The great diesel dilemma (continued)
Date:
21 August 2007
As petrol and diesel prices near parity business car managers must follow our example and do their maths before committing to one fuel or the other, writes John Mahoney
Driver one
Car: Vauxhall Astra SXi 5dr
Business miles: 5000 a year
Personal miles: 5000 a year
Income tax: 22%
Driver one is a low-mileage fleet driver with a hatchback. Usually, the smaller the car, the less the difference between the two fuels in terms of economy, therefore there is less reason to pay the premium for diesel. That's partly borne out in this example, with petrol just pipping diesel.
Driver one | | Petrol 1.6 16v 115PS | Diesel 1.7 CDTi 100PS | P11D price | £14,875 | £16,185 | Depreciation | £10,213 | £10,829 | Fuel | £5117 | £4148 | SMR | £1529 | £1293 | Cost per mile | 28.1p | 27.1p | Fuel consumption | 43.5mpg | 55.4mpg | CO2 (BIK tax) | 156g/km (18%) | 138g/km (18%) | Insurance | group 7 | group 6 | Top speed/0-62mph | 119mph/10.9secs | 112mph/11.5secs | Costs difference for 3yrs/30,000mls | | | Tax (22%) | - | £156 | Fuel | £641 | - | SMR | £118 | - | Depreciation | - | £616 | Overall difference | - | £13 |
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VERDICT: Petrol's cheaper - but by the narrowest of margins
Driver two
Car: Ford Mondeo Zetec 5dr
Business miles: 20,000 a year
Personal miles: 10,000 a year
Income tax: 22%
Mondeo man here is the epitome of the hard-working rep, racking up a huge 20,000 business miles every year. Go petrol, however, and you'll pay dearly - your fuel bills will be 40% higher than travelling by diesel. This is a fine example of why going diesel can bring rich rewards.
Driver two | | Petrol 2.0 140PS | Diesel 2.0 TDCi 145PS | P11D price | £16,940 | £18,205 | Depreciation | £11,997 | £12,573 | Fuel | £6218 | £12,573 | SMR | £1629 | £1477 | Cost per mile | 33.1p | 31.4p | Fuel consumption | 35.8mpg | 47.9mpg | CO2 (BIK tax) | 189g/km (24%) | 156g/km (21%) | Insurance | group 8 | group 8 | Top speed/0-62mph | 130mph/9.7secs | 130mph/9.3secs | Costs difference for 3yrs/90,000mls | | | Tax (22%) | £760 (22% BIK) | - | Fuel | £2801 | - | SMR | £229 | - | Depreciation | - | £576 | Overall difference | £3214 | - |
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VERDICT: Diesel - a clear £3214 win
Driver three
Car: BMW 5-series SE auto
Business miles: 10,000 a year
Personal miles: 10,000 a year
Income tax: 40%
Most senior managers would perhaps favour petrol refinement over diesel. But is this financial lunacy? Not if, like our driver, you average 10,000 business and personal miles and the choice concerns a 5-series BMW. Despite a very marginal P11D price premium over the petrol, the diesel misses out, mainly because of the petrol's impressive 37.7mpg average fuel economy on the combined cycle.
Driver three | | Petrol 530i SE auto | Diesel 530d SE auto | P11D price | £35,550 | £35,910 | Depreciation | £20,045 | £20,180 | Fuel | £5905 | £5369 | SMR | £3178 | £3125 | Cost per mile | 49.4p | 47.8p | Fuel consumption | 37.7mpg | 42.8mpg | CO2 (tax) | 178g/km (22%) | 176g/km (25%) | Insurance | group 18 | group 17 | Top speed/0-62mph | 155mph/6.5secs | 155mph/6.8secs | Costs difference for 3yrs/60,000mls | | | Tax (40%) | - | £1388 | Fuel | £805 | - | SMR | £5 | - | Depreciation | - | £135 | Overall difference | - | £665 |
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VERDICT: Go for petrol - it's cheaper
How we calculated our figures - and how you can do yours
We took two equivalent petrol and diesel engines of a particular car model and added:
. Difference in tax (over time)
. Difference in fuel costs (over distance)
. Difference in maintenance (over distance and time)
. Difference in depreciation (over time and distance)
This gave us an overall cost difference between the two cars.
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