MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Anyone considering petrol for their next car when they would have previously defaulted to diesel.
Mrs J does few enough miles for it not to matter too much. I currently do about 28k per year, and a move to petrol is going to increase costs, but I reckon it'll be worth it for the cleaner emissions.
Anyone else?
Switching to petrol is going to involve burning more fuel overall and more CO2. You're changing emissions, not reducing them.
Are you worried about local air quality, or the bigger picture. It's not as simple as you think it is.
At 28k miles a year the best way to reduce your emissions would be to drive less. That may not be possible obviously.
I had a big diesel when I had a long motorway commute. I've just changed to a small turbo petrol engine because I now do more urban driving.
Whether petrol or diesel t'll all get burnt by somebody somewhere. Europe has a surplus of petrol from refineries that gets shipped elsewhere (burning fuel oil) unless we burn it so the CO2 difference argument is moot. I'd rather not poison my local community more than necessary with super fine particles and NOX so drive petrol.
Consider the difference in servicing costs, price of vehicle and real world economy in your equation. Diesel engines used to last longer before major bills but I'm not so sure that is still the case. petrol engines have improved whilst diesels are more highly stressed and with more expensive, complicated parts to go wrong than ever.
I think Edukator has hit the nail on the head for me.
I am a little different in that of all the 10+ of cars i've owned only 1 was diesel. At your milage the cost will be significant, I would stick with diesel, from what I understand its the smaller diesels (1.6-2) which had the defeat devices and they should be sorted now