Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   The Indian Car Scene (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/)

-   -   Petrol versus Diesel Cars (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/122379-petrol-versus-diesel-cars-18.html)

The Diesel torque is addictive. It also aids in slow moving city traffic.

On the downside diesel clutch are usually heavier than petrol cars. You will need to change gears less number of times, but every push of the clutch is more effort.
If you are open to Petrol, you should try Turbo Petrol, I think its a good compromise between Torque of Diesel engine and refinement of Petrol.

I think the best solution to the clutch issue is obviously buying and automatic. Apart from Celerio, I can't think of any Diesel Automatic under 10L.
Rapid and Vento are your best bet. But Diesel torque and the 7speed DSG are not the best of mates.

I feel Creta is overpriced and the pricing of Diesel AT is just arrogance. Also, Creta is a tad too big for daily office commutes in city traffic.

While we usually compare OTR costs and monthly running expenses, we usually fail to compare the extra interest we will end up paying for a higher loan amount. I had created an excel sheet some time back to do this comparison.

Once you enter OTR Cost, avg fuel price, ARAI certified FE, monthly avg running, down payment, interest % and loan tenure, the excel basically calculates your total expense for the loan tenure and tells you if you will win or lose.

Maintenance cost is not even considered, as the variables are too many. Suffice to say, diesels are usually more expensive to maintain than their petrol counterparts. Hope this is helpful.

Completely agree with you. If we consider the economic factors alone it just doesn't make sense diesel cars just don't break even for private cars.
Interest, inflation, future increases in diesel prices, risk of resale value, maintenance costs are the factors if considered will only make the case strong against diesel.
However many consider diesel to accelerate quicker than petrol and hence find diesel engine more fun to drive.

Hi Houston, If I was in your place I would have test driven all the automatics in available in the market and then come to a conclusion. GT TSI if you prefer drive ability over space and JAZZ CVT for space.
One more diesel auto is Mahindra TUV300.

Polo TSI has better acceleration than Polo TDI. Laura TSI will beat Laura diesel in acceleration and top speed. In most cases, petrol variant beats equivalent diesel. But yes, in some cases like Dzire , Verna etc. diesel variant is better than petrol variant. That is because Maruti and Hyundai have focussed all their energies on diesels and has given step-motherly treatment to these very basic petrol variants. They are just present as also-rans so that someone averse to a diesel car does not run away to competition. In spite of all this diesel torque talk, super-car territory is still occupied by petrol cars. The diesel torque comes early but ends early, too. Once past peak torque, revving engine only increases rpm, not forward speed. But petrols are fun all the way to redline. Then there is this beautiful exhaust note. The only downer is fuel costs. But then again, maintenance is also considerably on the lower side.

The Linea T-Jet is actually more expensive to maintain than the MJD. So, that takes away the only advantage you have mentioned. But, well, you live only once :D

Might be the case with modern small petrol engines trying their best to be fuel efficient like the K series, variety of 3 cyl petrol etc. but as you go higher up the scale, you can pitch any two cars that cost more than about 10 lakhs;diesel and petrol, against eachother, and you will find that the petrol equivalents take the crown most of the time their case for performance becomes even stronger when you hit the D segment or higher. :D

I think this has more to do with comparison of Turbo diesels with NA petrols. Diesel gives you a feeling of being quick because of the pushed to seat feeling when turbo spools. The boost normally comes at around 2k rpm which makes it more evident. However flat out acceleration petrols might be faster to ton.

As an example, when the swift diesel was launched it was considered very fast. However, 1.3 petrol engine on duty could reach a ton in 11.xx seconds a good 2 seconds (I think) earlier than diesel.

Edit:I believe even K series in swift is faster to ton than DDIS.

Swift petrol is significantly slower than swift diesel, both in 0-100 & in-gear acceleration figures!
Other than the polo GT, there is no petrol car in India, that can come close to its diesel sibling in terms of performance figures, let alone beat it.

Hi!
Do you have any data to back up your statement?

Of course 1.2k petrol is faster than the turbo lagged Multijet diesel. http://www.motorbeam.com/2013/02/car...pecifications/

In the absence of a statutory body having these tests all we can do is refer magazines like Overdrive/Autocar etc. Here are the figures (0-100 timings) for cars that I picked up from an Overdrive print magazine dated Aug 2014.

Swift Petrol K Series- 12.93
Swift DDIS- 15.15

Ritz Petrol- 14.71
Ritz Diesel- 15.43

Dzire Petrol- 13.1
Dzire Diesel- 14.98

Figo Petrol- 16.79
Figo Diesel- 19.3

Brio does not have a diesel But petrol Brio does in 12.85 Secs
Amaze diesel which is 135 Kgs heavier does in 13.3 Secs with a bigger engine.

In gear acceleration is an indication of driveability. If I want to drive fast, I will not just try to stay in-gear and gun the throttle. I would downshift if required and go.

That's a bold statement to make. Any figures to back it up? When you talk of siblings, how do you compare their engines? Usually diesel engines will be of a higher capacity and hence may be faster. But if both the engines are turbocharged and of similar cubic capacity, petrol motor will produce more power and will be faster.

We have our own thread by a bhpian who has recorded the 0-100 timing of few cars with a VBOX.

Some readings from it:
Figo Diesel (Autocar Vbox run): 16.26s
Swift Diesel (Autocar Vbox run): 13.65s
Fiesta 1.5 TDCi: 13.90s
GT TDi: 10.51s

Here is the link:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...imes-here.html

When you compare siblings, you compare them in stock form given to the market. Isn't that the ideal way to compare instead of creating a hypothetical scenario where the compared engine are of same cubic capacity and turbo charged? That's not a realistic or practical way to do it IMO. You compare what you get, not what you wish for. I still find the diesel versions of most of the the cars to be more fun to drive than their petrol version. Even if both are turbocharged, there is a definitive separator, Torque!

Lets focus on real life road conditions instead of 0-100

The fact remains that small petrol cars bog down with AC on. Also bogs down with extra luggage or more than 2 adult passengers. This problem is less in Diesel cars.

I am only talking about small cars, not a v6 petrol.

Real life stop-go traffic is no fun for petrol cars, not to mention poor mileage.