Petrol Engines VS Diesel Engines: Who Wins in the Long Run?


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Hi!

Lately i have been seeing many people buying diesel cars over the petrol powered ones even if the daily average is <50kms just to save the fuel and running costs and most companies making profits keeping this as a motive.

We can see many examples in and around us buying a diesel one and they don't even know the tax rates,maintenance part and diesel clatters

We were having a small talk on this among our friends and i came to know that people was hating diesel engines for their more maintenance and cabin full of vibrations which makes some uncomfortable,pollution levels

See diesel needs maintenance fine then if maintained well this can be kept upto 2-3 lakh kms and whereas petrol also needs lots of maintenance once it crosses 1,00,000 mark.Want to know which one's better?
 
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Re: Petrol Engines VS Diesel Engines:Who Wins In The Long Run?

Obvious its petrol!

For too much of run its diesel and sell off the car in 1 or 1.5 Lack kms which may be attained in 2 to 3 years of time. The real purpose.

In a flat opposite to our home , there is a vdi , dzire standing still 6 days a week ,
it will be out of the flat for just say 2 to 3 hours on holidays .

Pondicherry being just about 8x8kms city[read theater/beach/park/hotels etc], their drive must be just few kms .
i fear it must have done 4000 kms in this last 1.5 years
Just one sentence - waste of investment!

Hardly i find it missing for days! once in year , may be for their native.


Another worst case its our own manza. My uncle who after repeated calculation by me , got the manza diesel. But not that worst , for the first year it has done 10000 kms. and its 2nd year running , but i do not find it run as much as it should.

Any how after some 6 years one is going to sell as gone are the days where cars are kept for ages.
so 6 years / 60 to 70k kms is definitely plus point for the buyer haha



Some good petrol engines are worth to buy as you get driving pleasure/ linear power / kind of refined cabin .

Any day a 3 series petrol is better than a 3 series diesel! what say??
 
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petrol engines are much smoother and cleaner the oil coming out of the engine will be proof. if i stand behind a diesel car the fumes makes my eyes water and the smell is a turn of. in petrols that never happens but still people say diesel engines are cleaner i don't know why.
also the general maintaince of a diesel will be more then a petrol due to more oil quantity, air filter, and diesel filter. diesels are fine if showered with love and taken care of, turbo chargers are costly if they ever conk and the fuel injectors? thats a lot for just one injector. diesel clatter has gone down these days.
but newer gasoline engines have adopted direct injection just like diesels where there can be some noise at idle.
what if diesels were costlier then petrol? I'm sure most will pick petrol then.
 
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Interesting and pertinent question. Should you buy an oil burner if your usage is less than 1500 kms/month?
In terms of engines I think diesel tech has come a long long way. IIRC diesel engines are much cleaner compared to petrol if looking at same standards like Euro 4 or 5.

Anyway in terms of NVH and free-revving there is no beating for Petrol hearts. I had a swift and it was so easy to revv it hard and feel the push.

Age wise there should not be much difference between these 2 variants. If maintained properly both should be able to give a long life.

Now coming to the economics of it, I think that is where we Indians are mislead. Just because of peer pressure and short thinking, people buy diesel when they can get better petrols in the same price or even less. The daily pinch at bunks is more unnerving that spending additional amount in the first go.

I myself bought a diesel, but the situation was not that clear for me. I wanted a new car and with my running of aruond 1.5 to 1.8K/month the decision was nowhere straight forward. What tilted it was unavailability of petrol cars (read long waiting period) and good discounts on the car I chose[:)]
 
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In Europe it looks a bit different. Over here a lot of people go rather for TDs now.

Obviously they are different to drive than petrols but can be as much fun as petrols. It does help to have 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12 cylinder Diesels.

The BMW 335TD is great from factory and even more desirable when re-mapped.

The R8 TD also is some car.

And the R10s and the 908 LMPs I found more exciting than anything else on the track.

I suppose there is as many arguments for the Diesels as for the petrols. A lot boils down to taste.

And if anyone thinks that a direct injected petrol is cheaper to maintain than a TD then they are wrong. Direct injected petrols require a lot more maintenance than port injected petrols.
 
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Petrol or Diesel, its a never ending debate. When i was looking for a car i was too confused whether should i go for petrol or diesel. Each engine has its pros and cons. But now a days diesel has overpowered the petrol engine as modern diesel engine are more reliable and NVH is pretty good. Also diesel save a lot buck at pump than your petrol counterpart.
 
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Diesel engines are more efficient than petrol engines.

Energy efficiency of diesel engines is about 40 to 47% while that of petrol engine is about 30 to 36%.

This also means there is more unburned substances in petrol engine exhaust than in diesel engine and causes more pollution.

The severity of pollution is not measured with the colour of the smoke. White petrol smoke is more harmful than black diesel smoke.

Diesel subsidy in India is not that high as it is hyped now a days. If subsidy is removed, prices may go up by Rs 6 or so.

High maintenance cost of Diesel engines, diesel clutter, vibrations etc are a thing of the past.

Further, one should enjoy the torque of a Diesel engine in city drive. You can move from standstill either in first or second gear (or even third gear for some cars in plain roads) without applying the accelerator - thats just by releasing the clutch smoothly in bumber to bumber traffic.
 
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Diesel engines are more efficient than petrol engines.

Energy efficiency of diesel engines is about 40 to 47% while that of petrol engine is about 30 to 36%.

This also means there is more unburned substances in petrol engine exhaust than in diesel engine and causes more pollution.

The severity of pollution is not measured with the colour of the smoke. White petrol smoke is more harmful than black diesel smoke.

Diesel subsidy in India is not that high as it is hyped now a days. If subsidy is removed, prices may go up by Rs 6 or so.

High maintenance cost of Diesel engines, diesel clutter, vibrations etc are a thing of the past.

Further, one should enjoy the torque of a Diesel engine in city drive. You can move from standstill either in first or second gear (or even third gear for some cars in plain roads) without applying the accelerator - thats just by releasing the clutch smoothly in bumber to bumber traffic.
I agreed to you and really enjoying my diesel ride on bangalore bumper to bumper traffic and long drives as well.

new gen diesel hearts are on par with petrol
 
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Few advantages i would like to highlight on the favor of diesel engines

1. Long life : Diesel gets into the engine as liquid and not as almost gaseous as in the case of petrol. So diesel itself serves as a lubricant inside the engine reducing the wear and tear. Think of long distance buses and trucks which clock lacs of kms in few months and we still see very old trucks on the highways.

2. Emission : It gives out CO and not CO2 which is greatly eco friendly. Carbon di oxide is the main agent for green house effect and global warming

3. Noise and vibrations : Of course it is a concerning factor with diesel engines but these are getting addressed quite well the modern cars. At times this is taken care of so well and we are not believe that we are in a diesel car.

maintenance is always a mandatory thing (be it petrol or diesel) if you expect your ride to serve you for longer. modern diesel engines are senesitive and the tolerance level appears lower than how it was earlier.

Not everybody can claim that they have maintained the ride so well and still it ditched them. It happens very rare.
 
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Diesel engines are more efficient than petrol engines.

Energy efficiency of diesel engines is about 40 to 47% while that of petrol engine is about 30 to 36%.

This also means there is more unburned substances in petrol engine exhaust than in diesel engine and causes more pollution.

The severity of pollution is not measured with the colour of the smoke. White petrol smoke is more harmful than black diesel smoke.

Diesel subsidy in India is not that high as it is hyped now a days. If subsidy is removed, prices may go up by Rs 6 or so.

High maintenance cost of Diesel engines, diesel clutter, vibrations etc are a thing of the past.

Further, one should enjoy the torque of a Diesel engine in city drive. You can move from standstill either in first or second gear (or even third gear for some cars in plain roads) without applying the accelerator - thats just by releasing the clutch smoothly in bumber to bumber traffic.
i too agree taht diesel subsidy is not that great as it is made out to be. just a hype i suppose.

i am talking it in terms of experience since my dad bought an M & M armada in 1994 when diesel used to cost about Rs.8 per liter and petrol around that time was rs. 27 to a litre.

no overhauling of the armada has been done.[clap]

it has clocked more than 2 Lakh kilometres . that would be anybodys guess since it has been with us for more than 17 years.[:)]
 
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Few advantages i would like to highlight on the favor of diesel engines

1. Long life : Diesel gets into the engine as liquid and not as almost gaseous as in the case of petrol. So diesel itself serves as a lubricant inside the engine reducing the wear and tear. Think of long distance buses and trucks which clock lacs of kms in few months and we still see very old trucks on the highways.

2. Emission : It gives out CO and not CO2 which is greatly eco friendly. Carbon di oxide is the main agent for green house effect and global warming

3. Noise and vibrations : Of course it is a concerning factor with diesel engines but these are getting addressed quite well the modern cars. At times this is taken care of so well and we are not believe that we are in a diesel car.

maintenance is always a mandatory thing (be it petrol or diesel) if you expect your ride to serve you for longer. modern diesel engines are senesitive and the tolerance level appears lower than how it was earlier.

Not everybody can claim that they have maintained the ride so well and still it ditched them. It happens very rare.
I too am in favour of diesel engines, and I have valid reasons behind my choice.
Sai, I would like to point out things in your earlier post, which are wrong.
1. When diesel leaves fuel injector, it is a very fine mist and it burns (before it could perform any lubricating action). Diesel is not doing any sort of lubrication here at all.
2. No engine will emit CO in normal conditions. Both diesel and petrol engines emit CO2 and they contribute (and will continue to) to green house effect.
CO is not an eco friendly gas. If vehicles start emitting CO, we all would be dead.
3. Totally agree with you on this

Now, my take on the topic
As I have always said
  • Diesel engines are more efficient than petrol engines. Autosafari has given figures in favour of this statement.
  • Diesel engines are more powerful than petrol engine (Read torque rich).
  • Diesel is much cheaper than petrol and gives much better mileage.

I have put up a post in another thread. There I have put up an exhaustive comparison of diesel and petrol engines. And why diesel engines are superior than petrol engines. Kindly go through post #84. I have taken it from a website, and I am in full agreement with all the mentioned points. http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/technical-zone/7579-grooves-engines-6.html

Edit:-
sai. I am partially wrong, when I say your point #1 is wrong (your post #11). Apologies. In the combustion chamber, while the diesel is not breaking the lube oil film on liner and piston rings, petrol tends to break it. So lubrication of combustion chamber is better in case of diesel engines.
 
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Hi!

Lately i have been seeing many people buying diesel cars over the petrol powered ones even if the daily average is <50kms just to save the fuel and running costs and most companies making profits keeping this as a motive.

We can see many examples in and around us buying a diesel one and they don't even know the tax rates,maintenance part and diesel clatters

We were having a small talk on this among our friends and i came to know that people was hating diesel engines for their more maintenance and cabin full of vibrations which makes some uncomfortable,pollution levels

See diesel needs maintenance fine then if maintained well this can be kept upto 2-3 lakh kms and whereas petrol also needs lots of maintenance once it crosses 1,00,000 mark.Want to know which one's better?
a car can run as long as the owner needs if and only if its maintained well and has gone through periodic checks , ofcourse a diesel car can go beyond 1 lakh km and so does the petrol car . But then , the real story starts the diesel engine's spares are much costlier than petrol ones .
The diesel engine operate under higher compression ratios than petrol engine , hence there is more wear and tear , so logically you should replace that part more quickly to avoid further damage to other parts . One more reason why the diesel spares are costly are , they have to work in harsh environment ( inside the diesel engine) so they have to be of much higher quality so that they sustain atleast their service period .
As far as the vibrations you are concerned , now a days this has been resolved to a large extent. Let me tell about the new swift diesel version the vibrations are negligeable and performance was also very good for a diesel my 4 friends along with me (total 5) had planned to test the car and just got amazed feeling the pickup 5 members( my friends are really very hefty) and with a/c on at 60% , whereas innova is very powerfull but has some vibrations i believe because i felt.
So on long run definetely if the owner could do regular checks then yeah both are same one simple example are the metro busses as far as i know in hyderabad these are the same busses running from past 18 years and you know how these drivers drive those busses
 
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A petrol car owner says petrol engine is the best !!
A diesel car owner says diesel engine is the best !!

I have noticed the above, in quite few threads here and in other forums too. If it is so, then it will be biased and not a constructive discussion.

The discussion should be non biased and with figures and facts differentiating between older engines and new age engines and its performance and also look at the influence factors like the fuel cost.

I thing Vipul & Codeman are missing here in this thread [:)] to explain the petrol engines
 

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