Is diesel still better than petrol?

[Phillip Butler]

I have a friend who's recently traded in his 6 year old 2 litre diesel C Class for a new 2 litre petrol CLA. He is not impressed with the constant automatic shifting of the gears to compensate for the relative lack of torque. He misses the ease and smoothness with which his C Class used to drive.
Has anyone else had this experience?

 

[A.J.]

I switched to a Petrol from a Diesel two cars back. Forgetting that Diesel has now been demonised there is no way I would return to diesel.

The car is a lot quieter and smoother. As for it keep shifting gears to compensate the lack of torque you hardly notice it with a 9 speed auto. Fuel consumption isn't as good as Diesel but I can still achieve 45/46 mpg, I did once, but once only see 48.6 mpg so I am not complaining about that. It's definitely Petrol from here on.

As for EV, I shan't be having one of those in my lifetime.

 

[Craiglxviii]

I have a friend who's recently traded in his 6 year old 2 litre diesel C Class for a new 2 litre petrol CLA. He is not impressed with the constant automatic shifting of the gears to compensate for the relative lack of torque. He misses the ease and smoothness with which his C Class used to drive.
Has anyone else had this experience?

My 2 litre diesel MB used to shift up and down in the search for power in the rev range, much more so than my 5 or 5.5 litre petrol MBs have done…

 

[fabes]

Can't speak for a 4 pot CLA but any gear changes in my lowly 6 year old 7 speed petrol weren't an issue or noticeable today on a motorway run back from Chippenham.

Buyer's remorse being justified?

 

[Srdl]

I went from diesel to petrol nearly 4 years ago. Initially I missed the low down lazy diesel torque (had 8 years in the diesel) but soon got used to driving petrol again and wouldn’t go back.

 

[ajlsl600]

Reason for diesels 4 me was in last 40 yr that's where my experience is. Not much petrol running around mine sites.. Mostly used for cleaning stuff.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

I’m on my last diesel mainly due to the complexities of EU6 engines especially the countdown to the ECU not starting the engine in the event of an ADBLUE fault.

Back to IL6/V6 petrol engines for me and yes I do miss the low down torque the diesel provides which is ideal for our modern stop start motoring but you soon get used to it. When the S212 E350cdi goes thats me finished with them.

If I clocked up 15k PA I might think differently but the saving would have to make it worthwhile. Surprising how small things make you think 5 litres of ADBLUE fluid was £5 4 years ago and now its £10 says it all really

 

[LostKiwi]

Define 'better'.


For me diesel was never better than petrol.

My definition may be different to yours.

 

[MBDevotee]

I switched to a Petrol from a Diesel two cars back. Forgetting that Diesel has now been demonised there is no way I would return to diesel.

The car is a lot quieter and smoother. As for it keep shifting gears to compensate the lack of torque you hardly notice it with a 9 speed auto. Fuel consumption isn't as good as Diesel but I can still achieve 45/46 mpg, I did once, but once only see 48.6 mpg so I am not complaining about that. It's definitely Petrol from here on.

As for EV, I shan't be having one of those in my lifetime.

You won't go EV - yet all the things you prefer on a petrol are even more apparent on EV - weird.

You like quiet and smooth, can't get quieter and smoother than EV, you like economy, can't get more economical than EV and (I assume) you like performance - also better on an EV - so why exactly wouldn't you go EV?

Oh, and no gears to "shift up and down all the time" - no gears at all and perfect stop start traffic manners....

Both Rolls and Bentley are going to EV soon as they see it fits really well with their ultimate refinement and performance ethos - refined performance...

Try an EV - having had one for 18 months you'd have to pay me a fortune to get me back in an ICE car now.... And I love a V8!

 

[A.J.]

You won't go EV - yet all the things you prefer on a petrol are even more apparent on EV - weird.

You like quiet and smooth, can't get quieter and smoother than EV, you like economy, can't get more economical than EV and (I assume) you like performance - also better on an EV - so why exactly wouldn't you go EV?

Oh, and no gears to "shift up and down all the time" - no gears at all and perfect stop start traffic manners....

Both Rolls and Bentley are going to EV soon as they see it fits really well with their ultimate refinement and performance ethos - refined performance...

Try an EV - having had one for 18 months you'd have to pay me a fortune to get me back in an ICE car now.... And I love a V8!

Without going into reams of reasons why I won't be going EV in my lifetime firstly I live in a top floor Apartment in Norwich and there are no charging points within our gated community.

Secondly I just don't have EV money to spend on a car as I am retired, they are far too much money and for say £40,000 you only get a fraction of a car that you would normally get with an EV. Who wants to drive a Renault Zoe when you could be driving a nice MB for instance. Once the money is spent it's spent. I like the way an ICE drives I like the way an ICE sounds, drives and changes through gears.

Range anxiety is another issue, routes have to be carefully panned so you keep the battery topped up. Once I set out on a trip I don't want to be messing around after 200 miles or so, whatever the range is. Range varies with the outside conditions, cold, hot, wet, day, night and so on. An EV is only green at point of use. You hear all sorts of stories about the devastation the mining of the minerals required to make a battery. All of this is dismissed by EV drivers and attention is focused on point of use.

Then there is the high cost of replacing the batteries when they become tired. This expense won’t affect you as presumably the car you drive is a company car, this comes directly out of our personal pockets.

EV's are quite simply not for me full stop.

 

[Blobcat]

You won't go EV - yet all the things you prefer on a petrol are even more apparent on EV - weird.

You like quiet and smooth, can't get quieter and smoother than EV, you like economy, can't get more economical than EV and (I assume) you like performance - also better on an EV - so why exactly wouldn't you go EV?

Oh, and no gears to "shift up and down all the time" - no gears at all and perfect stop start traffic manners....

Both Rolls and Bentley are going to EV soon as they see it fits really well with their ultimate refinement and performance ethos - refined performance...

Try an EV - having had one for 18 months you'd have to pay me a fortune to get me back in an ICE car now.... And I love a V8!

No ta…

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Oh dear, just scrapes in within the 8 year warranty certainly a sore head moment if not

 

[Blobcat]

Oh dear, just scrapes in within the 8 year warranty certainly a sore head moment if not

50k for the batteries on a Taycan… no ta
15-20k for a Tesla

 

[KennyN]

View attachment 78715

Probably been mis-fueled , been filled up with AC rather than DC.

Will be fine once they open the drain plug and remove all the dodgy electrons from the battery , followed by a quick recharge.

K

 

[sonic]

I have a 2011 E350CDI owned it for 10 years, it now has 60K miles on it. Only one minor fault in 10 years, it still has the original battery.
I might get £9K if I part ex it for what? No sticking with my diesel.

 

[s5tuart]

I'm sticking with my diesel thanks, until it breaks. Which according to the popular thinking will be tomorrow!

 

[Gazwould]

580 Nm
Drives everywhere under 1600 rpm
3500 rpm peak power
60+ smiles per gallon

 

[V6Matty]

View attachment 78715
No ta…

On your way to whitepost farm there Russ?

 

[Blobcat]

On your way to whitepost farm there Russ?

On the way back from Bovington tank museum

 

[V6Matty]

On the way back from Bovington tank museum

That sounds more like you