Changing over to Diesel

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ci1

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Hi, just wondering if any car experts can offer some advice or suggestions on the following.

I'm driving a 2005 VW Polo which I always found heavy on juice. I have just moved to Meath from Dublin and commute to Finglas every day, there and home. Between that and any other mileage I'm doing I've put €160 into the car in the past 2 weeks.
I can't keep up with this & a few people have told me to change over to diseal to make it more economical for me.

I have no idea what cars come in diseal, I'm hoping to stick to 2005 or maybe a 2006 but I don't want my repayments to go up too much because I've just gotten a mortgage. Their 300 at the moment.
also, I've been onto peugeot becasue they do a 307 in diseal but rang 4 dealers and they said they're hard to come by...

can anyone help as I'm pretty clueless when it comes to cars.
thanks,
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

hi, used to own a 307 1.4hdi sold it there a while ago, the dealer already had a buyer for it before I even had picked my new one up. It was an 02 and gave no trouble what so ever..but there is ament to be lots of things wrong with them. Only thing that annoyed me was the indicator stalks would tick over to left after ticking of from right..but you get used to it!! It was a comfy enough car, hard to see out of sometimes because of the pillars. Extremely easy car on diesel, full tank would do over 600miles.
Maybe a 1.6hdi would be better and have a bit more power than the 1.4 as it did feel a little sluggish at times.

Whatever you do change to a diesel €160 every two weeks on fuel is madness. Would you consider a corolla or a hate to say it golf (old models)?
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

I'm kinda done with VW now at this stage but I'll look into the Corolla.
Theres a Toyota dealer down the road.

My friend used to have a 307 aswell and she was not too impressed with it but I think you have to try these things personally rather than going on everyone elses word.

But I'll check it out anyway,

thanks,
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

Well I've always noticed that it was heavy on Petrol which I was disapointed about because I thought VW were economical, I acutally posted on it a while back.

I had a peugeot 206 before the Polo and that was easier on Petrol.
I'm not sure exactly how much mileage I am doing now but I drive quite a bit for my job aswell, and I have a part time business aswell which gets me out and about.

I'll do a bit of research on the net and see whats out there.

thanks,
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

First thing to do is find out what your mpg is. Fill the tank note the milage on the clock and the number of litres put in. Drive for a couple of days and fill up again noting milage and literage again. Simple subtraction tells you how many miles per litre your car is doing. To convert this figure to mpg multiply it by .22. Somtimes you can be doing more milage than you realise. Either way you'll know the extent of the problem.
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

First thing to do is find out what your mpg is. Fill the tank note the milage on the clock and the number of litres put in. Drive for a couple of days and fill up again noting milage and literage again. Simple subtraction tells you how many miles per litre your car is doing. To convert this figure to mpg multiply it by .22. Somtimes you can be doing more milage than you realise. Either way you'll know the extent of the problem.
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

the "you need to be doing 25k miles per year to justify diesel " argument is bs.
nowadays, unless you are after a sports car, buying a diesel is a no-brainer. better economy ,residuals, nicer to drive and capable of higher mileage then the equivelant petrol. they may cost a bit more to buy but you will get most of that back when you sell on.
 
fuels cost difference between diesel and petrol based on 18k miles per year and obtaining 45MPG and 35MPG for diesel and petrol respectively

Car Price Mls/Gallon Mls/Litre Annual Miles Gallons Used Litres Used Total Fuel Price
Diesel 1.06 45 9.9 18,000 400.0 1,818.2 €1,927
Petrol 1.14 35 7.7 18,000 514.3 2,337.7 €2,665

Saving €738
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

Hi All,

just again looking for opinions as I'm totally clueless.

I am looking at buying a Ford Fiesta Zetec brand new. 1.4 dieseal.
But a friend told me they have a turbo engine that again burns even more diesel. I explained to the guy in the dealers why I was changing over and he never mentioned this, in fact he didn't go through the specs of the car or its highlights at all...

I don't want to make a bad decision, the repayments on this car are
30 euro dearer than what I'm paying now, so I can live with that but I don't want to be defeating the purpose of changing over to be more economical.

I really am clueless about it all so any advice or opinions the Ford Zetec

Thanks,
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

ci1 said:
Hi All,

just again looking for opinions as I'm totally clueless.

I am looking at buying a Ford Fiesta Zetec brand new. 1.4 dieseal.
But a friend told me they have a turbo engine that again burns even more diesel. I explained to the guy in the dealers why I was changing over and he never mentioned this, in fact he didn't go through the specs of the car or its highlights at all...

I don't want to make a bad decision, the repayments on this car are
30 euro dearer than what I'm paying now, so I can live with that but I don't want to be defeating the purpose of changing over to be more economical.

I really am clueless about it all so any advice or opinions the Ford Zetec

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Ci1 I think at this stage you would have to state, in m/km, what your annual mileage would be. Stating how much in euro you put into your current car may not be enough as it is possible that there is a problem there.
 
Re: Changing over to Diseal

ci1 said:
But a friend told me they have a turbo engine that again burns even more diesel.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me that your friend doesn't know much about diesels. I would buy whatever car you actually desire, don't get too hung up on MPG. Depreciation is the biggest expenditure. Given the move to CO2 based road taxation I would just make sure that whatever you buy has the lowest CO2 figure.
 
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Re: Changing over to Diseal

Hi Caveat,

My KM per year to date is 20,000.
but is obviously is set to increase because I've moved to Meath.
I'm only living there 2 weeks so I haven't been taking much stock of what KM's I'm doing...only that its cost me €160

Xavier...I think you're right. I'll check with the dealer about the C02 figure.

thanks,
 
have you considered other ways to avoid consuming excessive petrol ? It might make a difference to your fuel bills,

e.g. removing roof racks, not using air con, modifying your driving style..
 
I got a corolla 1.4 brand new in 03. Had 80000 miles on it after four years. would put approx 45-50 euro in her every five to six days changed to a 05 Corolla 1.4 D4D and fill her with 40-45 every seven to eight days, deffo notice the difference and would never go back to petrol. and all i do is drive half an hour with no traffic to work and back and drive around after a kid with a busy after school life!!!!
 
thanks Sammieh...most people I've spoken to say deffo to change over. A few of my friends have moved outside Dublin eg Ratoath, stamullen (where I live) julianstown and dunshaughlin and they all say they would never go back to petrol.

I put 40 euro in my car on wednesday, and another 35 euro yesterday.

so - I've just ordered myself a brand new ford fiesta zetec, 1.4 diseal..!!!!

:)
 
ci1 can you tell us distance you are covering between fills. You should get a notebook and start recording this. Otherwise its hard to know if theres a problem with the car, or you are just doing a lot of mileage.

Incidentally have you worked out what your car costs you including insurance, tax, depreciation, maintainance, repayments per year. Because if your aim is to save money perhaps buying a brand new car might be costing you more than you think in depreciation.

The argument for buying a diesel has to take not just fuel costs, but the depreciation and purchase price, and servicing into consideration. Some diesels have bigger engines and this offset some of the advantages of better fuel economy. But these days there are small engined diesels with long service intervals which reduce the cost of tax and insurance, servicing.
 
My 03 audi A4 1.9 130bhp TDI Automatic can do up to 58mpg, Average 50-55mp3. A 1.2 petrol polo Dosen't do better maybe less and it's a manual with about 60bhp sometimes less! Diesels have great low down power. okay they are noisier. But on the open road they are not noticeable. Don't believe that a turbo uses more juice than a non turbo that's not true. I wouldn't drive a 1.4 turbo diesel ford fiesta. AFAIK they are only 60bhp and are not great at all. It's nice to have the overtaking power of a good turbo Diesel. A good vw, audi, seat, or skoda 1.9 130bhp engines are good. The 05+ 1.9 engines are only 104bhp. So if you are paying road tax on a 1.9 it makes more sense to go for the 1.9 130bhp. And that goes for any car. Go for the highest bhp You can afford in the turbo diesels. Better resale value! I would not go beyond 2.0 litres. I don't see the need. I think If you really are after fuel economy, Then check out the 1.6 HDI's of peugeot, and I think Citroen have them too. renault don't offer the 1.5dci turbo diesel in Ireland because , Renault Ireland say that no one that goes for a clio in ireland would go for more than a 1.2 because of the V.R.T. So it's not even a choice. The vrt scam here is insane. People have to drive around in petrol cars of 1.2-mostly 1.6 which uses more fuel and are less powerfull than diesel! And emit less CO2. Goot old rip off Ireland! Anyway if the tax on a 1.9 or 2.0 tdi is too much then check out the 1.4 hdi's. Fiat do a good 1.3 turbo diesel 70 bhp and 90bhp. Whatever you go for make sure you give it a good test drive and don't let the salesman tell you you can only drive it 200 meters down the road and back!
 
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