Petrol or diesel

[sweeper]

Hi guys ive always wanted to buy a Rav 4 my whole motoring life and have now the chance to get one  having been to a local garage found out that toyota no longer gives a recent 2013 onward manual gearbox petrol version, im worried that the petrol automatic will drink the petrol through a large straw, i only do 8000 miles a year at best and know very little about diesel engines, my question is which would be best for me, would i ultimately damage a diesel version with short trips and low mileage , is a petrol automatic super thirsty ? in comparison my previous car is a petrol seat ibiza 1.2 so im expecting an increase no matter what i jump up to . I appreciate any guidance that you guys can give and hope to be an owner soon .

[crofter]

A BIG welcome to this friendly club where the more knowledgeable members always seem keen to help others with problems                                                               I run an older petrol auto and do not do a lot of mileage now and find it a very easy motor to drive, nice and smooth but I now have settled into that kind of driving, tempus fugit and all that. The general feeling seems to be petrol if doing short hops all the time but diesel power is better for lots of long runs.

There are people who would not dream of owning a diesel even if they only stay local and vice versa

One opinion says up to 13000 annual mileage petrol ,over that diesel

The read out on mine states 25.6 MPG  but that is a bit optimistic but the way I look at it I love the car (my third) so if that MPG comes with the car then I accept that.If consumption was so important I would have looked at other cars. Different strokes for different folks and all that .Should your heart or head rule, that can only be down to you

Come on chaps and chapesses lets have a discussion on this to help Adam out here

Del  

 

[Heidfirst]

Hi Adam, Have you considered the Hybrid?

Those 8,000 miles that you do per year - are they all lots of short journeys or do you also do regular longish, high speed trips?

[sweeper]

Hello again guys, mostly short trips, im afraid, though i might pop down south to see my brother which is over 1000 miles return maximum once or twice a year, thanks for all replies so far i really appreciate this

[dreamingandscheming]

Hi from Paul... Hiya Sweeper....First things first - I'm not trying to knock diesels...-with the relatively new dpfs - I simply wouldnt want the thought of a possibly expensive problem with them - there are a few stories popping up about them .....I simply think petrol every time these days for simplicity .... I had a diesel fro new for 3 years and it drove and performed beutifully   ....but to nit-pick I'm now on a petrol....the deisel took forever to warm up in cold weather ; petrol very quick....diesel noisey in comparison with petrol which is very very smooth and quieter....but I admit not a lot to choose tween them....Have fun.........

[Heidfirst]

If you are looking at new  & can afford it  I really would suggest looking at a Hybrid. It sounds like your driving pattern isn't best suited to long term diesel reliability.

[mickburkesnr]

I'd go with petrol. I've been lucky in respect to not having DPF issues, however I have suffered a blown turbo on a 4 year old car and it's NOT a fun experience to tr and raise £800 to fix it. Plus I don't think you'd get the financial benefits of running a diesel only doing 8,000 a year.

[RUToyota]

Petrol all the way.!....I'm no lover of diseasals...one of the biggest myths perpetrated on the motoring public by car manufacturers IMO...particularly in respect of "green" issues...nasty stuff comes out of those exhausts.! (more so than petrol engines)

They cost more to buy... to maintain..and have become way too complicated with DPF's etc

Diesel for the "everyday" car.?...No.!..not for me....I'll take petrol every time.

[fordulike]

Moved from a diesel to petrol, due to only driving 4000 miles a year. The engine used to lose performance fairly quickly and require a good clean out, which was a PITA.

As someone mentioned above, It took forever to warm up during the winter, and I would be home from work before it even blew out hot air.

The Aygo is hot within a mile. Cracking little car

[firemac]

We've had 3 petrol 4.2's since 2002, 1 x 5dr, 2 x 3dr, all autos. We've also had a diesel 4.2 5dr and a 4.3 D-CAT auto. The petrol 5dr and our second 3-dr mainly did local school run stuff, seldom did more than 5k miles p.a. and returned between 22 MPG and 30 MPG depending upon who was driving and the agenda for the week/month in question. Call it an average of 25 MPG.

The other 3dr was used for quite a lot of commuting so had much longer, steady runs. It returned an average 33MPG.

The 5dr diesel was a manual 5-speed and returned 45-50 MPG mainly on commuting driving. The 4.3 D-CAT had a Lindop Chip and returned 36+ MPG comfortably.

The vvt-i petrol engine mated to the torque converter autobox is a sublime drivetrain in the 4.2. As far as I know the 4.3 petrol auto is a CVT but having driven one in the past, it is almost impossible to tell that is not a conventional torque converter auto, so good is the application. I've not driven the 4.4 so can't comment.

In your situation, given your low annual mileage, a diesel is a definite no-no for reasons given by other posters above. It is simply not suited to that sort of use, I would also say that your fuel costs for petrol aren't going to be astronomical, even at, say, 25 MPG. Certainly nobody wants to spend anymore than they have to but the risk of things like DPF clogging/failure will rapidly become very expensive in a diesel; and it is debateable how much damage can be caused by using cheap supermarket diesel hence it can be safer to use more expensive branded fuel just for peace of mind. Consequently your maintenance costs for a diesel used in your low-mileage environment could become onerous.

Petrol engines are more robust and can put up with adverse operating regimes much better than modern diesels . As a dear departed uncle of mine used to say, "If you're only buying petrol, that's cheap motoring".

Good luck.

[Cyker]

If all you are doing is lots of short journeys, petrols easily beats diesel and can beat hybrid too.

The problem with hybrids and diesels is they take a while to get hot and while they're cold the efficiency goes down the toilet.

Unless you are towing stuff or doing longer runs, there's no real advantage with going with diesel as you don't need the extra torque and you won't get the efficiency because the engine is too cold. (In fact that will cause loads of other issues in the long term like crud building up on the injectors and annoying EGR system and DPF blockages etc.)

The hybrid might be worth a look if your journey is long enough for it to be able to put charge in the Battery without running cold, but you're paying a lot more money for relatively little benefit. (The clincher is if you prefer automatics; If so, just get the hybrid. Best autobox you can buy currently!)

I do love my diesel Yaris tho'. No matter how much I thrash the thing it won't go below 50mpg  But although I do short journeys, they are after a fairly long journey so the engine doesn't have time to cool down and stays quite efficient.

It is the last of the reliable diesels tho', all the ones that come after it have DPFs which I feel have caused more harm to the environment than they save!