Thread: Petrol v diesel economy

Back in the day, possibly incorrectly, I worked out that if the fuel mileage was the same then it took quite a few thousand ks before the diesel started to beat the petrol
Considering 2000-2010 model 4wds, (the models I am likely to afford one day), are they comparable or are the petrol models just to poor?
Some of their prices are good but there may be a good reason for that.
I do know my 3.2 by bighorn liked a drink but by the same token my current 2.8 lwb pajero is nudging 22mpg which isnt that great

My calculations are the same as yours. When you take into account the 'total cost of ownership', there are no savings in diesel, and a whole lot of potential costs if things go wrong (fuel pump + injectors).

With the modern common rail diesels, buy new and sell before the warrantee runs out.
If you want to buy second hand, buy petrol.
Wont be selling my 4.0 V6 Hilux any time soon.

diesel = more torque
apart from that its pretty much $ for $ nowadays

Their is only 20-30 cents odd difference between diesel and 91 around here,
then there is road tax and dearer registration so.....

Crate V8 in the Colorado, Yeah , yeah. yeah.

Originally Posted by jakewire

Their is only 20-30 cents odd difference between diesel and 91 around here,
then there is road tax and dearer registration so.....

Crate V8 in the Colorado, Yeah , yeah. yeah.

That'll change quite soon when our Comrade leader takes the tax reduction back on petrol, gonna be some knashing of the teeth when that happens!

Seen some of the V6 4 litre (VE) I think nissan pathfinders.
That's meant to be a good engine too.

I have been researching into changing to a 4dr wrangler, with the v6 petrol..
but...
again
Wherever you look there is good and bad, also they don't seem to be very prevalent on here and you would think if they are a good machine a number of blokes would have them.
Would only be looking at 40-50thou so 2014 to 20??
They are rather expensive.

Probably because diesel is so entrenched in our 4wd history and logic. Plus I can albut gaurantee that some of the patrols are way worse than they should be scaring them off.
Also suggest if the road tax was on the bowser, not on a separate ticket people might get it.
In aussie I think diesel is either real close to petrol or dearer.
Unless you really need it for water crossings etc, petrol isnt so bad

Tried to find a new petrol ute lately? Good luck. LPG, even after conversion cost is looking really attractive.

In theory you can run a diesel off cooking oil, people were loading up their shit boxes in the car park when cooking oil was cheap so the supermarkets clamped down and raised the price to boot... cunts!

Originally Posted by caberslash

In theory you can run a diesel off cooking oil, people were loading up their shit boxes in the car park when cooking oil was cheap so the supermarkets clamped down and raised the price to boot... cunts!

I have a fried who runs his older Nissan Navara on a blend of 20% diesel and 80% auto transmission fluid. He has an agreement with an auto box repair shop to take all their used oil. He gravity filters it first from one 200L drum to another through a filter bank, and then centrifuges it so that it is clean for the engine. A bit of work involved but it makes cheap fuel.

My brother was working for a lubrication company a few years ago, and they had an 'incident' where 2,000L of lubrication oil that was being batch blended for the coal mine at Huntly, was incorrectly blended with additives. Oil was toast. $10k worth of oil !! I managed to get if for nothing, including two brand new IBC's. Mate was a very happy chappy as it was a light grade oil and suitable for his Nissan.

Well just ordered the new ranger with the v6 td will be interesting if it used more the my currently colorado, old man looking at getting the new nissan suv with a v8 hopefully he dose then we will get a good comparison.

Originally Posted by csmiffy

Probably because diesel is so entrenched in our 4wd history and logic. Plus I can albut gaurantee that some of the patrols are way worse than they should be scaring them off.
Also suggest if the road tax was on the bowser, not on a separate ticket people might get it.
In aussie I think diesel is either real close to petrol or dearer.
Unless you really need it for water crossings etc, petrol isnt so bad

problem is how many different levels of road users there are wouldn't work for trucks and such which pay 20-40c a km depending on how many axels/ weight etc

One of the main considerations for petrol vs diesel is how much the load factor changes on the vehicle. Petrol can be very economical especially with the modern systems that shut off at the lights etc etc, but as the load factor goes up petrol consumption cost increases in a frightening manner. Towing is one of the ways that you can seriously increase the load factor on a vehicle, especially when towing things that have a LOT of wind resistance (boats, box trailers). As soon as you factor in towing and a wide range of load factors, diesel seriously wins on consumption and that's due in no small part to the fact that petrol fuel tax is paid per litre of fuel whereas diesel is per KM meaning it doesn't get much more expensive if your diesel consumption goes up a litre or two per KM.

Diesel servicing is in some cases more expensive - but surprisingly enough some of the lightwieght petrols are by no means cheap come service time (as an aside, some EV's are quite a bit more expensive on service costs than people think - one owned by a neighbour is about 20% worse on tyre useage than the equivalent petrol model for example). People put a lot of concern into common rail diesel engines with fuel pump and injector costs, but some petrol engine designs are just as bad for repair costs. Mate just had to replace 6 individual coil packs and plugs on his wife's trundler, plugs at $55 each and coils at $325 a piece. And then it was a couple of hours of ripping bits off the engine to get to the bits needing replacement, replace a gasket set and some consumables and two hours to rebuild the thing. Total cost around $3500 just to replace spark plugs and coils...

A side factor, some petrol engines are highly allergic to water (a splash into the engine compartment can stop them cold) but some diesel 4wd's are now no better in this regard with the placement of critical sensors and electronics.

Ever see a petrol do 800,000km+. If you are in for the long haul with a vehicle and don't change them like your undies then hard to go past a diesel. I owned my last one for 8 1/8 years and sold it for the same price I bought it for.