kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Bloke at work is trying to sell his x5 and his wife's porsche and they just won't budge absolutely no interest at all at the minute. Needs the cash badly as well as he is remortgaged up to the hilt.

Part of me wants to laugh in his face as he has been a right cocky git bragging about his flash house/cars/holidays the last few years, at the end of the day though it's his kids who are going to suffer the most if they get turfed out

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

Thats the problem, I think a lot of people who have flash cars have either bought them on bank loans, or have 'released their equity' to pay for them, and are now having to face up to the larger mortgage payments.

I know a guy who bought a brand new Evo a couple of years ago, monthly repayments were more than his mortgage ( which was also pretty big ) and as they were struggling a bit he had to look at selling it. There was so much of the finanace still outstanding, and the car had depreciated, so that if he had sold it for what he wanted, then he would still have owed the finance company a few grand.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Time we all grouped together & took the Govt to court for our loss isn't it? Wouldn't be losing money like this if it weren't for recent policy changes ...

TX.

saxx

iTrader: (5)

indeed. the credit crunch is taking hold of more than just the housing market

apples24

iTrader: (1)

diesels are no more reliable than petrol these days sad but true


infact when something goes wrong with a diesel is bloomin expensive, diesel fuel pumps fail something chronic on modern cars now, turbos only last 100,000 tops. but you do get better mpg but is it worth the extra in the long run? im not sure no more, unless you spend your life up and down the motorway for a family smoker petrol is slowely making more sence, but, with these prices of fuel diesels are holding there money so from a common sence point of view id buy a diesel, but it wouldnt be a vauxhal or a ford, would be german or maybe even a french hdi unit

Mitchy260

I think this is the most 1 sided comparison ive come across. You have found the dearest petrol in the country and matched it against the cheapest diesel in comparison.

Shell in Aberdeen has a 7p difference between UL and Diesel. Esso with an 8p difference. This is the same in Dundee and Edinburgh.

Petrol typically at 104.9/106.9 and diesel typically at 111.9-114.9

Figures of 24mpg for a corsa? Was it a VXR? My wife has a 1.2 and averages around 45mpg motorway/town driving and typical shop run short journeys.

Here's a better example....

Petrol vs Diesel

MK4 1.8T 150bhp Golf Gti (Petrol)
Mk4 1.9T 150bhp Golf TDI (Diesel)

Both cars near enough identical, however the TD car costing £2000 more at purchase price than its petrol equivelant.

The petrol should average 35-40mpg (Lets take 37 mpg)
The diesel should average 50-55mpg (Lets take 52 mpg)

The average annual mileage = 12000 miles,

TDI you would have to buy (12000/52= 230.77 gallons of diesel)
Petrol you would have to buy (12000/37 = 324.32 gallons of petrol)

1 gallon of fuel = 4.54litres

TDI you would buy (230.77 x 4.54) = 1047.7 litres of diesel
Petrol you would buy (324.32 x 4.54) = 1472.4 litres of petrol

According to this site .... http://www.petrolprices.com/

The average cost of a litre of petrol in the uk at the moment is 106.9p
The average cost of a litre of diesel in the uk at the moment is 114.8p

The cost of fuel per year for the diesel = (1047.7 x 1.148) = £1202.76
The cost of fuel per year for the petrol = (1472.4 x 1.069) = £1573.99

A difference of £371.23 per year

Now considering the TDI car originally cost £2000 more to purchase it would take at todays fuel rates about 5 1/2 yrs to break even.

Additionaly, you can easily opt for a small engined petrol car (Clio 1.2) that will return 55mpg and the fuel costs would actually work in favour for the petrol

Petem95

Looks like a fair comparison there, but you need to also factor in that the 150bhp TDi will be a fair bit quicker than the petrol in real world driving due to loads more torque and also they cost more to buy, and will retain it's purchase price better.

Also a Mk4 Golf would not be £2k more for a TDi over a petrol turbo, maybe £1k!

Edit: Also you forgot to add that the diesel in the above example would be something like £60 a year cheaper to tax, bringing the saving to £431 per year, and that's over only 12k annual miles!

Also it's cheaper to insure the TDi, so there's a further saving!

apples24

iTrader: (1)

your forgetting depreciation there also

Mitchy260

Servicing costs of diesel cars are generally higher than that of petrol and it has already been mentioned in this thread, modern day diesels are more expensive to repair when they go wrong.

Both have there merits, a small engined petrol car that does 55mpg is a good option if you're only worried about MPG.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

EDIT - What Mitchy said about servicing! (post wasn't there when i started typing)

Aye but even then you are still looking at a few years to get the value back and servicing will be more expensive with the diesel.

Even a 2.0 zetec mondeo will return over 30mpg on a run, i can get 29mpg from the WRX no problem so that Corsa in the first example must have had a hole in the petrol tank!

5t.

phil_wrx

iTrader: (2)

That actually makes sense.

KiwiGTI

I kind of fit that description though, if I want a cheap runabout I'll only want to spend a couple of grand, if I'm going to finance a car then why would I bother getting some second hand thing for £15K on dealer finance when I could probably get some good deal on a £35K for not much more a month.

spireite

blame it on the tax man

WRX300MAN

here here!