diesel-con from a UK news Paper

We all buy on preference, what suits our needs. I'm tired of the " which one is cheaper, what's more economical, which one has a longer service interval, Bla Bla bla! Who cares! I think Diesels are just getting going, I drove my sisters Hyundai Sonata 2.5L Diesel to Dubbo from Sydney and return with 5 adults aboard, 5.4L per 100 over the trip of 820ks. My wifes Corolla 1.8L petrol does fare that well with two aboard, I think the reporter will be shown to be wrong in the longer term, regards Michael

Just watched a you-tube clip of the Isle of Mann TT Race. An electric bike averaged around 116 mph!!!

I personally think that this is the way of the future. Look at how batteries have dramatically changed over the last decade....

Not sure why Nissan only bought out the latest Patrol in petrol, but I reckon that will bite their sales a lot.

Not sure if the OP is in agreement with the UK reporters quote, but you can't beat diesel low end torque / power for off roading or towing.
As for clean, CRDs are leaps and bounds ahead of older diesels, and improvements coming all the time to make even better.

Reading most of the Mail Online comments, pretty much says it all.

Oh yeah, perhaps the diesel con story should be why is it now up to 20c/lt more than petrol, when it used to be the other way around ?
Larger diesel market now should bring prices down with economies of scale.

The author noted 'diesel is now significantly more expensive than petrol' in the UK too, so it's not just our local market having a go, well not all of that difference.

SEE, Im not the only one that thinks that diesel may not be the clear choice that it once was.


As for diesel and scales of economy........dream on....fuel is a demand related comodity.......the bigger the demand the higher the price.

now...think on this......most of our diesel is imported from singapore......because it is cheaper than refining it here from crude sourced in this country.


As far as those scales of economy......compared with the wider diesel market......the Australian consumption is a fart in a sewer.

There would be single large trucking compaines in the US that woul consume more diesel than Australia.

cheers

What a lovely balanced article without the slightest trace of the use of emotionally charged language. HAHAHAHA. Must have been another slow news day.
Nice picture too. A drag truck on the start line. Not much effort put into emission control with those bad boys.
Interesting little read re our erstwhile reporter on the RH top of the page too.
"Only people who travel more than 18000 miles" according to this scribe will benefit from diesel. Probably true for many, especially in the good Old Dart, and maybe some in Australia and other countries. Unfortunately many in other countries do multiples of that distance.
"There are other reasons to avoid this dreadful fuel. Firstly the modern diesel is unreliable."
Oh really, wow, I better not let Doug T know that.
Hang on it gets better.
"This is largely down to one thing, the particulate filter that must be plumbed into the exhaust system to stop these cars belching the lung-clogging clouds of smoke that we associate with grease burning engines."
Well I learnt something there, I'd better stop pumping grease into the air intake of my car at every service. I was thinking better upper cylinder lubrication.
Funny thing is, there were a great number of road trains accelerating on the highway to get up a bit of momentum to climb the hill that started just outside my business premises. No great plume of smoke like the 30 year old Macks did until the turbo caught up. Just a slight increase in the heat haze from the exhaust stack and a whole heap of grunt.
Sorry I lost interest in reading this diatribe about there.
IMHO just another desperado try hard thinking that the way to the top is by sensational journalism, somewhat like our local "shock jocks".

Cheers
Pop

Allein
Interesting to note that last year when the new larger petrol Patrol was sent out on a test towing a reasonable sized van it averaged 35 litres / 100 km.
Sort of shoots the no diesel theory right up the you know what !!
Stay safe out there.
Regards
TJ

the Daily Mail is second only to Murdoch's Sun in the credibility stakes. Nobody takes it seriously.

I'm sure he got his material from a post I put out 10 years ago !

That Daily Mail article is a load of uninformed journalistic drivel produced to sell a newspaper which is noted for sensationalism over accuracy. Besides, it's aimed at Poms and Pommy cars, that operate under vastly different conditions to Australian conditions.

There's virtually no case to be made for a diesel in an urban environment, where the average trip distance rarely exceeds 10 or 12kms. A petrol engine is a vastly better performer in cities, where short trips, stop-go driving, quicker warm-up, and a cleaner exhaust, is their forte.

However, if you want to travel long distances at a time, or tow a trailer or 'van, diesel has it over petrol every time - particularly if you sit the diesel on a steady RPM at around 1/2 to 2/3rds throttle.
The superior torque of a diesel engine is unquestioned - as is the longer life of the diesel engine.

Despite that, there is concern amongst many, that modern diesels are losing their edge with their design complexity. In the old days, diesels only needed fuel and air, and they ran.
Now, you need a diagnostic computer if your diesel stops - and you need to be much more careful about fuel quality and filtration, and corrosive environments that play havoc with the vastly-increased amount of electrics and electronics on todays diesels.

The vastly increased cost of diesel repairs today is also a worrying factor. Injection pumps and injectors were always a bit pricey - now the diesel injection repair costs are ballistic.
In that respect, the journalist is correct (and I noticed at least a couple of commenters, including a used-car dealer, noted the same).
When used-car dealers start shying away from your used diesel because they're worried about warranty and repair costs when selling a used diesel, it's a factor that will impinge on used diesel values in the future.

Of course, we can all hope that diesel repair parts will drop substantially as more aftermarket suppliers invade the market - but at present, you can be assured that you''ll get the BOHICA treatment every time, with genuine diesel repair parts.

I passed one of the reasons yesterday.

About 30 km north of Heathcote on the Heathcote Rochester Road I came up behind a Patrol, well actually I didn't know it was a Patrol just yet because my view of the vehicle was obscured by a thick plume of black/grey smoke coming from somewhere under the vehicle. He was doing about 60 kph and pulled over to the left to let me past. I would have stopped and offered him a tow, but he had that determined do or die look on his face and I didn't have time to tow someone 30 ks at 20 kph when I was due at work in Melb in just over an hour.

Sadly, Nissan always seem to have the smokiest engines, and its not just the 3.0 before it is about to detonate.

Bob

Like so many other things in this world, the choices we are offered are not equal choices, or presented on a "level playing field".
Nor are those products we are offered built bassed primarily on good engineering and consumer interest.

There is a lot of polotics, intentional misinformation, product packaging, vested interest, manufacturer and other self interest involved in the choices we are being offered.

The fuel industry and the auto manufacturers have a very long history of manipulating the sutuation to their specific advantage at the distinct cost of the consumer and the environment.

The fuel companies and the auto manufacturers have been well known for buying up and surpressing emerging technologies that they consider may threaten their idea for the market.

If we where being offered a diesel V petrol choice that was made on an equal basis, not manipulated by one vested interest or another, things might be different.

Back in the 70's and early 80s when polution gear became mandatory in this country there was a great deal of difference between the methods used to achieve the specifications...some of those methods where just crude inefficent tack ons and of questionable benifit to the environment.
I am old enough to remember some of the debate on the various mandated measures we had in this country and questions about the validity of the engineering.
There was a lot of polotics and self interest involved in what emmission controlls where mandated.


The diesel engine is not being presented on an equal footing to petrol in so many ways.
we can only speculate on the various reasons for this.

But the fact remains, the factors to consider and the choices to be made are not as clear or the same as they where a decade or more ago.

20 years ago the small diesel engine was by far more reliable and cheaper to run and service than a similar petrol engine especially in a high milage application...but that is no longer an open and shut case.


The consumer in general is short term benifit focused and also obsessed with the fuel bill.
They all want to save money.
But very rarely will the consumer think enough to consider long term, whole cost.

As I have mentioned before, the deal breaker for me on Common rail diesel, is the huge cost of a fuel system rebuild.

One single case of a fuel system rebuild due to contaminated fuel that can not be pinned on the fuel company and the whole economics of a common rail diesel go out the window...and that is on a vehicle baught new.
AND contaminated fuel is not confined to remote locations.

In the case of a high milage used vehicle, a fuel system rebuild due to normal wear and tear can cost the major part or more than the value of an otherwise perfectly servicable used vehicle.

This whole senario comes in a different light in this country where we do not, as a matter of course dismantle perfeclty servicable 5 year old vehicles for scrap...like they do in japan and parts of europe.

cheers

My wife's car is petrol but needs the premium stuff. That's dearer than diesel. My last Subaru was a 3 litre Outback and it required premium unleaded as well. That's a double whammy, higher mpg and higher price. The Subaru was a nice car but I didn't feel like burning the extra $$ so sold it early as I was disappointed in the fuel economy. My view is that the extra $$ in fuel cost over 300-400K is a CERTAINTY with a petrol engine. The extra cost of repairs on a deisel is not a certainty if nothing goes wrong. If I save $20,000 in fuel over 300K then the money is in my pocket. If it goes out in repairs I am even. My cars are worth nothing when I finish with them anyway. Having driven mainly LPG vehicles for 30 years I must say I really like how my diesels drive. I quit LPG because the price was getting too high in comparison.

PS I'm really glad I didn't accidently put petrol in my LPG tank over all those years. What a rubbish argument in the article.

Thank you for your opinions

one thing I have learned in my time on the earth is when it comes to new papers when it come to telling a good story is the truth should never get in the way of a good story .

He forgets to talk about low down torque and suitability to towing. Try selling a petrol 200 series cruiser over a diesel or check out the re-sale prices, they are virtually giving away Petrol versions. Love to know what the fuel consumption is on the new Patrol towing a 2 tonne caravan.?