In spite of the VW scandal, there are still many valid arguments to make in favor of diesel units, as opposed to their cheaper to buy, yet less fuel efficient petrol counterparts.
As pointed out in the video by Carwow, it’s not just diesels that can cause health problems, but petrol units as well. It’s all a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils when it comes to downsides.
On one hand, older diesels are more likely to cause direct health (respiratory) issues in human beings, whereas petrol units are quicker to affect the environment we live in, as increased levels of CO2 will influence climate change.
Once you move past the environmental factors, you immediately start considering price, that is if it wasn’t already your number one deciding factor. On average, diesel models are more expensive to purchase new than their gasoline counterparts, and whether you’ll “get your money back” through lower fuel consumption depends on how many miles you’ll do with the car.
In other words, a new diesel car makes sense as a long term purchase, however would you really want to hold onto it long term seen as how some governments are already planning on banning them in the coming years? In 2017, perhaps yes. But what if you’re faced with the same choice come 2020 or 2022?
On the road, there is a slight difference in how you exploit the engines when accelerating, although this isn’t such a big deal anymore with petrol units now also being mostly turbocharged. Still, if you’re looking for quick acceleration at highway speeds, a potent diesel will feel more effortless than even a turbocharged petrol unit, which needs to operate at higher revs in order to deliver peak power and torque.
As for how the two Renault Kadjars compared in this video, there’s not much between them in terms of performance. While the petrol model is quicker off the line, the diesel is clearly more economical and will accelerate from 60 mph (96 km/h) to 70 mph (112 km/h) quicker than the petrol car.
Sound off below and tell us whether you’re team petrol or team diesel, while considering both new cars as well as used ones.