The Great Diesel Myth: Why Petrol Cars Save You More Cash Than Diesels!

One of the biggest selling points of cars with diesel engines in them is that they offer superior fuel economy in comparison to cars with petrol engines. Both diesel and petrol are derived and refined from the same source – oil – yet because of the way a diesel engine works, it uses less fuel.

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Unlike petrol engines, diesels are high-compression engines; this means that it is possible to extract a decent amount of power out of them without burning much fuel.

Many modern diesel engines have turbochargers bolted onto them, to forcibly increase the amount of air entering the combustion chamber which in turn boosts the power output of the engine.

But despite the supposed savings diesel cars are meant to have over their petrol car brothers and sisters, diesel cars can often work out to be more expensive to buy and keep on the road! Here are some reasons why it actually makes sense to buy a petrol car rather than a diesel one:

1. Diesel fuel is more expensive than petrol

There was a time in the United Kingdom where diesel fuel was significantly cheaper to purchase than petrol. Yet if you go to a filling station today, you will notice that diesel is actually more expensive to buy than petrol!

Now you might be thinking that diesel costs significantly less for fuel companies to produce than petrol, and whilst the refining process uses less oil for diesel engines, European standards for ultra-low sulphur diesel have meant that the refining process is now much more complex than it used to be.

2. Diesel cars are more expensive to buy than petrol cars

Anyone that has ever bought a car will have noticed that, during their searches through classifieds websites and wandering around various car dealerships, car models with diesel engines are significantly higher in price than petrol versions.

This is true whether you look to buy a new or used car, and can typically be attributed to the manufacturing costs for cars with diesel engines in them being passed along to consumers.

3. It takes longer to recoup upfront costs with a diesel car

An article written by the Daily Mail back in 2014 pointed out that tests performed by What Car? revealed it could take motorists up to 14 years to recoup the upfront costs associated with a diesel car in comparison to cars with petrol engines.

4. Petrol engine technology has been proven to save motorists cash

This might sound like a headline from a fuel company, but you only have to check out the latest choice of cars offered by Ford, for example, to see how petrol engines can be just as efficient, if not more efficient, than a diesel engine!

Ford’s EcoBoost range of engines are essentially turbocharged petrol engines which are designed to offer the most amount of power whilst using the least amount of fuel. The 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine used in the Ford Focus uses 20% less fuel than an older, naturally-aspirated 1.6-litre petrol engine from previous generations.


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