Mondeo 2 litre Petrol or Diesel (clueless)

ShoulderChip

Hi my dad is buying this car and wants to get the automatic version,
he was told that automatic only comes in a turbo diesel engine.
this shocked him as he never drove a diesel before and is worried that it will make the car much noisier to drive.
the salesman assured him that this was not the case and that in the future there will be more and more diesel cars on the road.

Was the salesman right?

and are tehre any other negative aspects of a diesel engine,

thanks a million for your help, he really si clueless and would probably buy it blindly as it is.]
cheers.

E92

The salesman offered your father very good advice actually.

The disadvantages of a diesel are that it is a bit noisier than a petrol and there is less power and slower 0-100 time and a lower top speed. They pollute more particulates and other oxides which are dangerous to humans. They are infinitely better than diesels of even a few years ago in this regard. They are nowhere near as bad as some people would have you believe, but they are still a bit of a health risk. The real disadvantage of diesel is the price over a petrol.


In the diesel's favour is the superior fuel consumption over a petrol model. The diesel Mondeo does around 10 mpg more than the petrol under the EU figures. The big advantage of a diesel is all the torque. Torque is the main thing that gets a car to overtake. So a diesel offers much better real world performance to a similar petrol. A 1.8 diesel Mondeo with 100 bhp does 50-100 km/h in 4th gear in 12.4 seconds, exactly the same as a 2.0 petrol Mondeo, even though the petrol Mondeo has 45 bhp more. The days of waiting an age for a diesel to preheat in the morning are ancient, some new diesels don't even need to preheat at all, just turn the key and go like a petrol, as are the days of diesels being a lot noisier, though petrols still have the edge. Diesels have better resale values compared to a petrol, so the steeper price you pay for a diesel now you get back when you trade it in

The recent changes in VRT which come in in July will be of enormous benefit to diesels. VRT and Motor Tax will be done solely on emissions. A Manual 2.0 TDCi Mondeo will fall from 30% VRT now to 24% VRT after July though unusually the 2.0 petrol will fall from 30% to 28% however the 1.6 Mondeo goes from 25% to 28% because contrary to popular belief bigger petrols are only a bit less polluting generally. The car industry says that by the end of 2009, which will be the first full year of the VRT changes, 65 to 70% of new cars sold will be diesel, compared to around 25% now.

What the new VRT scheme is very bad for is Automatics. Though the diesel automatic Mondeo falls from 30% to 28%, the manual is in the 24% VRT category so clearly adding an Autobox to the car is going to be a very expensive option(because they charge it on everything, not just the gearbox) compared to a manual.

Spare a thought for anyone who wants a petrol automatic Mondeo though, it's 2.3 litre engine qualifies for the 32% VRT category and €1,000 road tax compared to a diesel automatic and it's €600 tax and 28% VRT:eek:.

If possible, get a manual diesel Mondeo after July.

cantdecide

Hell of a mouthful but he's right you know. I don't know about the new mondeo but the outgoing one did have a pretty noisy engine compared to to other manufacturers.

I'd still have it with an autobox though.