Which is 'greener'? Petrol or diesel?

[simon.r]

What disposable income?

Not sure why you ask? The way my employers' scheme works means I'll be considering income tax, MPG, and contribution to my employer. I currently have a VW Golf diesel. If I'd really wanted to I could have had a Mercedes E class last time around, but it would have cost me about 4 times as much as the Golf. Cars aren't a massive priority to me, so realistically I'm probably looking at something with a list price of less than <25k and with low emissions.

 

[simon.r]

Most of my business mileage is motorway driving, rarely less than 100 mile round trip.

 

[Archie_tect]

I would check out which one's my bikes fit in.

Are cyclists the tightest breed going, what do they do with all their disposable income.

What disposable income?

Should have quoted screenman.... not meant for you simon! It was supposed to be funny.... failed spectacularly!

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Most of my business mileage is motorway driving, rarely less than 100 mile round trip.

Diesel

 

[Drago]

Long journeys/motorways: diesel for the lower CO2
No driving could actually be described as green of course, except maybe @Drago 's chip fat special.

picking up another 70 litres of used oil on Friday. This business of paying for fuel is so passe.

 

[young Ed]

i'm assuming fuel for business miles at least will be covered by employer cost wise?

personally i would go diesel, i prefer the grunt of a diesel and being an agri man i've grown up on diesel!
Cheers Ed

 

[Archie_tect]

Red Ed....

 

[simon.r]

i'm assuming fuel for business miles at least will be covered by employer cost wise?
Cheers Ed

Yes. I can do the maths of diesel vs petrol easily enough, just interested in the green side of things, which will be a factor in my decision.

 

[Drago]

That's tricky. It's not just the cleanliness of the engines, but the cleanliness and energy required in the production process of the fuels themselves. Factor in the whole cycle and diesel is a fair winner.

 

[Archie_tect]

Can't think of one that could do 100 mile motorway trip without a charge M... unless people know differently! Hybrid might work, but most of them are still gimmicks..

 

[simon.r]

[QUOTE 3655745, member: 76"]What about an electric car?[/QUOTE]

I'll look into it, but I think range will be a problem, so would have to at least be a hybrid.

 

[MikeW-71]

I don't think it's as clear cut as it used to be.

Skoda Octavia 1.4TSI turbo petrol. Pop it on the motorway, set cruise to 70mph, select Eco mode and it'll happily give you 50mpg+. £30 VED

Granted the diesels will give you even more mpg, but they cost £2k more to buy. That seems to work out that you'd need to be doing 20k miles per year to break even over 3 years against a petrol.

 

[Drago]

It solves nothing. Burning coal in a power station provides no real benefit over burning petrol in the vehicles engine. Depends of who's maths you believe as to the exact balance, but broadly speaking it moves the problem from tailpipe to smokestack rather than solves it.

And then there are the nasties in the batteries, some of which do immense environmental damage during their extraction and manufacturer.

 

[fossyant]

Got to be a diesel for motorway then. Less fuel is greener.

 

[fossyant]

Electric vehicles are the worse life time cost to the planet. The battery production is highly toxic