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Originally Posted by Paul mabbott  PS: and diesel is currently the most energy-efficient, easily available fuel. |
Doesn't it depend to a large degree on what kind of driving you do?
Having had my car (2.0 litre petrol Nissan Primera) written off recently, I'm currently in a hired Vauxhall Vectra 1.9 litre diesel. On a recent 250 mile round trip, on motorways and sticking to about 60-65 mph as much as possible, the Vectra's on-board trip computer told me I'd achieved 43.4 mpg. In the Primera on similar trips I regularly used to get between 40 and 45 mpg (also according to the on-board trip computer - I've heard that these are not always completely reliable.)
I do seem to be getting a bit better fuel consumption on short, local journeys with the diesel than I was with the petrol but only by about 20% at most.
I confess I know nothing about such things but have always been told that petrol burns cleaner than diesel (as in less particulates) so doesn't that make the petrol vehicle cleaner too?
So it seems to me that if you mainly do long-distance motorway driving then petrol is best, but if you rarely get more than 10 miles from your front door then diesel is best.
Happy to be shot down on this by the more knowledgeable types!
Dave P.