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How reliable diesel cars unfairly became outcasts of the road

Diesel
Diesel

Diesel cars are often cheaper to run and more reliable, yet they have quickly become the outcasts of the road as politicians push drivers into using greener vehicles.

Not so long ago, Gordon Brown was championing them as the answer to rising CO2 emissions with a vehicle tax cut. Fast forward 20 years and politicians being pro-diesel is now a distant memory, as drivers face eye-watering fuel prices and grapple with low emission zones.

One of diesel’s traditional strengths was its cost efficiency – but the 24p gap between a litre of unleaded (160p) and diesel (184p) means this is no longer the case. Even for those driving more than 12,000 miles a year, the average petrol bill is £62 lower.

At the same time, diesels have hardly vanished from the road, suggesting their owners are not yet ready to scrap their cars for greener models.

Ian Plummer, of car website Auto Trader, said anyone buying a diesel vehicle at the moment was probably drawn from the ranks of a “faithful group of devotees”.

“We’re continuing to see a gradual decline in both the level of supply and demand on our marketplace,” he said. “Given the recent surge in the price of diesel at the pumps, this downward trend may well begin to accelerate.”

Since November last year, the number of available diesel cars on Auto Trader has fallen by more than a tenth and looks set to fall further. Demand – measured by searches and advert views – is down 17.6pc.

By contrast, petrol has seen a softer fall in demand and modest uptick in supply (2.2pc) over the same period. The number of electric vehicles has more than tripled. In the race for consumers, diesel appears to be running on empty. The expansion of London mayor Sadiq Khan’s ultra-low emission zone is also intended to force diesel cars off the road, as motorists will be charged a £12.50 daily fee to enter the capital if their cars do not meet green standards.

However, its cost benefits have not entirely disappeared. Inflation at the pump means you can no longer assume prices are competitive with petrol, but if you compare Auto Trader’s top-selling new models, then diesel still emerges as the cheaper option.

Using miles per gallon data from review sites – manufacturer claims are notoriously unreliable – there are savings of between 4p to 10p a mile to be had on diesel cars. Multiply that by several thousand miles and you can achieve a decent return on your investment.

Moreover, the initial purchase price tends to be lower than that of an electric car. While Auto Trader’s electric car supply has soared 268pc in a year, demand has increased just 7.8pc and seems unlikely to pick up soon given the inflationary pressures.

Mr Plummer said: “Although year-on-year comparisons for electric vehicles demand are positive, month-on-month trends reveal a more recent softening in consumer appetites.

“As the rising cost of living and high energy prices begin to bite, the already-expensive electric vehicles are pushed further out of reach for the average car buyer.”

There are also concerns about the electric car resale market. Brian Gregory, of the Alliance of British Drivers lobby group, said: “I would be very loath to buy a second-hand electric vehicle because you don’t know how much life is left in the battery,” said.

Mr Gregory, who drives a diesel BMW 3 Series, is not convinced by the attempts to “write off” diesels. “The problem is the Government thinks it can control everything and it would be better just to keep its grimy, incompetent hands off things,” he said.

Diesels suffer less wear and tear than petrol cars because they tend to run at lower revolutions per minute, saving money on garage bills and replacement fees. It is not so unusual for them to rack up 250,000 miles, experts said.

But with the demand for diesel cars so low, are you better off hanging on to your old diesel car as long as possible?

“That’s my view,” Mr Gregory said. “Run it into the ground, basically, because you’ve got a perfectly serviceable, usable vehicle. I haven’t had to buy a new car in years anyway.”

If sales figures are anything to go by, this is exactly what people are doing. And without a “bangers for cash” exchange scheme hastening their demise, diesels will be on the road for years to come.

At the same time, new diesel vehicles are simply not coming through. Diesel registrations collapsed by more than 40pc in the 12 months to October, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, a trade body.

With the loyalty they inspire among diesel devotees, these cars may never truly die out. But at the current rate of attrition – particularly with the ban on sales from 2030 – they can only become a rarer sight as time goes on. The diesel well is slowly running dry.


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