Had petrols all my life, got sick of spending £200 a year on tax plus rubbish MPG with a growing family it’s hard to find a decent sized used family petrol, collected my first diesel in August and payed £20 tax for the year and barely visit a petrol station these days.
No one is arguing about the economics of diesel (though you have to do the miles to make it worthwhile).I have a diesel myself and have bought them for years.
The argument is the tide is turning against the diesel engine and it will get increasingly difficult and expensive to use one, if as is likely to happen towns and cities across the UK start to levy charges and restrictions on the use of them.
It's already happening in the capital and it won't be long before others follow suit.
END OF DIESEL CARS? Millions of Brits are ditching diesel before HUGE tax fees come in
The End of Diesel
I don't know about the newer ones but the ones I've looked at in the mondeo from 2010-14 ish seem to average out at about 35mpg whereas I've averaged just under a measured 54mpg in my diesel. That's quite a big drop for me go for. I do drive with alight foot.
That's the thing, it's all a bit of scare mongering at the moment, but don't want to be caught with my pants down have an expensive car suddenly plummet in price.
I need a diesel for my mileage. Driving a petrol will cost me a lot more per month.
Maybe I should just lease...
This is in the news today: 44 UK towns and cities have air 'too dangerous to breathe'
Diesels are listed as a part of the problem.I recently read that coastal towns air quality can be as bad or worse than London due to diesel engines in the ships.
It is worrying. Places like Paris will have no diesel cars by 2020. Now, I don't plan on ever driving to Paris, but movements like that usually have a domino effect.
Not sure what my options are though. Pay at least double for fuel or risk it? I'm looking at a nearly new diesel which meets the Euro standard, but who knows when that could change...
Surely these new taxes and scaremongering is aimed towards old diesels.
I still don't understand how all these towns and cities are going to get deliveries to they're shops etc if the lorries are banned? And Vans hows that going to work as you you cant buy a petrol transit.
What's not sitting well with me is if these diesels cars are making people ill then ban them completely from entering the areas, but, no, you can still go in if you pay. So, you can pay to make people ill?
I think you could be forgiven in thinking it's nothing but a tax. Newer diesels have no or little road tax and some are now ultra economical to the point the government has to losing a massive ammount in fuel tax.
The restrictions on town centres and the possibility of increased taxes both concern me but perhaps the biggest worry for anyone owning a recent diesel car is the unpredictable depreciation.
Whether any of us like diesel cars or not and whether we prefer high MPG over a quiet engine is irrelevant.The sad truth is there is now so much uncertainty around diesel cars that the majority of people just see the headlines about diesel bans and avoid buying them without looking into the details.
I chose to buy petrol this time around as my mileage is around 10k and I genuinely believe that the value of a used diesel will drop much more over the next couple of years.I was also very worried about EGR valve and DPF problems as a couple of people I work with have had these issues on their company cars that are only a year old.A quick google search confirms many reports of private owners facing large repair bills for diesels with these problems.
When I was looking around for my car, I spoke to a couple of different dealers who told me that they are already struggling to shift diesel cars when there is a petrol alternative (some models are only available as diesel at a certain age).
When I checked Autotrader for the diesel version of my car I saw the prices were already significantly lower than the petrol version and I expect that trend to increase.
Everyone has their own opinion on this issue and I understand that petrol is not always suitable and diesel is not always cheaper to run just because the MPG is higher.
Good luck to anyone who has to make this difficult choice in these uncertain times.