Thread: The great petrol vs diesel debate

I am biased towards diesels, I own three vehicles and they are all diesel, even my little run about hatch back.
I love the torque and the power you get from a turbo diesel, I drove a 1.3 petrol Toyota hatch back for a few weeks and it used more fuel and had half the power of my diesel (with is a lot older).

I think the playing field has levelled out a lot, once upon a time the petrol options in a ute or 4x4 were so thirsty, diesel was the far better option.
A friend has had a few late model AWD soft roaders for work vehicles, 2 diesels and one V6 petrol. As a sales rep he did a lot of driving, but carrying little to no load. He said the diesels were marginally better on fuel, but the V6 petrol had a lot more horsepower and was quiter.
The big difference was when towing his boat, the torque of the diesel was a lot better for towing, and whilst the fuel consumption increased a bit, the V6 almost doubled the fuel useage.

I think you beed to asses each vehicle individually, there is no rule in which one is better. If I were in the market for a new 4x4 or ute, I'd got for a diesel as I tend to do a lot of towing, like a torquey engine and just love the rattle of a diesel.