Petrol or Tdi?

We want a discovery.

Were looking at Tdi's. Have only test driven Tdi's. (old 'uns). Now wondering if we should be looking at petrols with LPG conversion already in?

Any comments?

I mean:
what sort of mpg are you looking at for Tdi -vs- petrol/lpg? Or as Lpg is cheaper maybe I mean what sort of running costs comparison is there?

How does the driving experience compare - the petrol/lpg is more responsive, yes? Alot different? Not a lot?

Maintenance issues (as I'll have to do it all) - are petrols more complicated than Tdi's (I know the LPG side will be). Do old (m reg onwards I expect) petrols have all that electronic stuff (like computers to tell the engine what to do etc)

You see what I'm juggling in my little head?
So Tdi or petrol/lpg?
Cheers

tdi. no question about it. unless u wanna chase bmw,s etc?

I'll second that.

Yeah, but why do you say Tdi?

toadfish said:

what sort of mpg are you looking at for Tdi -vs- petrol/lpg? Or as Lpg is cheaper maybe I mean what sort of running costs comparison is there?

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As standard 200/300tdi from 19mpg v8 from 18mpg (depends on driving style)

toadfish said:

How does the driving experience compare - the petrol/lpg is more responsive, yes? Alot different? Not a lot?

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Petrol = 50% more BHP 25% more Torque (v8 vs 200tdi std)
BUT the torque (what you really want in a heavy big vehicle & for towing) is delivered far higher up the rev range whereas the lower down it is the better.

toadfish said:

Maintenance issues (as I'll have to do it all) - are petrols more complicated than Tdi's (I know the LPG side will be). Do old (m reg onwards I expect) petrols have all that electronic stuff (like computers to tell the engine what to do etc)

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3.9v8's onwards all have ecu's and eletric/electronic everything, notorious for lighting up dash like a xmas tree which is dealer reset only, also notorious for suffering damp/wading issues on older vehicles.
200Tdi no ecu, everything manual, doddle to increase performance, simpleish to repair.
300Tdi has ecu, but still remains pretty simple to maintain so I gather(not owned 1).

low purchase cost & cheap lpg (at moment) vs higher running costs for v8's means on an old 1 you're gambling on how good a one you buy is, and how good your mechanicing skills are.

Personally i'd go TD5, 200Tdi, 300Tdi, v8 in that order, but wait for other ppl to start lining up to shoot me down in flames

v8 from 18mpg

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Not sure I agree with that - the very best I ever got from my 3.9 disco was 18, and that was driving it really carefully to get max MPG! Normally 11-15 in day-to-day driving. Tdi should give you 25-30MPG.

Personally i'd go TD5, 200Tdi, 300Tdi, v8 in that order, but wait for other ppl to start lining up to shoot me down in flames

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Unlimited funds I'd go V8, Td5, 300Tdi then 200Tdi.

If you care about fuel consumption / reliability etc. I'd go as l3on suggests, although I may switch the 200 & 300 around - but mainly because a 300 is a better vehicle all-round, rather than just because of the engine. Tho no doubt I'll get shot down (again!) for suggesting the Td5 as first option

LPG - you'd need to make sure it has been done properly, and it has an LPGA certificate for the insurance company. If they are selling soon after converting, you need to ask why?! There are lots of poor conversions. As for running on LPG, you won't notice any difference - apart from the fact that it will give about 10-15% less MPG running on LPG. As for diesel/LPG comparison, LPG works out a little more expensive than diesel (if you ignore the cost of actually installing it)

Matt.

Posted my V8 fuel consumption figures here.

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f8/v8-fuel-consumption-29356.html

I have always had tdi landrovers until 6 months ago I bought a s2 v8 disco with an lpg conversion. I think a discovery needs a v8 as the 200 and 300 tdi's feel under powered for a machine that needs to tow. The td5 is far better than the 200 and 300 in every way but not as good as the v8. The cost of running the v8 with lpg is the same as a tdi. When buying a tdi or td5 there is always a premium to pay for their popularity but the same age disco can be bought for less and the usually comes with a far higher spec. I would go for a v8 over a diesel as long as it had a quality gas conversion with a certificate.