Petrol or diesel - which warms up quickest?
I want to buy a new car that will be mainly used for journeys of about 10 miles each way with the occasional longer journey of 150 miles each way. Should I buy a petrol or diesel engined car as I want to keep my overall costs down.
The difference between the diesel and petrol versions of the car I have looked at is 60.1mpg to 44.5mpg, which seems a lot. Also the CO2 emissions are higher for petrol and so VED is higher.
Would I be losing out by buying the (cheaper) petrol version as I thought petrol engines needed longer to warm up?
Is there a formula for working this out?
The difference between the diesel and petrol versions of the car I have looked at is 60.1mpg to 44.5mpg, which seems a lot. Also the CO2 emissions are higher for petrol and so VED is higher.
Would I be losing out by buying the (cheaper) petrol version as I thought petrol engines needed longer to warm up?
Is there a formula for working this out?
Asked on 10 August 2012 by vedbed
Answered by
Honest John
Petrol engines warm up faster than diesels because they are less thermodynamically efficient. Petrol turbos with water cooled turbos heat up fastest because of the heat exchange to the coolant passing through the turbo. which is turned by hot exhaust gases. The downside of diesels are the many expensive things that go wrong: dual mass flywheels, diesel particulate filters, EGRs as well as turbos and timing belts.
Tags:
efficiency
petrol or diesel?
Our Fuel Cost Calculator shows you which will be the best choice for you.
Compare the running costs of petrol, diesel and electric cars to make the right choice for you.
Similar questions
I travel 130 miles per day, 5 days a week, and I'm currently in a Honda Jazz getting around 48mpg. I'm looking at getting a new car soon, and had considered getting a Ford Fiesta 1.6 TDCi ECOnetic for...
With the dramatic increase in flooding, and many people with wrecked engines, I wonder what your view is regarding trying to encourage car manufacturers to start putting engine air intakes at a much higher...
I understand that there are approximately 35 million vehicles registered in the UK. If we therefore assume that 1 million of them have unnecessarily deployed side and dipped headlights at any one time,...
Elsewhere on 
