Hang on a minute, it looks like a petrol car is cheaper...

I've been telling my wife that her next car should be a diesel for years. She may drive up to 50 miles a day so I was convinced that it would be cheaper in the long run to buy a diesel. However, diesel and petrol models of the same car are priced completely differently. So assuming you wanted a car for an average of three years and the price difference on purchase is €1,500 - €2,000 more, the saving is non existant; in fact it's a loss based purely on fuel costs.

Am I wrong and just crap at maths?!

Thanks

Adrian Mccarthy (Cork)

Mar 2014 Filed under: petrol vs. diesel

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Expert answer

Hi Adrian,

Nope, not wrong at all. Unless you're doing big, regular mileage you won't recoup the extra purchase cost of buying a diesel for several years. If you want to be really scientific about it, take careful notes of your mileage, your specific fuel consumption (not just what the dashboard is telling you, carefully note how many litres you're putting into your tank and then work out how far you get on them) and then you'll have an accurate picture of how much each trip is costing you. Unless the price of diesel, and its potentially greater economy, works out at a lot, lot less, then it's best to stick with petrol. That's especially so if you're buying new. Some of those new small capacity petrol turbos are exceptionally fuel efficient.

Here's an article we did on the subject a while back

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Adviser
@neilmbriscoe