Replacing car. Petrol or diesel?

[Macduff]

I'm in the process of looking for a replacement for our wrecked B6. Ours was a 1.9 130 and we averaged around 40mpg doing around 11k a year on mostly short (<10 mile) journeys.

I've been looking at Quattros in both 2.0TDI and 2.0TFSI flavours. Based on my past experience with 2.0TDI Q I may see about 35mpg tops while the 2.0TFSI is an unknown to me but lets say I get 28mpg. Based on current fuel prices that works out to around £1400 on fuel for the diesel and £1700 for the petrol. As far as I'm aware servicing etc is the pretty much the same.

Even when fuel starts going up to last year's levels the diesel will still be cheaper on fuel so are there any other reasons why I should go back to petrol?

I don't mind diesel engine characteristics and the 2.0 is much more "petrol like" than the 1.9 anyway.

Thanks
Dave

 

[NHN]

Well to me its clear you are looking seriously at the economic reasons for either, overall the diesel wins hands down, more mpg, simple, but if you wanted some more power & still retain the mpg then you could get a map for about or just over the amount you'd save in one year against buying petrol, but then every year after you'd save money anyway & fuel prices I am seeing are going back up as derv's now over a pound again & petrol will also go up, so overall its diesel I'd recommend to anyone whose conscious of the cost implications of buying either petrol or diesel, mpg tells it all, other day I got 62mpg on long run on motorway, you'd be lucky to get even half that in petrol, I usually get about 40ish on short runs,

 

[Macduff]

Yeah, my thinking is to stick with diesel. I just need to find one that's fairly priced! Went to Aberdeen Audi yesterday as they have a 2.0TDI 170 Q saloon. It's a June 07 and they have it up for £21k! Glass's says around £17.5k, Parkers just over £16k. They'd only drop £800 and there's no way I'll pay £3k over book for a car. I think they're living on another planet.

 

[NHN]

I think they're living on another planet.

You only just realised that mate, lol.

 

[Macduff]

You only just realised that mate, lol.

 

[NHN]

They just launched a new satellite yesterday to the circle the planet AudiAnus, apparently its based in a completely different dimension to planet earth, explains it all huh, lol

 

[aragorn]

The other factor you need to consider is the purchase cost. The petrol car will no doubt be cheaper than the derv at the same trim/spec level, so you need to factor in how long you'd be keeping it for and the savings the derv will make (300quid a year in your example above) against the cost of the more expensive derv, or you can spend the same amount as you would have on a derv to get a better specced car. Your unlikely to really notice the extra £300 a year in fuel when its spread out over 12 months, and likely you'll get a better car out of it if you go petrol.

When we were looking at buying our 1.8T it seemed that we'd have been paying 50% more for a decent derv compared with the 1.8T sport we ended up buying, although the B5 dervs are pretty much all SE models and a lot lower in power than the 1.8T which did help swing it.

 

[Dazmo]

Best engine by far is the 3.0 V6 TDi (233bhp)

0-60 in 6.8 seconds

between 30-40mpg (depending on how you drive.

Cheap tax and insurance.

V6 sounds amazing and the car is effortless

 

[Johnytuono]

..........the 2.7 tdi aint bad either.
JohnyT

 

[Spy]

Also bear in mond that not only are diesel cars more expensive to buy but the actual fuel is more expensive - Diesel is normally anywhere between 5p-10p more expensive than petrol.

Parkers.co.uk has good figures on fuel consumption and CO2 for all models if you wanted to check the mpg on the petrol.

Interestingly, the 3.0 TDI and 2.0T both average at 33mpg for an auto A4 cab which makes the diesle more expensive to run dur to the higher price of the fuel !

 

[razza1]

you need to do about 18000miles a year for the diesel to work out cheaper if I remember rightly.

The 2.0T does about 25-30mpg on short runs but has plenty of torque still and is pretty quick, sounds ok on WOT as well

 

[Marc1]

you need to do about 18000miles a year for the diesel to work out cheaper if I remember rightly.

The 2.0T does about 25-30mpg on short runs but has plenty of torque still and is pretty quick, sounds ok on WOT as well

Do these figures only apply to a new purchase though? Surely the older the car the less the mileage you're doing seems to matter, but the fuel savings per year are still clear as is the lower tax price. I think it's a tough call on a B7 overall.

 

[razza1]

yeah, that will be new prices...second hand, tougher call

 

[Marc1]

Yeah difficult one then. SUppose it depends on whether you prefer the charcteristics of the diesel or petrol engine.

I don't think a 3.0TDI vs. a 2.0T is a fair comparison though IMO. YOu're getting a lot more out of the 3.0TDI IMO, however you'd also be paying more intitial cost. Hmmmmm!

 

[Dazmo]

Ive just had my 3.0 V6 TDi quattro (manual) remapped to 275bhp and 530nm of torque, all i can say is the car is very fun to drive and sounds amazing and now im getting even better performance and mpg than before.

I average around 40mpg, rising to 58mpg on long trips, the car is fantastic for long distances and will happily do 400 - 500miles on a full tank with a mixture of driving, but mainly sensible.

Even if you thrash it about you still get 33-36mpg!

With a 0-62mph of around 6.5 seconds in a car that weighs 1650kg its quicker than most petrols, hell its as quick as Focus ST or astra VXR performance wise.

In some ways i miss a petrol because of the constant changing with a diesel which can put you behind but other than that i love it.

I would go for the 3.0 tdi v6 anyday (manual), thats if you can find a good one, no disrespect to those who own 2.0 but lets face it everyone has a 2.0, there a good company car choice and they are everywhere, be different have a 3.0.