Stick Or Twist?

[gavinalan]

I have a September 09 2 litre diesel Avensis which I bought pre registered and with delivery miles in March 2010. It has been completely reliable and has only done 32000 miles but is now 5 years old. Conventional wisdom (eg Honest John) suggests that after about 5 years, modern diesels start to have expensive problems, so my question is, should I change to a 1.8 petrol Avensis or soldier on with the present car.

Keeping the car is obviously the cheaper option (if I change I would get a 1 to 2 year old one which would probably cost at least £6-7000 plus my car). My top priority is reliability - at 75 I feel too old for the hassle of breakdowns! My usage is short journeys around town (2-10 miles) with long trips from time to time - most recently a 2,500 mile Continental tour last September. The lower mpg of a petrol is not too significant given the low mileage I am now doing, so it's really a question of how likely is my present model to start having problems compared to a newer 1.8 petrol. Any advice would be welcome.

[Heidfirst]

If you are otherwise happy with it have you considered taking out a Toyota extended warranty? Should cover most potential expensive issues & yet a lot cheaper than changing cars.

[gavinalan]

Thank you for the prompt reply. An extended warranty would certainly help with the cost of any problem, but I am hoping to avoid the problems arising in the first place. So I'm interested in the 5 to 10 year performance of the 2 litre diesel as against the 1.8 petrol.

[ToyotaAuris]

You wouldent need to change. Dont listen to Honest John since he is very generic at what he says. He says 'Diesels start to have problems after 5 years'. Well if a car with only 5k miles was 5 years old wouldent have any problems really, only DPF if your unlucky. The car which you have is such a powerful and relible cars. Taxi fleets use your type of cars as they are bullet proof reliability. I wouldent worry much, if you want to get rid of your car to avoid problems, sell it at 55k miles only then do problems start at about 60k+ miles. Your diesel would be much much more reliable than the petrol by far, petrols are known to break down and parts wear out pretty quick, diesels are made for the high mileage. 32000 miles is peanuts, my Auris has 35k miles and still feels like brand new!!

[Heidfirst]

"Your diesel would be much much more reliable than the petrol by far, petrols are known to break down and parts wear out pretty quick, diesels are made for the high mileage. "

sadly this is not true of modern common rail turbo diesels. Things like turbos, injectors, DMF & of course DPFs do start to fail but generally certainly at higher mileages than 32k.

These days for long term (as in longer than warranty) reliability & low repair costs I would be looking at a normally aspirated petrol but these are becoming harder to find as manufacturers start to fit lower capacity turbo-charged petrols which will have many of the same issues - the Avensis 1.8 VVTi is one of the few normally aspirated left.

[gavinalan]

Thank you for the helpful replies. As Heidfirst says, simplicity and therefore reliability were once the hallmark of diesels. More than 25 years ago I bought a diesel Mercedes (secondhand of course) which I kept for eleven years. It was bulletproof - no turbo, none of the complications of today and if I'd kept it I'm sure it would still be running. Trouble was, overtaking on B roads was getting increasingly fraught as newer cars got faster... So one can see why the complications have been introduced, even though it's been at the cost of lower reliability.

So although my car has only done 32000 miles I think I will switch to a 1.8 petrol for peace of mind. My car may well get to 50,000 miles without drama, but at that point the cost to change to a 1 or 2 year old car would be much greater, while at the moment my car has still got reasonable trade in value. And normally aspirated engines might no longer be available!

All the replies have really helped me reach a decision - thank you.

[Heidfirst]

supposedly the Avensis is due another facelift at the end of next year - that will cause the prices on current facelift (11/11>) cars to drop - might be worth hanging on for another year?

[gavinalan]

Thanks, Heidfirst,

That's another good suggestion. Run out models are often very good value.