Petrol vs. Diesel

The Mondeo. There isn't a choice.

Ding.

Essentially then you don't value your driving as much as you say you do.

Essentially, yes - I don't know what that donk was, but it was moulded to become the Rover L-series, which resides in the Rover 45 2.0 TD.

It was one of my first turbodiesels experienced as a new driver. Originally in a Montego, then in a Maestro.

Yes. Docile handling, lots of space, good sized boot.

Isn't that just perfect? Occasionally Dad would drop me off at the dairy at

04:30 hours when he had a long haul trip. I'd hear it for a couple of miles...

The Maestro had an unusual noise that I found very relaxing and after a while I didn't hear it.

Oh and it was stupidly economical compared to almost all of the competition at the time.

60mpg from a 1.4 litre petrol engined car is entirely possible, but it's bound to be on long runs at a fairly steady 50-60mph - the sort of journey that a small diesel engine would probably be doing around 75mpg.

Yup.

In all honesty, that's basically true for well cared for most modern engines.

That's bollocks. They're only lighter due to the lighter engine. There might be tiny differences in the construction (though I'd have thought it's unlikely), but overall the shells would be identical - only possible difference would be that the suspension might be slightly more heavy duty to take into account the slightly heavier engine, but as for requiring more energy in production, it'd be very marginal.

Well it's happened to a degree already, though the main rocketing of diesel happened long before I can remember. They're not going to put the price of petrol down, relative to diesel, much more than it already is, as it'd cause masses of people to switch back to petrol, which would hurt their (they being the govt) pockets hard in lost revenue from fuel duty on diesel.

Are the engines or the cars cheaper to make? Actual production costs are fairly immaterial, it's R+D you're paying for with the latest diesel engines. Anything mass produced, materials wise, is going to be pretty cheap regardless.

Heh, I remember being in a mate's 1 litre mini going up a steep hill on the edge of Fleet (Seven Hills Road IIRC) - I think his words were "Pete, you fat bastard, I've gotta change to 2nd" - other mate in the car (who drove a Rover 618i) said "I'm normally in 3rd", but my mate driving said in his old car ('95 Rover 218 TD) said he'd happily do it in fifth. Just a little real-world example for you there....

Aye - much like modern engines, it'll probably still be going when we've all rotted away......

Peter