buying a Diesel - but dont drive many miles.

un1eash

Turbo failed on my sisters Octavia 2.0tdi, £120 refurb and £200 to replace.

IronGiant

As a chin stroking garage owner once told me: "That diesel engine will be good for 300,000 miles. A pity the rest of the car was only good for a 100,000."   To put it in context, it was a Citroen BX that was dead on it's feet. But it's a fair point: always consider what condition the rest of the vehicle is in. Clutches, suspension, bushes, brakes etc. Air Con and any gadgets.  And of course when was the timing belt changed if it has one.

Delvey

Refurbished. New turbo can cost a few hundred quid.

Delvey

I had a Peugeot 406 that did exactly this. 252000 miles and then engine was fine. It was just the electric windows, heating system, blowers, speedo sensor and abs sensor that failed. All at once

its_all_Greek

That was predominantly the 2l diesel which had the DPF bolted onto it when the legislation changed, they then developed the 2.2l engine with the DPF in mind.

I had the 2l petrol Mazda 6 on an 08 plate and liked the car, a couple of niggles one being the mileage averaging mid 30s for most of my journeys and i felt it was under powered and needed a turbo. When i exchanged it last year it had done over 110K and the engine still felt fine.

mjn

Not many NA petrol engines these days. All small <2 litre petrol engines with turbo, even in large cars like a Mondeo.

aVdub

My 406 Exec had similar miles and only needed a front wheel bearing replaced.

                                                                       

Delvey

Yep. And they claim ridiculously high Mpg when in fact its rubbish. Like the other half's Juke

ashenfie

Sadly true but a modern diesel MPG is rubbish compared to an older pre DPF one. The OPs milage and 30min run would be fine IMHO. The engine/exhaust would get warn enough for a regen and long enough to complete

Many of the first generation DPF cars had issues as the tec. as often poorly implemented and poorly understood understood system caused problems. So most car these days have far less prone to issues. All being well and the correct oil used and serviced to a min. of the manufactors recommend.

So basically either. On the cost of running verses cost of purchase I would guess over-all the petrol would work out slightly cheaper and have less risk to big bills. Diesel are very complex beasts these day and can easily rack up some big bills.

P.s. I am assuming the car is new, as if pre 2016 I would definitely go the Petrol route.

Trollslayer

I had a 2.0 litre Mondeo with five mile runs to work and every 2-3 weeks I would give it a run on the M5 about fifteen miles each way to clean the exhaust and catalytic converter out, it helped mileage.
The trigger for this was using the turbo one time and a bloody great cloud of soot followed me for quarter of a mile!