Going to change but petrol or diesel?

Absolutely get a petrol. Do not go near a diesel with that sort of mileage

If you have a driveway and can get a home charger then for that mileage I'd consider going electric or plugin hybrid

From the sounds of it you're not driving more than 20km a day?

Even the most basic electric or plugin hybrid should manage that with about a 75% reduction in fuel costs and cheap tax to boot

It's worth looking into at any rate

Because diesel cars aren’t as nice to drive as petrols, and if you don’t regularly drive a diesel car on the motorway the DPF will get blocked and the car will become un drivable.

Not at 70mpg, 600 miles to the tank it's not!

You couldn't justify electric, or even plug in hybrid, for 4k kms a year. Financial madness! Petrol is the best option by far.

You really should be choosing a car that suits your usage rather than fuel type availability or motor tax deciding for you. Very few cars these days have annual motor tax higher than €400/500 these days unless it's something half silly. If you cannot find a model that suits your usuage then best look at something else rather than compromising.

How much is your budget?

The fuel savings would be low alright, maybe €300/400 a year. So cars would need to be close to same price for it to make sense. So depends on the OP's budget, they could get a leaf for ~10k that might work for them.

The charger doesn't necessarily have to cost anything, a more basic charger can be got for closer to the €600 which you can get through the SEAI grant.

My real question is at 4000km a year, why are is the OP even getting a replacement car? The most financially prudent thing to do is just hold onto the one they have (unless there's something wrong with it they didn't mention)

Petrol or Electric Muffler, we've similar mileage and diesel was a nightmare, lots of problems. Diesel is dead, that's why there's lots for sale.

Yeah you're looking at a second hand Leaf if going electric, it'll have a degraded battery but should cover 80km which is enough for a local runabout

It's only really worthwhile if you can get a home charger installed. As others said you'd save a bit on fuel and road tax, but it's not exactly going to be a fortune. The main advantages would be the ease of driving and not having to go to the petrol station again

With your driving habits, you'd probably be charging once or twice a week. If you know you're going somewhere then plug in the evening before and charge overnight. After you're done driving, plug in again to top up if needed but then unplug the next day. It's better not to leave the car plugged in all the time

Alternatively something like a Yaris hybrid or similar would likely suit your needs and budget

As others said, diesel is definitely not worthwhile for you. Petrol has effectively caught up in terms of fuel efficiency and the price advantage for diesel is gone

OP definitely should not buy a diesel for the very good reasons explained by other posters.

However just as a footnote the rumours of the death of diesel are greatly exaggerated.

They are still selling to bigger mileage clients and rightly so.

Yes they do suffer from these issues. Diesel is great for trucks and vans that travel long distances all the time. Petrol cars are quieter, smoother, faster & nicer to drive.

i have 2 cars a 911 and a 2010 Yaris 1.4 diesel

i do about 60km a week in the Yaris .. its unbelievable 60-70mpg

never ever goes wrong , sails thru the nct every year...

i would recommend getting something like that

Diesel, bringing the van driving experience to cars since the 1930s

Self-charging and plug-in hybrids remain a bit of a con. The price premium isn't worth the real-world fuel saving and an added hybrid system is just extra technology to go wrong down the line.

Also, hybrids can have really awful automatic transmissions and be a very unrewarding drive.

For the mileage you are doing, a modern petrol engine is just the ticket. And there are some real beauties out there today as we reach the climax of ICE technology, before it disappears as q new offering forever.

You don't indicate a budget, but I have driven these below and would recommend them all.

Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSI 95hp

Skoda Octavia 1.5 TSI in liftback or estate, 148 bhp.

Also the Seat Leon and VW T-Roc with the above engine - the Leon is tuned for 128 hp.

Kia Sportage 1.6 Hybrid. Yes, I'm going against my rant here, but its one car in which SCH works very well and does produce 50 mpg. The powertrain is a cracker and gives over 200hp.

BMW 3-Series in 320i or 330i tune, giving 185 and 245 hp respectively. Available in saloon or 'touring' estate. The best all rounder money can buy in my opinion, though I would stretch to the M340i which has the 6-cylinder and is the best petrol engine in the World, IMHO.

For so little mileage is it even necessary to buy a car. If the journeys are short in nature could you not consider walking, cycling or public transport which would be more financially prudent.

Euro 5 was only introduced in September 09 so its likely that your car doesn’t have a DPF fitted

Theres also a lot of cars out there that have had their DPF’s removed by previous owners

Diesel only for me and will be until I no longer drive but then I'm doing the mileage.

At your milage I would suggest a petrol hybrid - something like a Skoda hybrid.

Around the city you run it on battery and if you have to go for a spin you would use the 1.3 or so L petrol engine.

It's horses for courses - yes Diesel is great for cars/vans that do a lot of mileage - personally I'd never buy a petrol car again since my carburettor went on fire back in the '80's but then I'd assume they've moved on since that.

@Op Here is a few options for you,

Not worth tuppence maybe but here's a few points and observations from me and my experience etc.

1. Diesel is most definitely not dead and will not die any time soon.

2. I switched from petrol to diesel about 15 years ago and will never go back, for a variety of reasons.

3. I also do very low mileage and 90% of it is urban, <50kph. I have never had any issues caused by my driving pattern over the course of 5 different models in the past 15 years.

The only reason I originally switched to diesel was because a particular car I really liked was available in diesel only. That's how it started but like I said, I'd never go back to petrol by choice. I simply find diesel to be a stronger, more sturdy and more confident driving experience. I'm not one for speed or being first away at the lights so I don't care about that kind of performance.

Personally I am now wondering how long more I'll have a car for. I'm in my mid to late 40s and the last of my school going children has this year decided she wants to take buses, so no more school run. Also, I used to make regular 200+km trips across the country to see parents, but I'm sorry to say I no longer need to do that for sad reasons that I'm sure you'll be able to figure out. I work from home practically full time now, so no commute. And certainly where I live in Dublin, Eamonn Ryan and his green brigade have blazed a trail in recent years of reallocating more and more road space to pedestrians and cyclists, to the point where there is often scarcely enough room to drive down a road in the city. Driving has become a complete displeasure any more, which I think more and more about while stuck behind another cyclist I can't overtake.

All said, I am very much at the point now where having a car at all is a nice to have rather than a necessity. Having regularly changed my car over the years, I am now minded to either keep the one I've got forever, or get rid of it altogether.

My post is at risk of becoming a bit of a depressing rant but I'll try to rescue it by returning to your original question.

If you like petrol, then you've no reason to change. EV's etc. have become more common in recent years but personally, I'm not convinced yet. The appearance of more and more of them is in large part driven by aggressive tax policy, by a government where the minister responsible is a green. That kind of policy can mask reality, by which I mean that without the considerable financial incentives, I suspect we would not be seeing anywhere near the number of EV's that we're seeing on the road. That may mean that the downsides of ownership vastly outweigh the supposed advantages. The whole pollution argument is false as well, because harmful atmospheric toxins were still produced during manufacture and in generating the electricity they use.

As for diesel, for you I see no benefit. They were heavily incentivised by government in 2008 on environmental grounds but since then, more has been learned about them that apparently now makes that policy decision a mistake. In tandem with that, petrol technology has come on in leaps and bounds over those years, meaning they are now far cleaner than they were.

I'd say stick with petrol. It's what you know, and you've nothing particularly driving you towards any of the alternatives at the moment.

Do you have a sticker on the Yaris saying " my other car is a Porche"?!