Bahtatboy

Obviously not ME-related, but Bahtat-sprogess wants to buy her first car in UK. My gut feeling is to go for diesel for the better mpg, but that's based on my knowledge of some 5+ years ago. She'll probably be buying something about 4 to 5 years old anyway, so I'm assuming that petrol-engine technology still hadn't caught up with diesel mpg (or at least not to the extent to offset the difference in price between diesel and petrol fuel prices). Correct to assume that, in general, a diesel car is still going to be cheaper to fuel than a petrol one?

britexpat76

Small petrol engines are cheaper to run than diesels. MPG not massively different, Diesel more expensive to buy and the car more expensive to buy. Best with a 1.1 or 1.2 petrol.

Theseus

I think 4 - 5 years old you can still get a VW bluemotion thingymijig - probably cheaper to run than a bigger car and congestion charge free in london.
I could be wrong though.
Also you have to think about the tax it will depend on the size of the engine on anything newer than an 54/55 plate. I think...... BE76 will now tell me i'm full of shit.

scrubbedexpat141

When I left the UK in April 2011, I sold my 1.8TDi Sport A3. The last fill up I did was just shy of 90 quid.

BUT....I got 40+ to the gallon even when smashing through A-Roads everyday to work and back. On the motorway it just loved hitting high-40's and 50's to the gallon.

I saw great value in diesel because I did a reasonable amount of miles to work and back and lots of trips from the New Forest to Dartford.

HOWEVER, when I was at college, my first car was a spanking new Citroen C2, 1.1l petrol engine. If driven sort of sensibly I'd get 36/38mpg if I remember correctly. It only cost 35quid to fill and would give me about 350miles. As a student / 17yo, that was what mattered.

I reckon BE76 is right, little petrol engine, no point shelling out for diesel.

OleJanx

Yep, I'd agree that a small petrol engined car is the way to go.

soukie

I bought a petrol car for UK use as I do low mileage and I was worried about problems with a DPF. Audi advised me that petrol is the way to go if you do less than 15k per year. Petrol costs about 6p less a litre than diesel too. Toyota has some good deals at the moment.

Fossildog

My wife had a Audi A3 2.0L Diesel in the UK. She did around 10k a year all small (3-5 mile) journeys and had no real issues with the DPF, although after we ordered the car I read some real horror stories of DPFs and small journeys and garages not replacing the DPF under warranty.

A few times the DPF light came on and I had to set off on a 5 mile journey in 3rd keeping the revs high until the light went out, which sort of negated the effects of having an economical diesel.

Bahtatboy

Is this working, Eva, or do we need to get more technical?

shiva

Small petrol engine around 1ltr is the way to go and not driving like a twat makes the biggest fuel savings