I need a car -recommendations?

strtdv

There is a point there. Unless you're doing 10-12k miles a year with mostly decent length journeys diesel is less economical. They're more expensive to buy, they have very poor fuel economy when cold (basically for the first 15 minutes of driving), and if you do lots of short journeys with no long ones you'll clog the DPF and need to pay for a forced regeneration cycle

strtdv

The other side of that is that if you do the mileage, they're very economical. I still enjoy the fact that I can get 57mpg out of a car that's as fast as a Golf GTI

dern

strtdv said:

There is a point there. Unless you're doing 10-12k miles a year with mostly decent length journeys diesel is less economical. They're more expensive to buy, they have very poor fuel economy when cold (basically for the first 15 minutes of driving), and if you do lots of short journeys with no long ones you'll clog the DPF and need to pay for a forced regeneration cycle

Definitely agree with this. Bought a 535d for long journeys and towing my track car and then changed my job to somewhere much closer. It doesn't get up to temp very quickly at all even when I renewed all the thermostats and until it does the fuel economy is shocking. The DPF on my car is £1600 plus fitting so I also have to take it out every week or so for a good run to get it warm enough for a regen. When you factor in all this fuel use it's not worth running over a theoretically more economical petrol. I'd only consider one again if my commute was over half an hour each way on main roads.

I'm about to replace it with an rx8 for my commute which tells you how bad the 535d can be

thermionic

ICBM said:

I really wouldn't buy a diesel. OK I admit I'm biased and I just don't like them, but unless you're doing high motorway mileages at steady speeds there are good practical reasons why petrol is better.

I don't understand why diesels are so popular tbh. A few years ago I was commuting 95 miles a day and we worked out in the office that even at that ridiculous mileage, petrol was more economical.

dern

For me the choice of the 535d over the petrol was that it was a lot more economical for the same year and the same performance. A mate has a 550i which is a little bit faster but uses twice the petrol. The 535d was far nicer to drive than the other diesels I test drove. Really good spread of power rather than a big peak and they sound much nicer than even modern 4 pot diesels. Wouldn't buy another though unless the mileage warranted it.

ICBM

thermionic said:

I don't understand why diesels are so popular tbh. A few years ago I was commuting 95 miles a day and we worked out in the office that even at that ridiculous mileage, petrol was more economical.

I think it's because there was a vehicle tax incentive to switch to diesel because someone had told the government that it was more economical and hence 'greener'.

In fact the opposite is true unless you are doing high mileages at fairly steady speeds in the optimum power band. For short journeys at variable speeds diesel is less efficient, more pollutive, and has serious problems with the particulate filters clogging as already said. The fact that the mpg is better on paper overlooks the fact that diesel contains roughly the same proportion more carbon per litre too - in fact the current pricing where diesel is about the same as petrol per litre is wrong, it should be significantly more expensive… by the same proportion as the better fuel economy, exactly to reflect the greater carbon emission.

A typical bad implementation of incentives based on false premises.

Diesel *is* more efficient for higher-powered engines turning constantly at steady near-optimum revs - such as in trucks, tractors, trains and ships. But that doesn't apply to most cars.

Axe_meister

I'm not so sure. We've had a 1.4 petrol civic and the 1.6 Diesel. Same short journeys in London traffic and the diesel is soo much more efficient

Bogwhoppit

My neighbour bought a new Vauxhall Diesel Estate. He does around 1500 miles a year - all local.

Guess what issues he keeps having, every day.......of the week.......all year.  It starts with D and ends with F. It provides me with hours of amusement when I'm window watching

ICBM

Axe_meister said:

I'm not so sure. We've had a 1.4 petrol civic and the 1.6 Diesel. Same short journeys in London traffic and the diesel is soo much more efficient

Do you mean efficient as in mpg and cost, or efficient as in carbon burned relative to distance travelled?

The first is likely to be true, the second isn't. You may be saving money given the current low price of diesel relative to petrol, but you're buggering the planet more .

Bogwhoppit said:

My neighbour bought a new Vauxhall Diesel Estate. He does around 1500 miles a year - all local.

Guess what issues he keeps having, every day.......of the week.......all year.  It starts with D and ends with F. It provides me with hours of amusement when I'm window watching

My neighbour bought a diesel Audi literally about two days before the VW scandal broke. I was really tempted to get some police tape and run it around the car .

not_the_dj

I'm seeing a few of these on the road now

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxNTM0/z/RYMAAOSw0HVWC-d2/$_35.JPG

not_the_dj

...on topic I had until recently a Nissan Qashqai 2.0l diesel, got me to 150,000 miles without any issues (I bought it new). Only traded it in last month as I've now got a company car. Mine was from the first year of production on an 07 plate, and the newer ones are better spec'd now.

Most reliable car I've ever had.

Catthan

OP,

Look at a 1.18d BMW with 5drs. 

Sambostar

LS400 man with airbag suspension and 30" chrome rims

AlexHunter

Thanks all for the help. After going round a few dealers and test driving them to identify which one drove like butter, I have purchased a 2013 Octavia and am picking it up next weekend.

Sporky

Does it have torque for days?