1.4 Petrol or DCi?

[FlameR]

My Mrs has a 2004 1.4 petrol clio, and as she is soon to change jobs where her communte will consist of around 50 miles a day (mainly motorway) as opposed to the 20 miles through towns and country lanes, would it be worth her selling for a clio DCi?

Will the fuel and tax be THAT much cheaper, or will there be little difference? I think she currently gets around 350+ miles from a tank with mainly town/country road driving!

Bear in mind, she's trying to save as much as possible towards a house deposit, so every little helps n all that!

FlameR

 

[Beef-Mc]

Prob best sticking with what she has when you start cracking the sums.

 

[Magic Johnson]

You have to cost the actual buying of the car first. My DCI will start making me money in two years time as opposed to if I'd have kept my petrol. For each year after I break even I'm saving about £1,700 and that's on fuel and tax alone.

 

[Brett]

Petrol. The dCi's have a reputation for breaking. If they do its usually expensive to fix!

 

[DrR]

Petrol. The dCi's have a reputation for breaking. If they do its usually expensive to fix!

Do they?

 

[Magic Johnson]

Do they?

Only if they've been seriously mistreated...(or had petrol put in them! ).

You'll actually find they're pretty damn reliable. Generally the ECU is quite good at fault finding and if it points to something being dodgy that's normally what's wrong with the car.

 

[Scrooge]

Depends on how much you can sell the 1.4 for and how much a dci will cost you

 

[stevo040880]

Prob best sticking with what she has when you start cracking the sums.

My dci sums £35 tax for the year 48mpg 500 or so miles from tank around the doors 57mpg 600 or so miles from tank on motorway runs insurance group 4 petrol-diesel same price per litre too so thats extra 150-250 miles per tank only 1 winner for me

dont know wot the tax insurance group and mpg is like on the 1.4 but a bet there alot more except the mpg that is

 

[Dean.]

im starting to really like diesels, except the noise

 

[Brett]

Do they?

Only if they've been seriously mistreated...(or had petrol put in them! ).

You'll actually find they're pretty damn reliable. Generally the ECU is quite good at fault finding and if it points to something being dodgy that's normally what's wrong with the car.

Well my only experience of a dCi is my gf's mums. Its 54 plate 50 odd thousand miles, owned from new and properly maintained.

She's had numerous problems, alternator, injectors etc.

I just know a few people off here have had problems with them and I think its because when they do break it can be a lot more expensive.

I personally think if the OP already has a Clio that will do 350 miles out of a tank it isn't worth the change considering dCi would cost more to buy.

 

[cliolou]

DCi all the way, altho i am biased lol! compared to my previous cars including 172 and mini cooper s, it really is epic on fuel! you'll get 500-600 miles per tank, tax has just gone down to £30 a year, and its cheap to insure. alot quicker than i thought it would be too. winner all round.

and its like any car, every make and every model has faults and common problems but doesnt mean your car will

 

[Chris_786]

DCi mate

 

[dunganick]

I've owned (actually owned... i wasnt told this by a mates mum) a DCi 65 that i put about 30k on without a single issue, ive now got a DCi 80 that ive put about 60K on in 3 yrs and the clutch fell apart at 30k, Other than that nothing besides a leaky sunroof and a damaged aux belt.

Thats 90k of faultless running @ 60mpg (and i drive it like i stole it), £35 a year tax. Its a pretty reliable lump as they go, i hear (but havent experianced) that Injectors and the EGR valve can go, but both are often issues related to never giving the engine a blast.

If you let the engine run for 30 seconds after you stop driving this is meant to extend the life of the turbo too.