mark? is the depreication likely to drop quite heavily at this point too?

 

[fangio]

They don't make petrol lorries........

 

[Ashley Davis]

Should I consider the 2009 1.9 TDI?

 

[Lukeyb]

I read that the oil pump drive was only on longitudinal models not transverse