[dadu]

With the Diesel technology evolving to a new heights and getting refined, its a common dilemma for most buyers on which fuel vehicle to choose.

While most point to the daily/monthly running as a deciding factor others direct you towards calculating maintenance cost and NVL's.

For me, Diesel being a more greener fuel and less costlier tilts the scale in its directions, whereas petrol being more peppier and less NVL, tries to tilt it towards it. But still the scale is heavier towards the Diesel.

For you it might be different, so whats your choice and why ??

This is with an assumption on vehicles costing below 10L. (thats what most of us might be able to afford)

[radek]

How Diesel is more Greener fuel than Petrol? I thought Diesel vehicles are more polluting than petrol vehicle. Also, read interesting article (non techno) on CSE website
Centre for Science and environment (CSE) Press Releases on Cement Rating

[swathyd]

It depends on your usage and requirements. If you use less than 750 kms/ month you can go for petrol. But if you are somebody who covers over 1000 then you should go for diesel. And crdi technology offers exceptional perfomance combined with mileage. It is also advisable to go diesel if you want to ensure safe overtaking in our highways as low and mid end torque is very good with crdi engines.

There are lot of crdi cars to be choosen from. How much luggage carries and how long you travel at a stretch plays a big role. If you ve lot of luggage you must have a boot and if you travel like latter you need a comfortable car. The range starts from swift diesel and ends at fiesta tdci/verna.

But the best value for money option is Logan though it has got a little outdated design. It has an engine with proven track record. Excellent suspension for comfortale and well planted drives. Good mileage with nice performance. Another is tata indigo crdi , you can buy it if ready to accept its poor handling characteristics, and its uproven crdi technology.

[tsk1979]

Nope, modern diesels are less polluting than petrols. Thats why the world, esp Europe is going gung ho on diesel, inspite of the fact that diesel costs same or more there.
Regarding the choise of petrol or diesel, the time has come when from a technology standpoint and usability standpoint, both diesel and petrol cars are good in their own right.
Where petrol offers good top end, diesel gives good midrange and low end grunt. Petrol may be silent, but diesel is more fuel efficient.
So in the end it all depends on this.
If your petrol car EMI is 1000rs less than your diesel car EMI, all you need to do is have a running of 500kms a month to justify a diesel.
From engine life etc., standpoint, modern diesels last long, and are quite maintenance free

[Jaggu]

my criteria was FE, Power and a less costly fuel and damn all the minimal km theory

[dadu]

Originally Posted by radek

How Diesel is more Greener fuel than Petrol? I thought Diesel vehicles are more polluting than petrol vehicle. Also, read interesting article (non techno) on CSE website
Centre for Science and environment (CSE) Press Releases on Cement Rating

Some excerpts from the Wiki

Power and fuel economy
Diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline (petrol) engines of the same power, resulting in lower fuel consumption. A common margin is 40% more miles per gallon for an efficient turbodiesel. For example, the current model Škoda Octavia, using Volkswagen Group engines, has a combined Euro rating of 38 miles per US gallon (6.2 L/100 km) for the 102 bhp (76 kW) petrol engine and 54 mpg (4.4 L/100 km) for the 105 bhp (75 kilowatts) diesel engine.

Originally Posted by swathyd

It depends on your usage and requirements. If you use less than 750 kms/ month you can go for petrol.

I dont buy this argument, probably they were true for the older engines. Nowadays, most of the Europe runs on Diesel even if its only city driving and less kms.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

From engine life etc., standpoint, modern diesels last long, and are quite maintenance free

+ not to forget a more efficient burn and environment friendly.(nowadays, lots of cry over pollution and global warming)

[abhilashvk]

Like tsk mentioned Diesel is greener than Petrol.There are 5 components that pollute air, out of which the least important is Suspended particles (the black soot). Diesel is worse than Petrol engine on this. The rest four are more dangerous to life and petrol engine pollute more with this four. The worst pollutant is Carbon Monoxide and a diesel engine emits zero level. Hence a diesel engine is more environmentally friendly.
With the power and torque that CRDi, PD and TDCi engines deliver it does not make sense to compare the mileage per month and arrive at a decision. The best example is Verna VGT.

[mclaren1885]

With the advent of newer tech savvy diesels like the Crdi, crde, tdci, ddis and what not they sure are matching the petrols in terms of power. Though they lack those high revvs, its an added bonus that one gets to feel the kick of a Turbo, the insane amounts of torque. Its only yet another added bonus that they return quite commendable FE at the same time diesel costs cheaper in this side of the world. Diesel are surely the way to go, atleast in the near future. And they are quite trouble free too. Long term reports of owners of accent's, elantra's and swift's to a certain extent dont seem to be complaining at all after quite a bit of abuse.

[GTO]

I picked the C220 over the C180 because:

1. More reliable
2. Faster
3. Better driveability
4. Somehow Merc diesels have an inherent charm

The Indigo diesel because I dont like Tata's petrol engines. Plus the Indigo is for heavy running (mostly picking up and dropping) so the FE diesel makes it extremely cheap to run.

[kkr2k2]

Why did we buy an indica deisel:

1. affordable big hatch(i am 6' 2'', eleminated zen DI for that matter) with low cost per km.

no other reason.

did close to 60k in 4 years that means we saved atleast 60,000/- in any worst case. (the car was given by a company in which we had a share, only thing we paid was lifetax and ins.) we plan to keep this car for another 30k for another 2 years so we would have saved close to 1,00,000/-. (psst.... if any body can do a better math, please help me here.)

[kpzen]

I just love the modern diesels esp the CRDI's for its neck breaking torque....
But I'm yet to buy a diesel.

[anonymous]

I own Tata Indica V2 and I have completed 68000 in 3 years, that too I use company transport to goto office. I guess this point proves that I made a good choice by picking up the diesel vechicle.

[deep_bang]

Cost was the major factor. When I bought the Indica Turbo diesel (not exactly a very refined engine) i was a little skeptical of the car. But after 6 months, it has been a great VFM option - everytime i refuel, i feel good about it. And the turbo makes it quite good - not as peppy as the petrols.

[MaserQ]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Where petrol offers good top end, diesel gives good midrange and low end grunt. Petrol may be silent, but diesel is more fuel efficient.

This situation is ideal for a place like India as low/midrange grunt results in better driveability in our conditions. They are now less noisy, more fuel efficient, offer more torque and with the introduction of VGT, almost close to eliminating turbo lag.

These diesels will also be cheaper once they are manufactured in India and hopefully this will help bring down the price difference between petrol-diesel variants.

If the state owned petroleum companies can provide better quality diesel, we'd see beauties like the Honda 2.2 diesel on our roads.

The future of diesel is not-so-dirty any more. In europe where price of diesel is on par and in some cases, slightly more expensive than petrol, the diesel : petrol sales ratio is almost... yes, you guessed it 50:50.

[hell_rider]

in my case :
1. projected high running
2. cheaper than petrol per litre
3. gives more mileage per litre as compared to petrol
4. point 2 & 3 in my opnion, pretty much offsets the higher initial cost.
5. even if not, i prefer paying more once up front, than getting pissed off each time I top up. Now I'm happy each time i top up.