When purchasing a car, there are many factors to consider. One of the most important is deciding whether you’re going to select a petrol or diesel variant. While old critiques, such as “noisiness”, no longer apply, ask yourself, “which car variant is better for me?”

The first thing you need to know is that diesel cars are a lot more refined than they used to be. This means that the noise factor really isn’t something you need to consider any more. In some cases, you can’t even tell the difference between a diesel and petrol car, just by listening to how noisy or quiet they may be.

The big bonus with diesel cars is their fuel economy. Diesel vehicles are much more efficient and use less fuel for a given mileage. This is especially true for long, out of town journeys.

The down side with diesel of course is the fact that diesel cars are often more expensive than their petrol counterparts. However, diesel cars tend to retain their value longer than petrol cars do. The other disadvantage with diesel is that while petrol and diesel car maintenance costs are similar, if anything were to seriously go wrong, you would have to pay more to repair a diesel car. In particular, diesel engines use particulate filters which can get clogged – especially when constantly used for short distances – and this can cost a lot of money to repair.

Diesel cars also provide more torque (pulling power) at lower revs, which is very useful when it comes to overtaking or towing.

While diesel cars are not an issue in the noise department any more, petrol vehicles are unquestionably quieter. But with all the noise cancelling and soundproofing that modern cars come with nowadays, it brings this point back down to a non-factor.

Most small cars have petrol engines, the point of smaller cars is to simply keep the price mark as low as possible. And if you didn’t know, it costs more to slot a diesel engine into a car than it does a petrol one. So essentially, giving a petrol engine to a small car would be counter-intuitive.

So, in a nutshell…
Taking all these factors into consideration, which type of car is better for you? It basically comes down to how often you drive and for how long. If your car is more of a marathon runner and you spend most of your hours on the road between towns or cities, a diesel car might be the wise choice for you. However, if you use your vehicle as merely a sprinter to get you to and back from work every morning and afternoon, then petrol is your best bet.