Petrol Vs Diesel

You do have to be that technical unfortunately.

You have to factor in the extra interest you are paying on the extra money spent on diesel. You have to factor in the depreciation and resale cost. You have to consider how many years you expect to take to do the 100,000 km's. You have to consider if you can claim any and how much against your tax.

I've done the numbers for MY circumstances and worked out that a petrol was cheaper for me based on 100,000 over 4 years, but not by a lot. I personally prefer petrol vehicles so it was an easy decision for me.

If you would like to send me the details of the cars you are comparing, km's, years, your tax scale if applicable, finance arrangements etc, I'll happily work it out for you.

Cheers,

Jim.

GIDAY Buggerlux
I thought about doin that exercise, but I put it in the to hard basket,somebody here will come up with an answer..I would really like to know WHY the diff. has swung around? I think the pollys have FINALLY realised there arebleeploads of diesel veh.now, although the tax on fuel is still38cents [Ithink] 'mayby' the servo's are the problem!! I'm sure somebody here will have an answer to this too, I'll just watch..
cya

I am prepared for a ass kicking over this comment

It’s PETROL

If you don’t do a lot o towing petrol
Over 100,000k’s a petrol will have no expensive outlay’s and even up to 200,000 I wouldn’t be expecting a major mechanical problem after that depends on how the engine has been treated.

Going long term and if you do a lot of towing a diesel, what do they say at 100,000 a diesel is just run in

If I were buying petrol with 160,000 on the clock I would think twice about it
If I were buying a diesel with 160,000 on it wouldn’t think much about it

There is no right answer each engine has it’s advantage over the other, it is up to the purchaser to decide which will suet His/Her need’s the best.

Although with the price of diesel at the moment I would think hard before buying one, as is the extra purchasing, pump and repair/ servicing cost worth it. Diesel will always have a place in Heavy machinery, Truck’s and boat’s but.

Not all diesels cost a lot more than the petrol version. Not all diesels need servicing every 5000km (which one does? - the LR has a 20,000km service interval). While fuel costs about 20% more (at the moment), the vehicle travels at least 20% further on the same volume of fuel. Without getting too mathematical my gut feeling is that I'm doing OK in a vehicle that gets a service every 20,000 km, gets about 10L/100km even though the fuel costs 20c a litre more.

I bought a 4wd for getting out and enjoying what Australia has to offer and get off the black top to see a lot more.

The last thing I was thinking about was fuel & maintenance costs - everything has a price and it is way cheaper than getting to the pearly gates and wishing I had done it then.

Own a GU diesel trayback, have had it for 5 years, towed a float all over the country side and crossed the Nullabor 3 times to Vic. Always had diesels but the missus wanted some more comfort. I went looking on the limited budget I had & found a 97 GQ 4.2 EFI. Just travelling on the highways it actually uses less fuel than the diesel does, at a higher speed & you don't feel like you're "flogging" it down the road. I still prefer the diesel for towing, even though it's a bit of a slug. Then again, even though the GQ uses less fuel, you try to "do the right thing" & put premium fuel in it, which is close to the same cost as diesel is here. The petrol engine is just a lot more "drive-able". The jury's still out....

I've owned both in Tojos, Nissans, Suzuki's (petrol only).

Whilst I've pretty much only worked on diesels and the technology of something like the TD42 is basic, I think that owning a petrol these days is cheaper. I've looked into this long and hard over the last couple of months, and I just can't justify purchasing a diesel short term.

Your right, the extra 20c a litre, the shorter servicing (my GU was every 5k), the extra you need to do to make the sucker perform. Once you do that, then your economy drops. I had a drive of a EFI GQ the other day and boy I was excited, I was giggling like a little school girl. More power than the GU TD42 with 3g's worth of work.

BUT if I intended to travel over the next 2 years, I would only go a diesel and preferably the Nissan 4.2 TD. Old technology, slug to drive but whack on a snorkel and some good tyres and suspension and your halfway there. No worries about river crossings etc, using tarps to keep water away from the electrics.

Really, it comes down to what you like. Realistically, you have to be happy with the vehicle. In my case, I've nearly always had a diesel and know what to look for, what to keep an eye out for when tripping about etc and will in a couple of years get another GU TD6.

Cheers,

Chris.

Really depends on your circumstances. A lot of guys on this site do a lot of hard-core outback 4x4, towing campers whereas some of us don't do as much. My main passion is sea kayaking and we go up and down the coast, mainly. Sometimes towing a caravan, sometimes tenting it. I've recently had lpg put on my 6 cyl 100 series Cruiser and am really getting the benefits. Always available and paying less than a third of diesel and more or less a third of petrol. (for now, anyway) Off to the Whitsundays with van and 3 kayaks on the roof soon and it'll be interesting how the lpg goes for economy. But for regular running around, I'm getting 450 ks to a full 90 L tank whereas I get 500 ks on petrol (I have 90L capacity for either=180L). But I filled up from empty on lpg the other day for less than $32 with my Coles discount. I've been advised that I'll probably need to switch to petrol towing over the ranges for more grunt, but that's ok because it's advisable to give the petrol an occasional run anyway. There's sometimes little in it. For some diesel is clearly the best option. For me, I'm getting better value than the wife's family runabout.

The petrols do not hold their value as well as the diesels, or at least that is my observation. I don't know what difference that would make to the equation.

It is a pity that makers do not include centrifugal filtration for diesels. LR has it (?).

G'day Gents,

Last Christmass I did the sums for 4 years for both diesel and petrol on the navara, patrol, hulix and crusier. I found that in all cases the pertol was cheaper to run for that period excluding fuel costs. Fuel in my case is one of the cheaper parts of motoring.

I found the biggest saving (apart from vehicle purchase) was the actual servicing. I found it was cheaper to service a petrol than a diesel, and then I only had to do it 10k instead of 5k. And, if something with the motor did stuff up, it was generally cheaper too.

I had never driven a petrol 4WD before and was a bit unsure of what to do at the start, so I chattered to some friends that had never driven a diesel before (and took thier petrol patrol for a spine, gooood fun!!!!).
I ended up choosing the petrol hulix and are more than happy with it. So far it's gone all the places the big diesel go and so much easier. I've found fuel consuption pritty good at about 12L/per 100km on the h'way and drinks a bite more in low range (the fuel consuption is pritty much the same as a mate's diesel one). It has ample power and torque for easy climbs and descents and great throttle response (which only a petrol delivers). I've had no trouble so far getting fuel anywhere (and hope it stays that way).

In my case petrol is cheaper. I do like the extra power petrol offers(although looking at ways to get more power).

Have a good week fella's and enjoy what it is out there.

Jason

chek out the latest overlander mag i think that will answer most of your questions