[Maverick1977]

I have driven 5 different petrol cars owned by my family, over a period of 16 years. They were fun, smooth & maintenance costs were never high.
However when I decided to buy my 1st car, I went out and test drove both petrol & diesel cars & boy was I simply floored by the turbo kick. It was simply impossible to ignore the modern CRDi engines capabilities. Simply put, I just could not resist buying a diesel car after that.
I still love the turbo kick everytime...

PS: My wife hates the diesel...

[san2]

with the advance in diesel engine technology they are more than a match for petrol engines I would prefer a diesel one

[hummer]

I was contemplating to go for Diesel till I read this news. If the price difference is not significant, I prefer Petrol 'coz of below reasons:

1. Engine smoothness and no noise
2. Invariably Diesel cabins gets hotter after few kms drive (in most cars)
3. Diesel engines add to weight of the car
4. Petrol cars can be kept undriven for months and start in one go
5. Costly spares of Diesel cars
6. High resale value for petrol cars
7. etc etc etc

[Turbocharged-KC]

Friends de-regularisation of diesel will not bring prices to what we think. First and foremost the distillation process for extraction of diesel is far cheaper than petrol. From what i have heard even after de-reg of diesel we can expect a price hike of another couple of rupees maximum.
Consider a situation where diesel shoots up to between 45 and 50.... That will have a cumulative effect on everything. In our country where there are protests and strikes for the smallest of things, we dont need to imagine much regarding the commercial transport response to the hike. This in turn will bring up the price of other commodities in an already inflated scenario. I'm not saying that prices of diesel and petrol wont match, but they wont be happening in near future. The shock value of such an abrupt hike will be too much. Oil majors would have to bear the losses for some more time, reducing them gradually.
Also with the govenment de-regularising fuel, private players like Reliance and Essar would enter the market. Now with reliance having the largest refinery, there is no doubt on the kind of price monopoly Mr Ambani can create. Competition will force everybody to come down to realistic values (hopefully)
According to me, if you are thinking of buying a diesel vehicle but in doubts... dont worry.. go for it.. there is still time for the prices to match.
Cheers..!!

[msaudf]

Originally Posted by hummer

I was contemplating to go for Diesel till I read this news. If the price difference is not significant, I prefer Petrol 'coz of below reasons:

1. Engine smoothness and no noise
2. Invariably Diesel cabins gets hotter after few kms drive (in most cars)
3. Diesel engines add to weight of the car
4. Petrol cars can be kept undriven for months and start in one go
5. Costly spares of Diesel cars
6. High resale value for petrol cars
7. etc etc etc

woah woah...not so fast brother...
ok lemme go point by point here

1. engine smoothness and noise... ok i agree petrols are slightly smoother
2. cabins getting hot?? yeah maybe in the 70's
3. weight issues... the hindustan ambassador's petrol engine was only 20kilos heavier than its diesel sibling. so its like driving with an extra kid, thats all.
4.starting after a long period... all that matters is the battery. i started my 1964 diesel mercedes after 3 years with a new battery in a single crank.
5.cost of spares.. ok ok maybe you have one point.
6.RESALE?? please check your local classifieds. its a hobby for most of us. but anyway lemme furnish you with some examples.
2000 maruti zen petrol driven in mumbai with about 50k clicks sells for about... 90,000/- ok
now 2000 maruti zen diesel same city same odo 1,25,000/-
(pricing by carwale.com) i just needed reference.
so bro this is where I stand DIESEL POWER!!!

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by san2

with the advance in diesel engine technology they are more than a match for petrol engines I would prefer a diesel one

You mean to say diesel engine is doing its masters and petrol engine is still in kindergarten?
if it is so, then a petrol engine sure needs a raapta in its back

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by Sheel

You mean to say diesel engine is doing its masters and petrol engine is still in kindergarten?
if it is so, then a petrol engine sure needs a raapta in its back

I believe a turbo charged petrol can smoke a turbo diesel in vital timings and differ not so much in FE figures, atleast on the highway.

Fun and FE and refinement, and a sweet exhaust sound too..

[tj123]

I feel that question should not have come at the first place if we had a decontrolled fuel pricing. Majority of the people buy diesel as it makes more economic sense in the long run.

Got an article reflecting views of car manufactures ..read on

"Officials from top car companies said the 'attractive' price differential between petrol and diesel was the key reason behind the rising preference for diesel vehicles. "Lowering of the pricing gap could blunt this advantage, pushing the deal favourably towards petrol-driven cars that are also around 10-15% cheaper than diesel variants."


Read full article on Demand fro Diesel car may slow down - News - Zigwheels

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Turbo-charged petrol vs Turbo charged diesel?
game?

Yes, the comparison should be apple to apple.

Originally Posted by Sheel

I know turbo charged petrols aren't available

Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI?

[Ricky_63]

Originally Posted by hummer

I was contemplating to go for Diesel till I read this news. If the price difference is not significant, I prefer Petrol 'coz of below reasons:

1. Engine smoothness and no noise
2. Invariably Diesel cabins gets hotter after few kms drive (in most cars)
3. Diesel engines add to weight of the car
4. Petrol cars can be kept undriven for months and start in one go
5. Costly spares of Diesel cars
6. High resale value for petrol cars
7. etc etc etc

1. Correct
2. Cabins of cars that get hot ?? Incorrect. I can't really think of an example other than (maybe) the pre-V2 Indica or an obselete Jeep may be the only ones
3. Correct - but still give better mileage than their petrol sibling/s
4. So would diesels, if you got a good battery-I don't think this is too relevant
5. Correct.
6. INCORRECT - diesels almost always get a better resale.


Cheers

[csateesh]

I guess the addiction to torque is something you just cannot do away with :-)

I drive an Accent CRDi and the way the torque drives me on slopes is just addictive. Recently I drove to Kodaikanal and the drive was mostly in 3rd gear with A/c and no lugging

My friend in his Petrol 1.6 apparently felt I drove very rash and couldn't keep up

So Diesel it is

Sateesh

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by sbraj

Yes, the comparison should be apple to apple.

Maybe they want to compare cars which are similar price wise.
^still diesel is dearer by almost a lakh
any turbocharged petrol car in similar price bracket/engine capacity will run rings around a turbo-charged diesel,

Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI?

The only bad thing about this car is err, its a Skoda,
sorry couldn't resist.

[sam_sant2005]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

I believe a turbo charged petrol can smoke a turbo diesel in vital timings and differ not so much in FE figures, atleast on the highway.

You said 'at least' on the highway? You dont want fuel efficiency in the city where we drive large % of our yearly kms?

A very serious point I have to make is that these petrol engines (though some ARAI figures suggests up to 17-18kmpl), give very less mileage in city conditions. I Mean too too low figures. Those who fight against diesel never think of this point.

Admit that a Swift diesel wont fetch u 20kmpl (as in highway) in city. But normal driving she does give atleast a 16-17 kmpl even in city. And what about petrol? Last week I drove a relatives M800 in city and what it fetched me was 14.5kmpl. And dude that was supposed to be India's second most fuel efficient petrol engine after Alto probably.

These are my observations for Swift Diesel :-
Highway - Upto 23kmpl if driven normally. Otherwise around 20kmpl.
City - Upto 18kmpl if driven without too much Turbo 'play', otherwise 16kmpl.

And for K Series Swift :-
Highway - Decent driving fetches 17kmpl, Otherwise 14-15.
City - Very very decent driving 13kmpl, otherwise much much lower.

And dont forget the fact that the 'A/c' effect is far too much for a petrol engine and not too much for a CRDi. The very reason why most Diesel cars have their windows up

Performance, Yes, T-Petrol can surely smoke a CRDi but 'pocket' shouldn't feel heavy. Petrol price is already approaching Rs.60 in Blore.

[m_upreti]

With my kind of driving (500 Kms / month) I would probably go for a Petrol as my next vehicle, shelling out over a lac extra for a Diesel Car with no difference in price of fuel (if that happens in the near future) is like .

[MCR]

I would still buy a diesel car, because;
1. Environment friendly.
2. Higher torque for the same engine size.
3. More miles per litre.