Discuss

[recycled]

It is.
get an SL V8 to pose in at weekends and at the meets.

get a diesel kia to go to work and back.

Savings in cost price offsets VED and weekend petrol

 

[st4]

Everyone here is missing a trick, the government allows us to use 2500 litres/year of un taxed fuel be that palm oil, used fat etc (SilverSaloon knows more).

A diesel can be modified to run on this chancellor proof juice, which @ current prices makes it cheaper/litre to fuel than a petrol, and you go further on a tank.

 

[recycled]

Everyone here is missing a trick, the government allows us to use 2500 litres/year of un taxed fuel be that palm oil, used fat etc (SilverSaloon knows more).

A diesel can be modified to run on this chancellor proof juice, which @ current prices makes it cheaper/litre to fuel than a petrol, and you go further on a tank.

many manufactures are voiding warranties and it is untested territory
except you have an old banger.i would not let my 50k s320cdi run on chip fat if i had one.

 

[imadoofus]

If you buy it now it would be cheap, when you come to sell it in 2 or 3 years time, you will not lose so much.

I know how the economics of buying a used car have worked to date.

But that's precisely my point. I wonder if the depreciation curve for large petrol engined cars will steepen.

 

[gIzzE]

Alot of people are switching back to petrol as well.

For the first time in 10 years I have got no diesel cars in the house.

Mercedes E320 estate (£75 to fill up and gives 400 miles average)
BMW M3 SMG (£65 to fill and gives 330 miles)
E30 325i (£55 to fill and gets about 200 miles, it gets ragged!! )

Compare that with say an E320 cdi, doing the same driving I get 480 miles from it but it costs £85 to fill up.

So not much in it really between any of them.

If buying new the depreciation accounts for the real cost, both are crap, but the petrol looses more, buy at a year or even 3 years old then the petrol makes far more sense. I do 30k + miles a year and diesel still doesn't make sense for me, if I could live with a manual then yeah 45mpg would start to make more sense, but I want auto and it is not 45mpg, it is not even 40mpg, more like mid to low 30's for the derv, and with the price difference in fuel and the saving you can get buying a petrol car the petrol has become to winner for me.

I raved on about how smooty my 535d was, and how nice our S320cdi was for a diesel, but getting back in an E320 V6 petrol has made me realise how deluded I was!! Yeah they have come on leaps and bounds but they have a long way to go still.


I think as more and more people realise this petrol cars will start to hold their value better, however, we are talking about the UK public here so maybe not!

 

[hawk20]

There are three scary things for us all to worry about.
Europe which is insisting on emissions to average 120gms/km by 2012, which cannot be achieved with large petrols -only with diesels probably small in ccs and with twin turbos, and with small petrols with turbos and maybe superchargers and maybe hybrid assistance. MB has already said all their cars will have turbos by 2010.

Second the govt here in UK. Are the VED increases we have had just the precursor of worse to come. Not while the polls are so bad but later maybe.

The price of fuel which may go way back up again when the recession is over and then the problem for large petrols may be not so much bad depreciation as difficulty in getting anyone to take them in part ex. Happening already with some petrol 4x4's.

 

[Thmsshaun]

Quite an interesting topic this. I have not really been looking at cars much with being out of the country. But being back home for a couple of weeks there is plenty of time to browse the Auto Trader and Piston heads.

It suprised me to find Aston Martin DB7's available from £19k TVR Cerberas from £10k, 1999 Porsche 911 from around £15k TVR Tuscans 2001 from around £13k

These are all phenominal cars in my eyes for the money. So really I am not to bothered about the price of petrol or VED as whilst I can afford to fill cars like that up I will buy them.

So for me I will be sticking with the V8 When it hits £2+ a litre then it wont be practical to run one at all so I figure I might as well run the biggest engine I can afford until the time comes where the government prices me out of it. Petrol runs out or cars over a set emission are outlawed.

 

[bigyin1]

Interesting discussion this. Thought i'd point out a few things i've learned today (& other thoughts):

The "new" Audi A6 has 3 petrol engines: two petrol turbo (1.8 and 2.0) and one petrol supercharged (badged 3.0 T!!!)- NO normally aspirated petrol engines, NO V8's! . 95% of A6's sold are diesel. That is a huge stat. I know a very large %age of Mercedes E-Class' sold are diesel and it's almost certainly over 70-80% as such i would imagine same goes for BMW.

Given this I would say that the future is definately diesel powered if you want power/torque and decent accelleration. Thought: why else would Audi have an R8 Diesel and Peugeot have a HDi at Le Mans??

A high power petrol engine just cannot meet the emmission targets unless it is small capacity with high pressure injection and turbo charged eg current 1.4 TSi VAG and the Alfa/Fiat 1.4 TJet engines. Also very soon (<1-2 years) the VAG group won't be selling any petrol non-turbo/supercharged petrol engines.

This has to be for a reason....

EDIT - my w124 300d does 35mpg, all day, every day, irrespective of what type of driving i'm doing. Our works cars are: 2005 Audi A4 2.0 TDi 140bhp - 38-39mpg - 2008 A6 3.0 TDi 233bhp - 30/31mpg. They are getting bigger, hence more power/torque, but not any more economical. IN Fact on the 2.0 TDi they get less economy than their previous 1.9 TDi counterparts which got nearer 45-50mpg. Primarily this is down to the DPF's fitted to cars. It may be better for the environment, but if you're filling up more often, is this necessarily better?

 

[recycled]

Interesting discussion this. Thought i'd point out a few things i've learned today (& other thoughts):

The "new" Audi A6 has 3 petrol engines: two petrol turbo (1.8 and 2.0) and one petrol supercharged (badged 3.0 T!!!)- NO normally aspirated petrol engines, NO V8's! . 95% of A6's sold are dieselfilling up more ?

the new audi A6
there is definitely a N/A V8's, a 2.8 v6 and no 1.8 T. and even two V10's .

audis sell more diesels, because more are company cars and not private buyers

 

[gIzzE]

BMW diesel sales in Europe account for over 65%, the X5 is now at 95% diesel!

 

[bigyin1]

the new audi A6
there are definitely 2V8's, a 2.8 fsi and no 1.8 T. andeven a V10 .

audis sell more diesels, because more are company cars and not private buyers

New facelifted model, not out yet.

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/First-drives/Audi-A6-30T-facelift-CAR-review/

 

[recycled]

I know but it is only a matter of time before the v8 is dropped into it

so that will be 2.0 ,2.8 and the 3.0T

 

[st4]

I know but it is only a matter of time before the v8 is dropped into it

so that will be 2.0 ,2.8 and the 3.0T

3.0T is the engine for the new S4 IIRC, they felt because the new forced induction 6 will perform better than the old v8. I prefer 6's anyway but has been pointed out an N/A petrol does offer a distinct and rewarding driving characteristic, it would be shame, becuase of some overzelous interfering corrupt beurocrats, that these are regulated out.

 

[Dryce]

Given the increases in, and unpredictable future of VED and fuel prices, if you own a large-engined petrol-fuelled car, it will become increasingly difficult to sell on, compared with a diesel-fuelled car of similar engine size.

Who cares.

We've taken the depreciation hit on our cars and now using independent servicing and doing lots more miles.

If/when the time comes to replace a big petrol engine car will be easy to 'buy on'. That S or CL has never been so affordable.

And as for diesels - last time I looked even the E220 had taken a huge hit on pricing. Two and a half years ago 1 year old cars with around 15000 miles were avalable for over £24k as opposed to £21K for a E200. Today the same dealer has 1yr old E200s at under £19K and E220s at £20K. So much for the diesel premium.