Petrol or Diesel ?

When it comes to the punto which is cheapest to buy and own, Petrol or Diesel. many people wonder whats cheapest to own petrol or diesel.

I bought the diesel thinking overall I would save money but many claim the cost of diesel fuel and the extra expense of the diesel would make the oil burner much more costly

I'm going to look at the later mk2b because this is the model I have and was available with the 1248cc multijet diesel engine. and compare it against the 1242cc 8v petrol engine making the two fairly close by comparison, and for simplicity I will use the basic 3 door active model for both engine options

so the brand new purchase price of a 2004 3 door active

Petrol £7195

Diesel £8795 -- £1600 more

list fuel economy figures
Petrol 49mpg
Diesel 62mpg

Fuel wise I have to make some assumptions which are generally not true,
current fuel prices are 133.9 for petrol and 138.9 for diesel at my nearest fuel station over time the cost of fuel goes up and down as does the relationship between the two fuels the difference has been as little as 2pence per litre and as much as 10ppl however over time this will average out currently the difference is 5ppl in my area so i've used this for all other calculations so

so the fuel cost difference is a ratio of diesel 41:50 petrol... essentially diesel is 18% cheaper when you factor in fuel cost and fuel economy

I'm going to ignore servicing as i don't believe any one is more expensive to service than another, i'm also going to assume that both cars have the same level of failure rate and repair meaning they cancel each other out

finally vehicle excise duty on the two models is very different
Petrol £125 per year
Diesel £30 per year



So I suppose the question is how long do you need to own the car to make back the extra purchase cost (£1600)


so assuming an average mileage of 12k miles per year and assuming for every year taxed we take a complete year the break even point would be at about the beginning of year 4 (VED for 5 full years)

so these cars are now 8 years old how much over the life of both cars has the diesel saved over the petrol?

fuel wise its about £2300 and VED is £760 so total of £3060

and the two cars are now worth, according to parkers price guide
Petrol £1010
Diesel £1215 £205 difference

total cost of ownership over 8 years ~ 100,000 miles
Petrol £19,585
Diesel £18,440
So total saving of diesel over petrol after 8 years on the road is surprisingly only £1145 which doesn't seem a lot but does equate to another nearly 12k miles in the diesel


[B]Conclusion[/B]
So is the Diesel worth getting over the Petrol, well you get an extra 10bhp and 78 more torques in the diesel which is nice but the car is also much heavier (by 105KG) so that probably cancels out.

so what you are really only saving is about £1145 (£143.12 per year) or gaining an extra £12k~ miles

for some £143 a year is worth saving but then you have to spend an extra £1600 to begin with.

as most people these days buy their car on finance agreements you have to consider a more expensive car will rack up more in interest and then most trade the car in after 3 years for a new one and an new finance deal so they never reach break even point. and end up costing them self money.

So if you're buying a new car then picking up a petrol is most likely the best option especially as most new petrol engines are much cheaper to tax or even free (this is where most of the savings above are) only if you plan to keep it past 6 years is it worth buying a new diesel.

On the second hand market then you might find the diesel the sensible option again it all depends on how old and how long you plan to keep it for one thing i've not factored in is the cam belt on the petrol which at a garage is likely to cost £200ish where as the diesel has a timing chain which doesn't need changing but an older diesel may suffer a worn turbo so again swings and roundabouts

Realistically these days the sensible option is the Petrol..... which is annoying because I quite like my diesel engines