HELPDESK:Answering all your motoring queries
From FQ:
I’m about to buy a new Ford Fiesta but I can’t make up my mind between getting a petrol or a diesel version. The salesman says the 1.2-litre petrol version makes more sense for me but everyone else thinks I’d be mad and that diesel is cheaper to run and has lower tax. What do you think? After delivery costs and adding some extras, there’s roughly €2,000 more on the diesel price but friends say I’ll make that back in no time. Last year I did 11,680km in my old Focus and that’s about average for me these days.
It’s a useful consideration for anyone buying a car. Compare the annual costs of both. The annual tax saving on a 1.4-litre diesel over the 1.25-litre diesel is €52 a year. Taking the official fuel consumption of both as 4.7l/100km for the diesel and 5.5l/100km for the petrol, and then averaging your mileage at 11,750km a year, you’ll need 493.5 litres of diesel or 646.25 litres of petrol a year.
Of course, you might never match the official figures, but the comparative requirements will be similar. Fuel prices fluctuate significantly but at present petrol is roughly 8 cent more expensive. So, taking the prices as €1.29 for diesel and €1.37 for petrol, that would suggest a fuel saving of €249 a year by opting for the diesel. Even combining that with the annual motor tax savings, it’s going to take you nearly seven years to recoup the €2,000 extra on the price of the diesel car.
Buyers are rightly turning towards diesel in the larger cars where the savings are more substantial, but even then it is worth doing a rough estimate of your usage and added costs before you make a purchase. Higher petrol prices and increased tax make you think the savings might be more substantial than they really are. It’s true that you should recoup some of that initial price premium on a diesel car from a higher resale price when you go to sell, but it’s money tied up in a car at a time when, for many, cashflow is in limited supply.
From PD:
Can you shed some light, please, on the use of snow chains? For instance, if one’s journey covers an area of road which is snow or slush covered and another area which is clear, can you leave the chains on for the clear section? Is there a speed limitation? If the car is front-wheel drive, does one just put chains on the front wheels? What if it’s a rear-wheel-drive?
Hopefully this query will not be relevant for at least another 12 months, but just in case we get another onset of arctic weather, snow chains go on the driven wheels. On rear-wheel-drive cars it can help to slip them on the front as well to aid grip and steering, but the priority is to get added grip on the driven wheels.
You must take them off when the road is clear, but in reality if the snow is deep enough for chains then there’s unlikely to be clear patches. It’ll take you less time to slip them on and off than it would take to drive without them at all. In most instances you won’t have to jack up the car. But practise before you head off so you don’t have to do it in the dark in the midst of a blizzard.
- Send your queries to Motors Helpdesk, The Irish Times , Tara St, Dublin 2 or email motorshelp@irishtimes.com