Honest John - modern diesels

You are a diesel perv though.

As is being hit repeatedly over the head with a steam hammer.

Ain't no substitute for cubes, man.

Irritates the hell out of me that people will settle for pretty rough motors in exchange for a few quid saved per week. I can understand why they do it if they don't know any better, but there are lots of people out there who do 40k miles a year and actually choose to drive something completely unsuited for the job in hand in any way other than mpg.

Fortunately, Red Ken has gone and the Gormless Gordon is about to follow, so hopefully whoever is in next will realise the reason they've gone is f*ck all to do with the 10p tax band and all to do with their relentless milking of the motorist under false pretenses.

Nice thought. Care to take a bet on whether a future Tory government will substantially reduce motoring taxation? For any government to do that you'd need a buoyant economy or big cuts in public spending. Neither of which is likely in the foreseeable future.

I'll vote for anyone who reduces the cost of motoring by a significant amount. Cut the public spending by all means, cut it by completely getting rid of all the excess paperwork and legislation that is making a mockery of democracy. Put a complete stop to the "compensation culture", basically strip away all the bullshit that this country has descended into in the last 20 years or so.

Stop stuff like spending millions of pounds on "studies" on things like Rights of way on green lanes, then in 6 years have a 'maybe' on two lanes. Stop Wasting money on the Olympics in London, the Millenium Dome and other harebrained schemes. Bring the soldiers home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Basically stop wasting money and start using common sense. Two things I've noticed Labour have been utterly useless at.

Compared to my previous petrol car (and last ever Vauxhall), I got my diesel because:

1/ It's quicker. 2/ It's faster. 3/ It has a smoother, more refined engine. 4/ It has a much more effortless and useable power delivery. 5/ it sounded better. 6/ I get 5mpg more in similar driving.

Subsequently (in the last 7 years), I've also found that the engine has been 100% reliable which was not the case with the petrol.

It "irritates the hell out of me that people" assume I bought a diesel just to save a few quid..I didn't and I haven't.

You must have had a truly awful petrol then.

Common rail stuff doesn't tend to be very reliable.

I can't think of another reason to buy one.

I do a lot of travelling for work and have a choice of around 10-15 cars to use. Until recently we were using a Rover 75 CDTi, but the last week or so we've been using a nasty old X reg Vectra estate with LPG. It's cheaper, quieter and smoother (engine wise) than 90% of diesel stuff, which shows just how utterly shit diesels are if a Vectra is better than them. I despise Vectras immensely, but they're still better than most diesel stuff.

Pete M gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

See that bit where he said it as a Vauxhall...?

Oh shit, yeah.

Still, even a Vauxhall petrol lump is better than most diesels.

That's as may be..it was a mainstream mass-market *petrol* car though.

My experience is zero (common rail) engine problems in 7 years. The last petrol engines to compare with that reliability, IME, were a 1980 V6 Volvo and, before that, a 1972 2 litre Volvo.

Well I have, personally, another 6 reasons. YMMV. I should add that I'm not at all keen on 4 cylinder diesels so I don't have one as a result.

LPG's a different ball game. It's for ultimate cheapskates who'll sacrifice, in some cases, boot space and a little performance to make substantial economic savings. I don't need either of those.

BTW, what kind of *work* imposes an LPG *X* plate Vectra on its employees? Wow.

When I recall Vectras of that vintage, it was the comical handling rather than the bad engines that spring to mind.

I see around 20 common rail diesels a week with major issues - and that's not including dual mass flywheel failure. DMF failures are insanely common.

Good, the 5 and 6 pot diesels are almost tolerable.

No sacrifice in boot space whatsoever.

I'm a motor trader and work with another chap. We were fed up of putting huge amounts of petrol / diesel in cars when we were going to view cars to buy. A return trip to London in something like an Audi A6 V6 TDi costs around £60-70 quid. In the dodgy old Vectra (which cost us nothing, which is why we use it) it costs £30.

The handling is terrible. The car is terrible, but it's better than driving a diesel.

That's just an opinion..and not a convincing one at that. For example, if someone offered me a loan of an Audi R8 V12 TDI ("almost tolerable", from what you've said), *I'd* be quite pleased. If someone did the same with an X plate LPG Vectra the answer would be "no thank you..and park it somewhere else mate..". Incidentally, I'd prefer the TDI over its older petrol brother too.

If you are in a Trabant, remember the earplugs. The Plastic body doesn't rust, but resonates lively in concert with the 2-cyl two-stroke motorbike engine. rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-bambambam rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-bambambam rrrrrrrrrrrrrbambambambam!

Oi, I love my Barkas. Going to play with it soon :-D

and I'm off to play in the Tatra as well :-D

Pete M gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

You had me miffed at "Barkas", too, y'know.