Petrol vs Deisel Focus?

[joshwa]

I'm looking for a Focus Estate 05 reg (new shape)...

There's plenty around for £4k or less, and there doesn't seem to be any real price difference between a diesel version or a petrol, the only main difference is that for the same price the diesel will have done more miles eg 120k diesel for £3.5k, or 90k petrol for £3.5k...

This is seriously cheap in my mind!

Anyway, would it make any difference which I went for? the diesels are 110bhp vs 115bhp petrol, mpg is better on the diesel (combined 58 vs 43), but petrol is cheaper, TAX is cheaper on the deisel (£120 vs £145), and insurance is slightly lower on the diesel (5 vs 6)...

The main pull towards a diesel is there seems to be much more choice.

We do around 9000 miles a year, maybe 50/50 town/motorway driving...

[b0redom]

Can you remap the diesels? My Passat was only 130bhp, but after a remap is closer to 170.... Makes one heck of a difference!

[Howard]

Diesels at 9000 miles a year aren't worth it.

Why are you selling the Passat though? (I noticed on your Facebook)? Seems a bit pointless?

[javalord]

You can indeed remap the diesels, but seriously at 9k miles a year, why even buy a diesel?

Plus you put yourself at risk of dual mass flywheel / common rail issues for the small savings your likely to make driving 9k a year. Not that these risks are huge, just that they're real ££££ to get sorted when they do show their heads.

Having said that the 1.6HDi unit thats in the Focus 05 onwards (i suspect thats the 110bhp your on about?) is a lovely smooth quiet engine indeed. Does remap, but you may run into DPF issues if you get the Euro4 model with the remap applied. If you must get the diesel, do yourself a favour and pick the Euro 3 model, at least you wont have that bastard DPF unit to contend with!

[Howard]

That, and you get to drive around in a nice rattly diesel that has a small powerband and makes the whole car vibrate at idle speeds. Great. And don't say new cars don't do that, because the brand new TDCI Mondeo I drove last week did it. Lovely car, I really liked it, minus the engine

[javalord]

That, and you get to drive around in a nice rattly diesel that has a small powerband and makes the whole car vibrate at idle speeds. Great. And don't say new cars don't do that, because the brand new TDCI Mondeo I drove last week did it. Lovely car, I really liked it, minus the engine

Thats the suprise with the 1.6 HDi. The power output is very smooth across the rev range indeed for a diesel, and I'm not the only one to say this. It does have that diesel rattle on the outside, but its certainly fine on the move. I drove this engine in a 6 month old C-Max and was really really impressed with it.

[Howard]

I can imagine the smaller engines are less laggy, yeah. This Mondeo had plenty of shove.. Briefly, from about 2k, then it was all gone by 4k. It was quite disconcerting at times

[javalord]

I can imagine the smaller engines are less laggy, yeah. This Mondeo had plenty of shove.. Briefly, from about 2k, then it was all gone by 4k. It was quite disconcerting at times

Its more to do with the map I suspect. I've had my xsara 110 hdi remapped to 150bhp a few months back. As you said with the Mondeo TDCI, it was all or nothing between 1800-3300rpm. New remap now makes the engine rev smoothly and eagerly all the way to 4.5k rpm! As a result I often drive a gear higher in most situations.

I suspect manufacturers do this on purpose on their default maps for environmental reasons, and partly as there's no point in thrashing a diesel to its rev limiter when it made 90%+ of its power by 3k+ in most situations.

[javalord]

Oh, forgot to add, if the Mondeo you were in had the 2.0TDCi (aka PSA 2.0HDi), they do come with a god awful standard map, and often a bit underpowered as a result.

One case I remember seeing was a HDI 2.0 in a 407. Standard map was barely generating 120bhp/300nm torque and that flatted out after 3.2k rpm. New map made it far better, pulling all the way to 4.5k rpm no problem.

[kalniel]

At 9k I'd say the petrol is a slightly better bet, but there's not a huge amount in it so just get whichever you find in better condition on the day.

[joshwa]

Diesels at 9000 miles a year aren't worth it.

Why are you selling the Passat though? (I noticed on your Facebook)? Seems a bit pointless?

I'm tempted by a petrol car, and as you say with the miles we do there's little point in diesel. Also I feel bad for the car when it's not given chance to warm up. I'd also like to switch down to the lower size car. I've been driving a petrol mini, and a friends petrol Punto, and they start up instantly, and you can set off without thinking about the warm up period.

[kalniel]

I've been driving a petrol mini, and a friends petrol Punto, and they start up instantly, and you can set off without thinking about the warm up period.

You shouldn't have to think about that with modern diesels anyway I think - my coil light has only come on once in 4 years and that was when the car was sat under several inches of snow overnight. They are less efficient cold, but they start instantly.

[schmunk]

I'm tempted by a petrol car, and as you say with the miles we do there's little point in diesel. Also I feel bad for the car when it's not given chance to warm up. I'd also like to switch down to the lower size car. I've been driving a petrol mini, and a friends petrol Punto, and they start up instantly, and you can set off without thinking about the warm up period.

TBH, with a car essentially identical to yours, I haven't seen the warming coil light come on for more than half a second in any of the (admittedly not many) times I've driven it. I have several times just turned it straight on (apparently) without incident.

[joshwa]

I know I can start it straight away, and set off straight away, but it feels a bit lathargic, like I've woken a sleeping student, and it's not until the engines warm that it feels more responsive. With petrols they seem to feel responsive the minute you get in them.

[joshwa]

At 9k I'd say the petrol is a slightly better bet, but there's not a huge amount in it so just get whichever you find in better condition on the day.

I've seen a Zetec 1.6 TDCI (110) with 109,000miles for £4k, and an LX 1.6 Petrol (115) with 60,000miles for £4k - so I think I'd probably be better off with a petrol if this is the norm.

[yamangman]

Zetec is a trim level above LX too though isn't it?