Petrol Vs Diesel costs

[HecklerUK]

What are peoples experiences with petrol vs diesel 156's?


I've done some quick sums based on my average mileage in my current car.

5000m per year, assuming an average of 45mpg with diesel and a price of £1.41 per litre. That works out at 500 litres and a cost of £701

5000m per year assuming an average of 32mpg with petrol and a price of £1.31 per litre. That works out at 703lt and a cost of £921


Do those figures sound about right to people? Most of my current journeys are no more than 25 miles, mainly due to the cost of fuel and the low mpgs I get with my current car (22-25mpg). If I can double the average mpg, I can do more mileage and that means longer trips at higher mpgs which should raise the average and improve th4e cost effectiveness.

I don't need to worry about road tax, as the car will be registered for a disabled person.


The reason I am asking is because the gap between petrol and diesel seems to be widening further. I don't want to go and buy a car that all of a sudden is no more cost efficient to drive than a petrol one... and I'm wondering if the 1.8lt petrol (seems to give the best mpgs in the petrol range) would be the more economical car in the long run.

[badgers_nadgers]

You can't argue with the maths, but the mileage and sort of driving you do, would suggest to me that a diesel wouldn't be worth it, or would be negligible at best. If I were in your position, I'd go for the one I preferred driving.

[dnicosia]

Depends on the mileage you do, if you did alot of long journey's you could increase you estimated 45mpg, to approx 53mpg. Then diesel becomes even more cost effective.

Dom

[MalcQV]

I have a Korn Shell script that I wrote to help me decide whether to buy a diesel or petrol car. Runs on Linux/UNIX (IT for a living though not programming ).

Anyhow assuming I knew what I was doing it suggests with your figures £0.14/mile for the diesel and £0.18/mile for the petrol. Not a lot in it.

Locally I am not seeing a difference of £0.10/litre though. More like seven or eight pence.

[PhilzAlfa]

I remember when diesel was cheaper than unleaded. Funny how everything changed when everyone started buying diesel cars

[kenny mac]

there was something in a car mag latley sorry cant remember which one but a study revealed that with the price of petrol to diesel , if you do at least 18k a year you are better off in a diesel any less than that you would be better of in a petrol basic style car. but then i guess its how you drive , what type of roads you are on and the size of engine..

[MalcQV]

Originally Posted by kenny mac

there was something in a car mag latley sorry cant remember which one but a study revealed that with the price of petrol to diesel , if you do at least 18k a year you are better off in a diesel any less than that you would be better of in a petrol basic style car. but then i guess its how you drive , what type of roads you are on and the size of engine..

Yep, there is no way on earth me buying my Alfa GT after a Rover 25 was going to save me money. Thing is I wanted another car so the cost buying the car as ever is ignored by me. Even so the savings won't be that great, however let me see a Rover 25 1.6 (petrol) and a GT diesel, OK petrol usually is better but not in this case, especially with that gorgeous GT body

[dnicosia]

If it's economy your after,

The World's Cheapest Car

[ecnarfi]

Originally Posted by kenny mac

there was something in a car mag latley sorry cant remember which one but a study revealed that with the price of petrol to diesel , if you do at least 18k a year you are better off in a diesel any less than that you would be better of in a petrol basic style car. but then i guess its how you drive , what type of roads you are on and the size of engine..

I might be being thick, but I don't understand this. The OP's rough figures show a £220 a year saving on diesel costs over a petrol at 5k miles a year. So why would he be better off economy-wise with petrol?
Is it the servicing costs typically being higher? If so I'm not convinced that they're that much higher...

[jammychap]

Originally Posted by dnicosia

If it's economy your after,

The World's Cheapest Car

Seriously 30bhp lol and is that running on like 6 inch wheels lmao, a sharp gust of side wind on the M6 and it would be cartwheeling down the feilds hahahahahahahahaha

[gammakeith]

I had a Ligier Ambra for a year that had even less power and was good for about 60 mph. It was great fun around town and surprisingly nippy as it weighed nothing. Not so good on long runs (economy was only 45 mpg if flat out) and not difficult to get it on 2 wheels around roundabouts :-)

Keith

[dnicosia]

Sounds liek good fun to me!!

But with 30bhp, and a kerbside weight of an egg box, I reckon the power to weight ratio maybe around 1000hp/ton. hahaha

[dnicosia]

Originally Posted by jammychap

Seriously 30bhp lol and is that running on like 6 inch wheels lmao, a sharp gust of side wind on the M6 and it would be cartwheeling down the feilds hahahahahahahahaha

You could have a sport button on the dash, which deploys a telescopic mast and hoists a sail, to harness wind power the government could then pay you for using the roads!!

[mr-mac]

Depends on engine. I have a 156 1.8ts which has 2.0 gearbox which improves mway mpg quite nicely but only rarely do I get near 400miles out a tank. I also have a 2.4mjet which I get 600 out a tank a lot easier than near 400 off the TS.

Cost to fill mjet is what 6% higher. miles out of tank is 50% higher. Obv has something to do with driving style as I don't need to spank the arse off the mjet to get good quick driving in the road.

Plus around town and shortish trips I can still get over 40mpg out of the mjet. nowhere near that from TS. Ok so maybe have to figure maintenance into it but with 36k belt changes on TS it's not gonna be that much diffrent.

Not sure about newer JTS engines but as far as I can see maintenance on them is similar to diesel so jut comes down to economy and if you need to drive one a little harder than the other for same level of fun

John

[wr04]

reetrol costs, i dunno about your maths i just go off what i've put in the tank on a weekly basis and as petrol was a considertaion due to travel for work (56mile round trip 4 days a week) i can say this about petrol,
in my 2000, 1.8 156 it would cost me around 45-50quid a week for my work trips,
no in my 2004, 1.6 156 35-40 quid a week for 224 miles

same driving style and happy to be saving on average a tenner a week without losing a huge amount of notable power and top end speed, i could possibly reduce further but the a66, a19 and the 169 do offer some opportunity of playing in my alfa and if i didnt where would the fun be in that,
alfa petrol as never really made me sit up and go crazy and the amount i think there fairly good and i have drove some distances in both the alfas i have had, festies on the isle of wight from north east 100quid there and back with some left over for example..

[HecklerUK]

If I can get an average of 45mpg from my next car, then I can afford to greatly increase my use. At the moment I have to strictly limit my use because of the fuel costs.

At the moment assuming I do the full 5000 miles this year, and get 23mpg... that's something like £1280 in petrol... around £580 more than I would average in a diesel on the same mileage.

Or put it this way... that's an extra 4100 miles I could do each year for the same cost in fuel.



I think I'm convincing myself here... maybe I just needed to work out the math and talk myself through it.


Of course... if fuel prices go up and the gap between petrol and diesel widens further (it's approx 10p here) then the difference becomes less.

But even getting 35mpg around town in a jtd would be 50% better than getting 22mpg in my current car.

[HecklerUK]

Originally Posted by wr04

reetrol costs, i dunno about your maths i just go off what i've put in the tank on a weekly basis and as petrol was a considertaion due to travel for work (56mile round trip 4 days a week) i can say this about petrol,
in my 2000, 1.8 156 it would cost me around 45-50quid a week for my work trips,
no in my 2004, 1.6 156 35-40 quid a week for 224 miles

I do see your point, but for me it's coming from a 2.5lt 200bhp MX6 to a 2.4 or 1.9 JTD 156 wagon. So the difference in cost savings are huge.

I worked on a contract its a 43 mile round trip, 2 gallons a day 5 days a week, that's around £55 a week. In a diesel 156 I should be doing it in approx £30. Saving £25 a week on fuel that could be better spent on beer, toys for me and the car and getting lucky.

[MalcQV]

Originally Posted by ecnarfi

I might be being thick, but I don't understand this. The OP's rough figures show a £220 a year saving on diesel costs over a petrol at 5k miles a year. So why would he be better off economy-wise with petrol?
Is it the servicing costs typically being higher? If so I'm not convinced that they're that much higher...

I assume it included the initial cost of the car. Even second hand there is a higher premium for the diesel car.

[a624v6]

i found insurance on my jtd is more than on a petrol, even the 156 v6 is less. dont know what it would be in comparison with the mazda though

[HecklerUK]

Originally Posted by ecnarfi

I might be being thick, but I don't understand this. The OP's rough figures show a £220 a year saving on diesel costs over a petrol at 5k miles a year. So why would he be better off economy-wise with petrol?
Is it the servicing costs typically being higher? If so I'm not convinced that they're that much higher...

Maybe I wasn't clear in the beginning... the two figures I posted were based on the averages for the petrol and diesel 156 wagon, and not on my current car.

I'm trying to determine if it would more cost effective to own one over the other.

In a later post further down the thread, I mention that doing the same 5k a year in my current car costs me around £1280.


So owning either petrol or diesel will save me money on fuel and won't make a difference to my insurance costs (in fact might even be cheaper) as I'm going from a group 17 car to a group 14 or lower. My current insurance would only be £20 more for the year going from a 2.5lt V6 200bhp coupe to a 2.4 20v JTD wagon.

The difference is in saving around £350 a year or £580.


Sorry if that wasn't clear in the beginning.

[hdseven]

i have had diesel alfas for 6 years.....and diesel cars for 12......no way would i go back to petrol with the mpg that gives

the 1.9 jtdm is much more effiecent that the 2.4 jtd i had........road tax on it is £165
insurance..........never noticed it costs more for diesel


fuel will continue to rise so ill stick with my diesel

[stuboy2uk]

Your figures are correct but have you taken into account that a diesel 156 will cost more to buy than the same spec petrol model?

The other thing that people rarely mention in the petrol v diesel argument is that you can fairly rag a diesel and the mpg barely drops whereas do the same in a petrol and the mpg drops like a lead balloon.

[HecklerUK]

Originally Posted by stuboy2uk

Your figures are correct but have you taken into account that a diesel 156 will cost more to buy than the same spec petrol model?

The other thing that people rarely mention in the petrol v diesel argument is that you can fairly rag a diesel and the mpg barely drops whereas do the same in a petrol and the mpg drops like a lead balloon.

I'm still getting a feel for the prices... I saw one 2003 model being advertised for 10 grand, and another one that said it was a 2007 but clearly pre facelift exterior (but facelift dash, so assuming late 02 to mid 03).

I've seen 03 models at 4 grand and 04 at 5 grand... but the average for a facelift 03-04 1.9 jtd is around the 1700-2000 mark in a wagon. I've seen them go for less in the saloon diesel... Seems the wagons can attract a few hundred extra.

I'm patient though, I can wait for the right one to come along. MoT on mine until Oct tax until April... there's no rush and the longer I wait the more cash I'll have.

[badgers_nadgers]

It has so much to do with how you drive, it's very hard to work it out until you actually live with the car. I generally get 23mpg from my Gta with a 6 mile commute. However, I drove to Manchester on Monday and got 32 mpg. I was staggered by that! (had I been driving a diesel though, I probably would have had close to 60). Don't know what I'm trying to say really!

[ecnarfi]

Originally Posted by HecklerUK

Maybe I wasn't clear in the beginning... the two figures I posted were based on the averages for the petrol and diesel 156 wagon, and not on my current car.

You were clear. I was replying to Kenny Mac's post rather than yours

Originally Posted by MalcQV

I assume it included the initial cost of the car. Even second hand there is a higher premium for the diesel car.

Ahaa!