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It was interesting when I was in Preston SEAT last week. I was speaking to a salesman and said I was doing 15k miles a year so might be better with diesel, and he said probably not. But I overheard a guy with another salesman, he said he was doing 12k miles a year and that salesman suggested that he should get a diesel! So everyone's opinion is different.
I guess you have to look at the figures properly as Diesel engines cost more and the fuel costs more too, and it's only offset by the mpg gain, of which if you're doing town driving, won't be that much.
Yeah your money invested in fuel may be less, so at the pumps you feel better because you're going less/ spending less. However, you will have spent a fair few grand more buying a Diesel engine over a petrol engine! Normally around £3k more isn't it (at a guess)?


I've just costed up the £2000 difference between the 1.4 140 and the 2.0 150 against my current 2.0 143 Ibiza face-lift.
To cover the £2000 difference, based on brochure MPG and average price of petrol at 135.94p I'd have to do over 700 of my 260 mile round trips to warrant buying the 2.0 150 vs. my current Ibiza's 2 litre lump. 182,000 miles before I make back the £2000?!
Has seriously made me think.
I should mention this doesn't take into account that diesel is more expensive fuel to begin with. It's purely a calculation of how much extra money the 1.4 would cost me to fuel for a 260 mile trip based on brochure MPG and 135.94p per litre.
The Ibiza is barely 5 months old and I've only ever driven diesels, but the Leon is calling!
Getting a 1.4 Leon would mean there's barely much difference in OTR/ROTR between it and my Ibiza (I have A LOT of optional extras!).
Okay maybe I'm cheating a bit by pitting my current 2.0 143 against the Leon 1.4 140 instead of the 2.0 150 which is even more efficient, but the car will have fallen to bits by the time it breaks even
Wonder how much the dealer will give for my Ibiza![]()
£2000 is only about 300 gallons so you must be doing about 600 mpg !!! Lol Suggest you get a new calculator!
Also, you will get some of the 2k back when you come to sell.
Edit: Or do you mean 700 existing trips? Also generally diesels last longer although the turbos have negated that a little.
While you've not had the Ibiza for long how about waiting for the 184bhp Leon?
It depends how far you want to take it, do you want to factor in depreciation, servicing etc ... I've owned 3 diesels the best averaging 44mpg the worst 37mpg, the cupra is around 27mpg, ok factor in tax and diesels tend to be cheaper but the tax on a 1.8 tsi s around £175, what's the fr £150 ? I'd live to spend less on fuel and I could go and buy a 1.6 tdi which would bore me but I would have to spend £7000 and that would take a long time to recover. Diesels are only going to get more expensive too which is why manufacturers are pushing smaller turbo petrol lumps.
On the new Leon, given the choice between a 150fr tdi and the 140 tsi I'd go petrol, they are closer to the mpg figures than the tdi will be. I did have a passat on hire and did manage to get 69.9 mpg out of it butthatwas over 300 miles. I have a new golf coming injustice under two weeks for a demo so I'll see what that gets