Is a diesel a bad purchase for low mileage use?
Discussion
Probably do 10x 8-mile commutes per week (urban motorway and stop-start traffic), with a few 2-10 mile journeys at weekends, occasionally up to 20 miles, and maybe three 650 mile round trips a year, totalling about 6,000 miles a year.
Is a diesel a poor purchase for that kind of use? We've always had petrol cars but the older style MPVs we're looking at are more plentiful and cheaper as diesels.
We would make sure to get one that us ULEZ compliant but I guess there's no telling if the restrictions will be tightened in the future.
Is a diesel a poor purchase for that kind of use? We've always had petrol cars but the older style MPVs we're looking at are more plentiful and cheaper as diesels.
We would make sure to get one that us ULEZ compliant but I guess there's no telling if the restrictions will be tightened in the future.
It would be a very poor driving pattern for a DPF'd diesel as they will not be able to complete a regen in your normal weekly use. Some diesel engines will dump diesel into engine oil when they abort a regen, which causes significant lubrication issues leading to increased wear on bearing surfaces.
You're looking at older MPVs- Toyota would be a great bet, plenty of Estima/Previas about including hybrids.
You're looking at older MPVs- Toyota would be a great bet, plenty of Estima/Previas about including hybrids.
OP, the problem is less that you do low mileage and more that you don't seem to do enough long journeys.
I downsized two petrol cars to one diesel earlier this year. My wife uses it for city centre driving, but I make up for that with plenty of long distance use: 100 to 500 miles at a time. Similarly, our van is diesel and does low miles - but all of these are long distances.
I downsized two petrol cars to one diesel earlier this year. My wife uses it for city centre driving, but I make up for that with plenty of long distance use: 100 to 500 miles at a time. Similarly, our van is diesel and does low miles - but all of these are long distances.
It is generally a bad choice at those mileage rates, however having put 130k, over the last 15 years on 2 VW/Audi group 2.0 common rail TDIs with a similar profile of short trips most weeks broken up the occasionally longer trip and c3 longer trips I've never had a problem with the EGR or DPF.
Fuel economy is not great and a petrol would be better. However for me, like you, the cars I wanted in budget were diesel.
Fuel economy is not great and a petrol would be better. However for me, like you, the cars I wanted in budget were diesel.
Edited by VeeReihenmotor6 on Thursday 14th December 11:52
Low milage isn’t a problem for a diesel, we only do about 4k a year in our C class CDI, but almost all longer trips, no issues over 5 years.
Lots of short journeys only, yeah I wouldn't buy a diesel, just the warm up cycle alone means they are not very fuel efficient, plus other issues mentioned above.
Lots of short journeys only, yeah I wouldn't buy a diesel, just the warm up cycle alone means they are not very fuel efficient, plus other issues mentioned above.
No issue as long as you can do the odd longer trip.
I have ran diesels for years or shorter trips, my current Octavia is a 2.0 TDi CR and I do a 15 mile round trip each day without issue. In the past 10,000 miles it has done 1 DPF regen.
I also monitor the DPF soot level and the short trips make very little indent in it. In fact, the DPF was high in soot when I got the car and it's added so little that I have only just had to do a regen this month. It didn't being the DPF light on; I noted a higher idle and drop in MPG, and once I had checked the soot level it had dropped right back down.
I appreciate the general consensus is a petrol is cheaper and easier for shorter trips, however in my experience my diesel does brilliantly. If I could get away with a tiny car I am sure I could match the circa 49-52 mpg that I am currently getting (That is calculated, dash says averaging 54mpg currently) however I just love the space in the Octavia
I have ran diesels for years or shorter trips, my current Octavia is a 2.0 TDi CR and I do a 15 mile round trip each day without issue. In the past 10,000 miles it has done 1 DPF regen.
I also monitor the DPF soot level and the short trips make very little indent in it. In fact, the DPF was high in soot when I got the car and it's added so little that I have only just had to do a regen this month. It didn't being the DPF light on; I noted a higher idle and drop in MPG, and once I had checked the soot level it had dropped right back down.
I appreciate the general consensus is a petrol is cheaper and easier for shorter trips, however in my experience my diesel does brilliantly. If I could get away with a tiny car I am sure I could match the circa 49-52 mpg that I am currently getting (That is calculated, dash says averaging 54mpg currently) however I just love the space in the Octavia
I think the talk of DPFs going expensively wrong is well overdone on here. Yes it can happen but it almost certainly won't, so if the car that best suits you in all other respects happens to be a diesel then that's what I'd get. While our D5 engined Volvo does do a fair amount of miles per year, it can still go a month/six weeks without doing anything over 20 miles. In the 65k miles we've had it (now closing in on 130k), there has been not a hint of DPF trouble. And even if it did they're not that expensive; people go on about it as if a dodgy DPF means impending homelessness and having to go on the game, but if you're sensible and get it sorted somewhere other than a main dealer it's probably a few hundred quid.
ScotHill said:
Probably do 10x 8-mile commutes per week (urban motorway and stop-start traffic), with a few 2-10 mile journeys at weekends, occasionally up to 20 miles, and maybe three 650 mile round trips a year, totalling about 6,000 miles a year.
Just sold it, but for the last 8yrs and 45K miles my missus has had a Tiguan 2 litre diesel with the EA288 (so EU6) engine.The vast majority of her journeys are 4-5 miles to the shops or to one of the grandchildrens' schools.
The suggestion they need a run to clear the dpf isn't correct - they never passive regen in normal UK use as they don't get anywhere near hot enough. They active regen with a limit of 465 miles but in practice ours was doing it at around 300 miles. We did a rare 300 mile round trip one weekend and it did an active regen on the school run on Monday morning. We often stopped mid-regen and never had a dpf light. We did always run on V-Power which supposedly helps. Bit expensive, but the car only used a tank a month.
I will say there's a lot to go wrong on these - triple cooling circuits (but it blows warm air in a few hundred yards), the SCR (AdBlue) system etc etc. I dumped ours because that's the max age for the All In service / warranty etc package.
We replaced it with a 1.5TSi petrol Karoq.
My wife runs a 2010 330d for a 4 mile commute x 2 per day and never really uses it at weekends, she's had it nearly 12 months now and its never (touch wood) had any issues other than a service.
Previous to this she had a brand new 2008 1.2 petrol, on the trip computer the 330d is doing pretty much the same if not a little better MPG!
I have a transporter T6 that does about 6k a year, again some days like today its done a 1.5 mile round trip to school, I can tell when its had an interrupted regen as the fan stays on and it sounds like a hovercraft when you switch it off, I will then take it to work or on a run if I've not got a trip planned, it does go to the office a few days a week which is 25 miles, I run that on premium diesel as its mapped and that seems to help it, they are delicate on EGR/DPF issues.
Previous to this she had a brand new 2008 1.2 petrol, on the trip computer the 330d is doing pretty much the same if not a little better MPG!
I have a transporter T6 that does about 6k a year, again some days like today its done a 1.5 mile round trip to school, I can tell when its had an interrupted regen as the fan stays on and it sounds like a hovercraft when you switch it off, I will then take it to work or on a run if I've not got a trip planned, it does go to the office a few days a week which is 25 miles, I run that on premium diesel as its mapped and that seems to help it, they are delicate on EGR/DPF issues.
We have a 1.6 auto diesel 2017 Citroen. It basically does 1-3 mile trips around 10 times a week. Maybe every 2 to 4 weekends it does a longer 10+ mile journey. It's been run like this for 18+ months and touch wood no issues.
At this age/price 95% of thks type of car is diesel. The alternative was the 1.2 petrol.
It did 4,200 miles between MOTs probably 1,000 or more was 3 family holiday breaks.
At this age/price 95% of thks type of car is diesel. The alternative was the 1.2 petrol.
It did 4,200 miles between MOTs probably 1,000 or more was 3 family holiday breaks.
Edited by edc on Friday 15th December 00:47
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