2005 cherokee : Petrol or desiel advice

[pcn1]

Im thinking of getting a 2005 cherokee as a winter car. I'll do about 5000 miles max a year in it, but my commute is a bit slow in heavy traffic sometimes. Now the upfront purchase cost of a 2.8 CRD desiel over a 3.7 petrol LTD model seems to be about £1000 to £1500 from scanning a few adds in the auto trader (Ive had a drive in both models and would be happy with either)
Now my maths aint great but that makes: (figures from parkers guide)

Deisel

5000 miles divide by 28mpg = 178 gallons x £6.15 = £1071 fuel costs.

Petrol:

5000 miles divide by 22mpg = 227 gallons x £6 = £1363 fuel costs.

An extra £300 year in fuel for the petrol. That would make the payback on the deisel take 3 to 5 years to recoup.
Am I doing this right, please feel free to pull my figues apart and show me the errors of my thinking ????

Im not so concerned about resale as I keep my cars for years and I figure in 5 years the difference would only be a few hundred pounds anyway.

Any advice appreciated

Edited by pcn1 on Sunday 31st October 21:51

Edited by pcn1 on Sunday 31st October 21:51

[stone-islandV8]

Check to see if theres any cost difference in servicing, insurance etc and factor that in too.

[900ssduke]

Take a test drive and also consider the 4.7 V8 Grand Cherokee. I did the sums in a similar manner, if you are not doing too many miles the saving on petrol depreciation is similar to the diesel fuel savings. The grin factor from the V8 is worth a couple of mpg.

[300bhp/ton]

V8 Grand Cherokee goes really well IMO, probably well worth considering.

[pcn1]

I see its about another £1000 to get a 2004 Grand Cherokee over a 2005 Cherokee for the same year/ milage etc. (give or take)

Ive driven a 2004 2.7 CRD GC and Im OK with them. In fact I think they look slightly better. Im the real world I dont think the size is going to make much odds to me. Would anyone like to comment on buid quality or ownership experience etc between the 2 models, and if its your money which youd choose ?

I understand the GC's are screwed together in Germany, if thats got any influnce on the quailty ?

[sjj84]

Think you'll be unlikely to get 22mpg out of the petrol. Bloke at work has one and has never had over 20mpg and he doesn't drive particulary fast.

[sybaseian]

sjj84 said:

Think you'll be unlikely to get 22mpg out of the petrol. Bloke at work has one and has never had over 20mpg and he doesn't drive particulary fast.

averaged 25pmg in France the other year in the Grand (down to South of France) - roof box and four adults + luggage + WINE!

In UK you are likely to average around 22mpg.

Edited by sybaseian on Friday 5th November 18:27

[uk_vette]

300bhp/ton said:

V8 Grand Cherokee goes really well IMO, probably well worth considering.

.
.
I couldn't agree more.

My Bro' has the 4,7 V8, and it is no slug .

Lots of grin factor.

'vette

[Hooli]

sjj84 said:

Think you'll be unlikely to get 22mpg out of the petrol. Bloke at work has one and has never had over 20mpg and he doesn't drive particulary fast.

My folks have one & used to average about 27mpg. I'm getting it for the winter so we'll see what it does driven a bit harder

[thebluebus]

Hooli said:

sjj84 said:

Think you'll be unlikely to get 22mpg out of the petrol. Bloke at work has one and has never had over 20mpg and he doesn't drive particulary fast.

My folks have one & used to average about 27mpg. I'm getting it for the winter so we'll see what it does driven a bit harder

Your folks did very well!

I used to have a V6 auto for my daily commute, 60 miles every day. No matter how carefully or deliberately economically I tried to drive it, I absolutely could not average more than 19mpg.

[pcn1]

After a little more market research Ive decided to go desiel. Sometimes the price gap isnt there are more for sale !

Thanks

[Hooli]

thebluebus said:

Hooli said:

sjj84 said:

Think you'll be unlikely to get 22mpg out of the petrol. Bloke at work has one and has never had over 20mpg and he doesn't drive particulary fast.

My folks have one & used to average about 27mpg. I'm getting it for the winter so we'll see what it does driven a bit harder

Your folks did very well!

I used to have a V6 auto for my daily commute, 60 miles every day. No matter how carefully or deliberately economically I tried to drive it, I absolutely could not average more than 19mpg.

Well I've got it now, had it two weeks & 1,200miles. It's done about 50/50 main road & town work. Sitting at 65mph on motorways & just driving sensibly in traffic I've got 25-26mpg from it.

I know it's the 2.4 not the 3.7 in the OP but it might give a clue how much to believe the official figures.

Amusingly it's the only car I've ever known with a pessimistic trip computer, it's working in US gallons so only displaying 22.7mpg last time I checked.

Edited by Hooli on Sunday 28th November 12:56

[TUS 373]

We have a 3.7 V6 Limited and love it. Its our 3rd car / winter car so we only do about 5,000 miles a year. Only gripe is that it would be good to swith the computer to UK gallons rather than US. That would make the 'economy' figures easier to look at. I reckon we get 20 mpg average between motorway and alot of hill driving on the Pennines.