petrol or diesel?

gfromleeds · Apr 10, 2011

im in a bit of a dilemma ive currantly got a p38 4.6 auto which is great even though its abit thirsty.
however ive got a new job and it means i have to drive 15 miles to and from work each day and its costing me a fortune in fuel.
so hears the dilemma do i trade in and get a diesel? do i get a second car? or do i just bite the bullet and stick with what i got?
if i go for a diesel what sort of mpg can i realisticaly expect 10 miles moterway/ 5 miles traffic jams every day plus i hear diesels are underpowered.
if i go for a second car ill have to think of first buying the dam thing then tax mot insuance ect which could work out more expensive in the short term
or should i stick to 12mpg average im getting now bearing in mind the price of petrol keeps going up.
i thought about going lpg but i dont fancy throwing £1000+ into a car thats only worth £3000 plus ive heard loads of horror storys about it blowing the head gaskets and piston rings on older engines. 1998 103,000miles still on original head gasket.
realisticaly speaking whats mine worth to px for a diesel?

juiceyv8 · Apr 10, 2011

Keep the V8.........price difference of diesel to petrol negates any saving.........also V8s are less desireable to nick as you cant run them on red diesel.....so will run a tank out in 5miles

ladyranger · Apr 10, 2011

i have the same problem. i have to do a 25mile round trip every day in my 2.5dt and it's working out expensive. i need a 4x4 and love it so much. i'm looking at getting a cheap little 45MPG + run around, the saving on diesel at £200 a month will be £120?? a month so more than pays for the tax and insurance of a cheapy car/van

the 2.5dt does 20 to the gallon on a good day!

gfromleeds · Apr 10, 2011

ladyranger said:
the 2.5dt does 20 to the gallon on a good day!

what kind of roads?
A roads/motorways ect
whats the power like? i use mine to pull a touring caravan quite often! that said the mpg goes down to 9mpg on a motorway

but power wise you wouldent know it was there.

dogsbody · Apr 10, 2011

Would a wee cheap motorbike or scooter be possible for work. I understand all the problems; motorway, weather, clothing etc. but with mega mph and peanuts insurance you could even take the Rangie on the days when the weather is just too bad.

juiceyv8 · Apr 10, 2011

Pushbike
lift-share
run
walk

Teamemmenracing · Apr 10, 2011

After my '98 4.6 ........ the '98 2.5 oil burner is a major performance dissapointment, and with around 22 mpg around town, the fuel savings over the 4.6 aren't great.

Upside of the high fuel price (other than keeping me at work) is that nobody wants them, which means parts are getting cheap as chips.

Only upside for the 2.5, and to me its a biggie ...... is the motor is pretty much bullet proof. I spent over 7 grand under the bonnet of the 4.6 keeping it on the road.

........ best of luck

Datatek · Apr 10, 2011

Long term average on my DHSE is 24mpg, but no traffic to speak of. Up to 30mpg on the motorway and it averaged nearly 22mpg touring the UK with my caravan in 2009. Those are brim to brim figures. Plenty of power with a powerbox fitted. Plus you have the advantage that you can run on home made biodiesel, no way you can do that with a petrol motor.

Mammoth · Apr 10, 2011

Never really compared my Rangie to other fuel return figures before but, this is an eyeopener, I always thought diesel P38's stuffed the venerable 4.6 V8.

Having seen some of the fuel return figures I do not feel so bad with my 4.6 as it returns between 16.9 to 22mpg (That's stuffing it up the motorway for 250 miles versus cruising at 70mpg on the same run

)
Towing and around town is in the 19mpg range.

Chiping improved mpg by around 2 > 3 mpg
Also I built a modded air intake, got rid of the original box so I could fit a K&N, that also improved economy by around another 2mpg.....

Does not sound much but obviously it adds up

kooky_guy · Apr 11, 2011

gfromleeds said:
i thought about going lpg but i dont fancy throwing £1000+ into a car thats only worth £3000 plus ive heard loads of horror storys about it blowing the head gaskets and piston rings on older engines. 1998 103,000miles still on original head gasket.

Mine's on 135k miles still on original engine and gaskets. Was lpg'd at approx 70k miles - no probs at all. Lpg gets blamed for a lot of failures that would have happened anyway - the V8's aren't the best blocks.

Still, you'd be hard pressed to get a decent conversion for only £1k and it needs a decent installation (multipoint sequential etc).

Teamemmenracing · Apr 11, 2011

Datatek said:
Plenty of power with a powerbox fitted. Plus you have the advantage that you can run on home made biodiesel, no way you can do that with a petrol motor.

In a word ......... is the powerbox a must have ?

Rimmers claim about 30% power improvement which is huge ....... and if its true, I won't be able top sleep another night until I own one.

kooky_guy · Apr 11, 2011

Teamemmenracing said:
In a word ......... is the powerbox a must have ?

Rimmers claim about 30% improvement which is huge ....... and if its true, I won't be able top sleep another night until I own one.

If you don't value your autobox, eh Keith?

Lone_Wolf · Apr 11, 2011

Personally I use a motorcycle to get to work. Like my RR (a 4.6) it's a fairly big one at 1100cc, but it can manage mpg in the 40's even when I thrash it which is every time I ride it. My daily commute is 18 miles each way on A roads and a bit in the City. Costs me a tank of petrol a week at about £30 a go. I save the 4.6 for the weekends and holidays.

Winter can be difficult, but the only time I don't ride the bike is in the snow.

It works for me, but may not work for you. I've always worked in London and driving a car of any size is not really satisfactory to me with the time it takes in traffic and the cost of parking. No congestion charge for bikes and parking is reasonable to free.

Oh and my bike is a white ex-police BMW which has a nice effect on a lot of car drivers. For me it’s the best set up I’ve ever had.

LW.....

kooky_guy · Apr 11, 2011

I commute in mine every day, 10 miles each way.

On lpg it doesn't seem to be much more expensive to run that my old Vectra V6 was.

Datatek · Apr 11, 2011

kooky_guy said:
If you don't value your autobox, eh Keith?

True, it does over stress the box, but it goes like stink

Datatek · Apr 11, 2011

Teamemmenracing said:
In a word ......... is the powerbox a must have ?

Rimmers claim about 30% power improvement which is huge ....... and if its true, I won't be able top sleep another night until I own one.

Look at the PSI site, it gives the power and torque figures, power up from 136 to 166, not 30% but pretty good, it's the torque figure that makes the difference and shags the gearbox, more torque than the V8 and boy do you notice it on motorway upgrades

fortgrange · Apr 11, 2011

In todays market you would get zilch for your P38. To change to a diesel that was half decent would cost upwards of an extra £1K (like for like) and you have no guaranty it won't be shagged, they suffer many of the same issues as the petrol.

Put the extra money towards an LPG conversion. You know the motor and you would get V8 power for diesel economy. And believe me in standard form those diesel P38's are lathargic!!

Teamemmenracing · Apr 11, 2011

Datatek said:
True, it does over stress the box, but it goes like stink

I better have one of those then .............

petrol or diesel?

gfromleeds

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juiceyv8

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ladyranger

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gfromleeds

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