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Diesel v petrol

4K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  Snowdaddy 
#1 ·
Hi,
New to the forum I'm in the market for an arona but I'm not sure whether to go diesal or petrol, I do about 15k miles per year and on a budget I've been initially looking at the technology petrol 95bhp manual but wondering whether to go for a technology lux diesel manual 115bhp which some dealers are trying to get rid of for similar money. I dont know what's going to happen with diesal cars in the near future as they seem to get bad press now that government have changed their tune on them. Any thoughts appreciated. I found a march 19 car diesal technology lux 2k miles for £13200 looks a decent price for the spec. Thanks
 
#2 ·
For reasons that have never been totally clear the technology Lux has only ever been available with a diesel. There are all sorts of stories that it was a rep special for fleets, but fleet buyers tend to go for bigger cars.

It wasn't in the original UK range only being added later when there were problems producing sufficient petrol engines in spring 2018. (Seat got their projections of split of specs all wrong, expecting to build mainly low spec diesel manuals, but discovering UK customers kept choosing high spec petrol autos, which they didn't have capacity to build fast enough)

At 15000 miles per year, not going to be a lot of difference in fuel cost. Diesel costs more per litre, but goes further. However the real life difference isn't that huge (the official figures exclude DPF regeneration and are based on a high ambient temperature of 20+c. ) The diesel takes longer to warm through and actually uses more fuel on short local winter journeys, or when regenerating DPF.

It is a euro6 diesel so most city centre low emissions zones are ok, but some (eg Bristol) are proposing complete diesel ban at times. All I can suggest is research low emission zones and what is proposed in cities that are nearest to where you live. If it has (or likely to have in future) a diesel ban, probably eliminates diesel choice for you.

For which is better to drive is harder to determine, both the petrol and diesel come in 2 power outputs (95 and 115ps) so make sure you are comparing like with like. In higher power form both are great engines, and the lower power should be sufficient. However if you usually carry lots of passengers, carry heavy loads, or live in very hilly area then the extra power will be useful.

The other thing to consider is your journey type, for lots of short local journeys (and less frequent longer journeys), petrol is best choice. For longer journeys (or where majority of your journeys are over about 25 minutes) consider the diesel.
 
#3 ·
When I was ordering my Arona, my main criteria were Petrol, Heated seats, Auto, Cruise, spare wheel and top of the range radio/audio.
I was told that I would either have to go for the Xcellence Lux (too expensive) or have diesel. This, I was told, was because VW/Seat had very heavy diesel engine commitments which had to be worked through the system first so all the goodies were offered on diesels.
In the end a cancelled order for a pre-registered Motability petrol Xcellence Lux meant that I got it at basic model price.
 
#4 ·
Thanks guys,
My commute is around 40 minutes or so into London far enough for a diesel, the reason for even looking at the diesel was the extra spec and 115 bhp for the same money as the petrol 95bhp really but having second thoughts due to the thought of not being able to go into some cities that will have a diesel ban or charge and residuals. I guess i will have a rethink.
 
#5 · (Edited)
As I observed considering your commute and the potential city restrictions, I would lean towards the petrol option. It might be more practical for your situation, and you won't have to worry about diesel related bans or charges. Plus, there petrol model you're looking at seems like a good deal. Residuals could be better too. Best wishes.
 
#6 ·
Petrol is the way to go. Since the governments told us to buy diesels back when they knew better and told us they were less polluting, of course we know better now. Diesel as a fuel will increase faster than petrol in price as their various "dirty taxes" take more of a hold.
Here in Ireland diesel has become more expensive than petrol for the first time ever and it will get worse as they increase the carbon tax year on year. Of course they want us to buy electric, but that's another story for another day.
My last car, a 1.5 Diesel Focus was fabulous on fuel, but I knew eventually it would become worthless as people here are already looking down their noses at diesels. The big thing here now is small turbo petrol engines of around 1 litre which, with the high efficiency now attached to smaller engines are now the same power as I got with my 2 litre injection Sierra way back when.
Diesels are not good around town and on the shorter journey. Too many short journeys will block the DPF and done too much it could block beyond rescue.
That said, my 1.0 TSi is thirstier than my Focus 1.5 diesel that could manage 85mpg on a long run, but the Arona is a taller car and probably less aerodynamic, but it does better my old 1.9 150 CDTi Zafira for consumption which I am quite pleased about. My last long journey was into town and back (5km each way) where I got 6.1l/100m (almost 39mpg) and prior to that it was a 150km km journey from the airport to home and I got 5.5l/100km (almost 43mpg) but I wasn't sparing the horses on the way home averaging 120km/h (75mph) which I thought was pretty good.
 
#7 ·
Since the thread was started, diesel Arona has been discontinued

Latest UK sales data (Dec) has just 3.5% of sales as diesel, for whole year only 71,501 sales out of 1.9m

 
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