[Closed] Diesel car - madness to buy a nearly new one?

As long as it’s the latest euro compliance I wouldn’t worry. It’s older diesels that are being banned and as long it suits your needs (longer trips) it’ll be more economical than the equivalent petrol.

Go for it. I have

Diesel sales have dropped from something like 50% to 30% of the total. Resale values are down too.

Personally I think a total ban from cities is some way off (possibly many years) and if you buy a new / nearly new diesel I think you are relatively safe in that regard. As a comparison we have a 10yr old 1.6 petrol micra which has a Paris / French “pollution” sticker class 2 - we see plenty of modern diesels with a class 1, ie less polluting. IMO any ban is going to be based on sticker values so will be 3 or 4 first and modern diesels are less polluting than our little petrol car.

If you can get a good deal then go for it. I’d seriously consider one (only owned one diesel before) not keast as I am not a fan of small high revving petrol engines. Cars we are looking at have 2 tdi or 1.4 petrol turbos.

The thing to be careful of is the final values on PCP on new diesels.

Make sure you stick within your mileage and hand the car back if it gets really bad. Don't be someone who sets a mega low mileage to save a few quid then gets caught out by going over the mileage and the dealer values the vehicle very low to save their bacon.

Our work isn’t buying any more diesels at all. All stopped this year, gone over to Petrol hybrids. Woo-hoo!

I wouldn't buy. I'd lease or PCP and stick to the mileage so you know exactly what your commitments are.

If you can get one of the modern petrol new then good luck. VAG have major supply problems due to huge demand. A friend ordered a 1.4 Tiguan in may, keeps getting delivery put back. Currently told March!!

For frequent long commutes diesel is still more efficient

It's a cash purchase, no finance involved, probably around £25K for something used about 1 year old

I suppose my main concern would be massive depreciation

I suppose my main concern would be massive depreciation

So don't waste your money & get something still decent that's already depreciated.

Buy at least 3 years old. Depreciation curve is well into shallowing out and you will still be on the euro 6 diesels.

Two to three years old could get you an ex-lease or Motability car, the latter is likely to have relatively low mileage, but there could be some issues regarding condition: they don’t get looked after terribly well, but that could be reflected in price, or any damage repaired. I’ve picked up a Motability return with as little as 2000 miles on the clock, the Mokka X I’ve got out front has less than 5k on it, it’s about a year old, with some damage to the rear hatch, either it was accidentally reversed into something or something reversed into it, but fairly easily fixed, and a very nice car, 140ps 1.4 turbo, I’d be more than happy to buy it, given that I had the money in the first place!

Make sure you stick within your mileage and hand the car back if it gets really bad. Don't be someone who sets a mega low mileage to save a few quid then gets caught out by going over the mileage and the dealer values the vehicle very low to save their bacon.

This makes no sense as the price per mile over the agreed limit is set when you take out the finance.

As for the op’s situation, at nearly new and at 25k I wouldn’t be buying diesel. We bought out pcp diesel last summer at the end of the agreement but plan to get rid within 18 months or so. If you plan to keep it some time you are running the risk of it becoming undesirable and therefore worth less.

We plan to change both cars early 2019 and neither will be diesel. We don’t do huge mileage, modern petrol cars are ace and derv just isn’t worth the risk.

If you're doing enough miles to warrant a diesel, maybe you should adjust your lifestyle so you're doing fewer miles. 💡

You don't live and work north of Glasgow and Edinburgh then?

Buy at least 3 years old. Depreciation curve is well into shallowing out and you will still be on the euro 6 diesels.

Picked up a nearly-3yo 1.6d Octavia in mint condition with 34k on clock for £9.5k. Love the car. Waiting for diesel pump prices to keep dropping

Madness to buy a diesel at all if you value public health or the pleasant climate of the planet you live on.

Please test drive a Zoé or a Leaf before making a final decision.

When you know there's a problem, don't be a part of it.

If you're doing enough miles to warrant a diesel, maybe you should adjust your lifestyle so you're doing fewer miles.

What a ridiculous thing to suggest, he's probably not doing the mileage for fun you know.

I suppose my main concern would be massive depreciation

[url= https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volkswagen-emissions-swiss/around-6000-swiss-vw-owners-seek-damages-in-emissions-scandal-idUKKBN1EO08Q ]VW emissions test thing is still rattling around[/url], a couple of interesting comments in there and your guess is as good as mine as to how that will affect future values

We went to buy a new car last week. We've always had petrol and wanted the same again but they were saying that production isn't keeping up with demand at the moment.

P-Jay - Member
As long as it’s the latest euro compliance I wouldn’t worry. It’s older diesels that are being banned and as long it suits your needs (longer trips) it’ll be more economical than the equivalent petrol

Very much this.. diesel will not go away, there’s plenty of reasons to keep diesel cars on the roads.

The current government can’t be trusted to do anything, so that pie in the sky date they shot out in the media is a lie and should be taken with the same seriousness as David Davis promises about leaving his government post when his besty got booted out the other week.

Buy one, make sure it’s the latest Euro compliant vehicle (and it should be)

You, like many many others are still buying diesel vehicles and you shouldn’t be worried.

Don’t forget petrol cars have similar emissions issues, it’s just that petrol fro some reason isn’t seen in the same bad press as diesels ..

Depreciation was the concern buying our new diesel. But massive oversupply (and the same issue pointed out above over getting a petrol in the car we wanted in a timescale that fitted giving the current lease car back) meant there are some staggering new and pre-reg deals out there.

Originally I was looking at a year old and the 2nd hand market is holding up surprisingly well. I ended up buying a pre-reg as the difference in price was more than offset in getting 34 months warranty and the latest model with zero miles on it.

We bought on PCP but I'm very clear on mileage. 17,000 per year is what I've done for the previous 5 and I don't expect it to change. We also got close to the new car APR offer by repeatedly walking away until we got the deal we wanted.

Slightly OT but one thing I learned was your average car sales bod in a big dealership needs to shift 15 cars a week. So if they've invested 3-4 hours with you, they are desperate to get the sale. We ended up showing where we could get a better deal elsewhere but offering to keep our business local to see if they could get close to matching it.

If that's TLDR, basically 2nd hand for that amount of cash you could get a brilliant deal if you are patient/prepared to be flexible in colour/options etc. I'd still look for the stella new deals tho as the over-supply issue isn't going away soon from what we could see.

I was chatting to a local and long established 2nd hand car salesman last week and he said that demand for diesels has dropped right off.

[url= https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170523144338.htm ]Petrol engines emit 10x - 100x of particulates as diesel engines [/url]

Back in the summer I priced up a new Superb estate, 150hp TDi model, SE spec as I’m not fussed on cars, it’s just a bus. List was £26k, cheapest CarWow reply was £17.8k. And that’s a new model with all the APR deals that they normally offer. I only do 8k a year but I didn’t price up a petrol model as it needs to tow a caravan. For me, paying up front to extend the warranty to 5 years would have meant a decent car with no surprises. The diesel ban is unlikely to have any meaningful impact for a long time & then its only if you rag an old diesel into town every day.

I deal with two of the local main dealers round me via work regularly and they're really struggling to get sales as they can't get hold of petrol models for 4-8 months. They're also stuck with a shedload of diesel stock that they're currently pre-reging to keep their sales figures semi-decent and are about to flood the market with which is one reason why diesel sales have only dropped as much as they have, the real picture is a lot worse. The head purchaser of one dealership told me straight that the bottom is about to fall out of the secondhand diesel market as there will be the same thing going on at nearly every dealer nationwide and the discounts would be huge. If I was willing to do a deal before Jan 1st he was offering me a brand new top spec small diesel (Fiesta/Clio/Polo size without giving the dealer away) with a list price of £17.5k for under £11k! The pre-reg prices will be a similar drop across their range he said. There are no discounts at all on the petrol models whatsoever.

If I was in your boat I'd be looking for an older big engined petrol with low mileage and use that until the market settles. The extra fuel costs would be more than covered by the diesel depreciation and petrols holding their values better.

If I was in your boat I'd be looking for an older big engined petrol with low mileage and use that until the market settles. The extra fuel costs would be more than covered by the diesel depreciation and petrols holding their values better.

This is probably the best advice anyway, 'cos you're not pouring money away on depreciation or finance. We bought an old Mazda 6 estate for £2400. 2.0l petrol, I wouldn't touch a diesel with a barge pole, and it's only getting worse.

I don't do a lot of mileage perhaps 8k a year (I know, i know), but I need a bigger car for the fam+bikes+dogs but I've been looking at the Passat AllTrack, diesel, perhaps a year or two old, for about £14k. I reckon come next year there might be better ones out there too.

The talk of bans and the bottom falling out the market will suit me as I will be looking to keep it for more a lot longer than a few years. 😀

Petrol engines emit 10x - 100x of particulates as diesel engines

It seems to me quite a good time to buy a Diesel as long as you buy well and its had most of its “normal” depreciation .

I saw a 2015 BMW 320 auto estate in a dealer 30k miles for £14k recently which I thought would be good for the next 10yrs of motoring.

I wouldnt however spend £25k on a newer one ( unless I had six figures cash spare in the bank) too much depreciation regardless of fuel type.

Just getting a new diesel in a couple of weeks. They don't do hybrid trucks that will cope with 40kplus a year mileage and haul a couple of tonnes of kit into the arse end of nowhere. Come on Tesla sort your stuff out and get something that will tow 3.5 tonnes, has a range of 500miles can carry 1tonne internally and has 4 wheel drive.

If car buying I'd still look for either a newish big diesel estate or a v8 petrol as they depreciate like crazy and you can get some stonking deals

Thanks all

Car is for my dad who is fixed on the model but not the engine - all the reviews say that the best engine available for this car is a 1.6 diesel introduced in 2015. It also has a (9 speed) automatic box which suits my dad too

Same boat debating over a near new 10k miles on the clock 1.6 automatic top spec car for about half the price of a new manual (I'd prefer the auto as it's 6speed and autos rock) base spec petrol plus been quoted 16 weeks and double the price.

I'm not convinced the petrol thing is going to be a magic bullet anyway but I figure my next car might well be electric as battery tech might have actually caught up by then.

I have just bought a five month old diesel car. My hands were a little bit tied as I get a car allowance from work and one of the conditions is that it has to be diesel. Given the car is pretty much as new and it was well discounted I am more than happy with the purchase. Most of the driving I do is typically 100 mile runs on the motorway so a diesel engines makes a lot of sense, from the research I did the equivalent petrol engine returned nowhere near the same mpg. It is a large hatchback, it if was something smaller maybe petrol would make more sense? As a company we run a lot of company cars, most do 20k+ miles a year, due to fuel costs every car is diesel, currently with petrol cars the sums just don't add up for us.

Please test drive a Zoé or a Leaf before making a final decision.

I know they drive great just not remotely practical for most people. The kind of journeys id use it for -are better served by bicycle.

theres also **** all infrastructure up here bar a token 1 or 2 spots for every thousand at the shopping center which usually have a self important range rover in them...

Can't have a fast charge point at home either due to low amperage supply.

Makes them as much use as a chocolate teapot.

jamesgarbett - Member
Thanks all

Car is for my dad who is fixed on the model but not the engine - all the reviews say that the best engine available for this car is a 1.6 diesel introduced in 2015. It also has a (9 speed) automatic box which suits my dad too

My concern would not be the arse dropping out of the diesel market, even though it will, but the mileage he is doing.

Under 10k a year and urban driving, do not buy a diesel. It'll struggle to do complete DPF re-gens.