Evening all,

I'm currently looking for a Dodge Caliber as I fancy a change. My friend had one in diesel and said it returned great MPG plus tax was £180 per year instead of £280 on the petrol models. My friend did lots of motorway mileage so opted for the diesel model.

Ideally I would prefer a diesel model due to lower tax and better MPG but I do very little motorway mileage (done about 50 miles last year lol). A friend told me that diesel models need to be maintained differently to petrol, e.g. need long runs and so on.

Could someone share some light on how different running a diesel is compared to petrol please?

Many thanks!

Diesels block up if they arnt run right, the occasional flooring and good long runs. If it has a DPF filter it will block up quick and cost you loads to fix. Also with town driving and short stop start journeys you will have poor MPG as diesels are not designed for it

what matt said.

Thank you both for your replies.

So basically the diesel will be just as shit on fuel for around town and the petrol is a better option for just around town?

Cheers

No, basically its to do with the DPF to keep the emissions down, if you do a lot of town driving, the mpg in the diesel will still be higher, you just need to go for a 15-20 min motorway blast once a week or so to clear out the DPF (passive regeneration as its known in the trade), got one on my A5 but don't need to worry as I'm up and down the motorway each day

Hmmmmm

I would go for the diesel all day long. for what you're saving on fuel and tax you can afford to take it a weekly run down the motorway to give it a clean out.

Diesel is more expensive to buy. You get better MPG but doesn't mean your always saving money cause the cost of the fuel is more. Plus diesel models can be more expensive to buy.

I've found with most car models if you're comparing equivalent petrol and diesel models together the only way the diesel is better is if you are doing silly mileage in a year. I.e. 50k+ a year.

Most diesels are more expensive to buy in the first place. Say its the difference of £1k. Thats like 770 litres of petrol before you start. So like 5000 miles in a petrol car doing 30mpg. I think you can see where I'm going with this...

diesel is still cheaper to run around town and in general. I do about 12k miles a year and i save about £10-£15 a week compared to when i was running a petrol even though petrol is cheaper to buy, and when you do have to do the occasional long distance drive its good to see the mpg creep towards 60mpg!

also the torque is a good feeling

Edited 5 July, 201412 yr by Matt Mk3loon

Diesel everytime. The way diesel engines are these days there very little cons compared to a petrol. If your sole factor is price, cant go wrong with petrol. You wont get as much MPG compared to long distance. But its all swings and roundabouts, either way, better than a petrol.