Thread: The great petrol vs diesel debate

Originally Posted by 223nut

One trick with the hi ace that I have seen is putting in a set of manual front hubs, sure the cv's are still spinning but it uses a bit less fuel. Probably not worth doing unless your holding onto the vehicle for a few years

Cvs shouldnt be spinning if manual hub/part time 4wd.

Originally Posted by gimp

What's everyone's rego? My cruiser is like 230 a year, only 80 bucks more than the 'rolla

Just done ours.

Suzuki swift 12 months $101.62
Rav4 12 months $152.05

Hilux back when I had it was just shy of 600 bucks and when I changed to the landcruiser it dropped to just over 400 bucks, i believe they have all come down since then tho and now it is relevant to the vehicles safety rating ?

Terrano 3.2td rego is $201 PA, petrol V6 one is $120.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Just done ours.

Suzuki swift 12 months $101.62
Rav4 12 months $152.05

Hilux back when I had it was just shy of 600 bucks and when I changed to the landcruiser it dropped to just over 400 bucks, i believe they have all come down since then tho and now it is relevant to the vehicles safety rating ?

91 Hilux. $186. Much better than the 600 they were hitting us with
I think 08 Triton was the same

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Cvs shouldnt be spinning if manual hub/part time 4wd.

AWD so the CV's will still be spinning. Was advised not to put on free wheeling hubs as it can bugger up the transfer system.

Originally Posted by gadgetman

AWD so the CV's will still be spinning. Was advised not to put on free wheeling hubs as it can bugger up the transfer system.

Yep it will if awd. Only way to do it is drive with center diff locked but then you gain nothing.

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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.

Originally Posted by Beetroot

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.

That is pretty much why I'm still driving diesel. Economy wise there is nothing in it, but towing and off road the torque wins every time.

Pulled the trigger on a hiace supercustom, 1995 with the 1kz couldn't find the newer model with decent seats


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Originally Posted by Smiddy

Pulled the trigger on a hiace supercustom, 1995 with the 1kz couldn't find the newer model with decent seats


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Snap, same year and all. Was older than we wanted too but honestly preferred it. The suspension in the supercustom is damned good.

Originally Posted by gadgetman

Snap, same year and all. Was older than we wanted too but honestly preferred it. The suspension in the supercustom is damned good.

Yep I missed out on the one you suggested by 30mins so found one in chch with 130000kms pick it up tomo


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In my experience the difference between diesel and petrol servicing costs and be a material factor. If you were buying a new ute, say, then the deal Mazda offer of a capped $200 (incl GST) for routine servicing for the warranty period makes those vehicles hard to go past......

I reckon with the money saved on diesel vs petrol and better economy, you can probably afford to rebuild your diesel engine about every 100,000km with the savings over a petrol.

Based on $1.02 per litre for diesel and $1.90 for 91.

diesel = 12L/100km+RUC = $18.24

petrol = 15L/100km = $28.50

5000km = $912 for a diesel, $1425 for a petrol.

100,000km with a diesel = $18240 in fuel/RUC, 1500 in servicing (20 filters and oils) = total cost of $19740

100,000km with a petrol = $28500 in fuel, 750 in servicing = total cost of $29250



I get around 11 or 12L per 100km with my 1985 BJ73 for a mix of town/highway use.

15L per 100 is estimated very conservatively for a petrol truck (because I don't have one) but a quick google tells me people with FZJ80s are getting like 18-23L per 100km. My 1.6L petrol Daihatsu Rocky ran at around 15L per 100, on 96, which was painfully expensive on a road trip. I took it from Invercargill to Cape Reinga and back once and ouch.

Far as I can tell most other stuff (parts) costs the same. When something goes wrong on the diesel, it goes more expensively wrong, but there's also less to break.

I chose to buy a 2006 Petrol Prado, 4.0L 5speed auto over a 2004 in Diesel, similar ks on the odo.
The reasons - the 1KD engine is a dog. $450 for seats and seals service every 45,000kms would be every 18mths to me.
diesel - Higher service cost with more oil and more expensive filter. More frequent - every 10,000kms. RUCs, and higher Rego. 12L/100km.
2004 - 4spd box. 173PS, 410Nm.


Petrol - 15,000 km service interval. Half the service price. No RUCs. Half the Rego cost. Economy 15L/100kms.
2006 - 5 spd box 240PS, 377Nm.

My daily commute is 48kms round trip. If I don't go on hunting trips, my weekly fuel bill is no more than my diesel surf was, about $75.
However, when towing, it really sucks. The diesel would have been much better for economy.

But the power at the lights, acceleration is brilliant, and wow betide the rice burner who comes up behind me and thinks I should get out of his way....of course my Visa regrets it later.
That VVTi really sings at 4000rpm

Originally Posted by Mauser308

A Toyota diesel - the modern ones anyway - are one of the exceptions to the rule that diesels are cheaper.

At one of my past jobs the hiluxs of the day spent more time in the shop getting the engines rebuilt under warranty than on the road. Ended up driving Couriers at much better opex and shitcanning the hiluxes. I've never looked back to be fair. The Toyota dealer's attitude was fuck**g crap, but like the local Ford outfit now to be fair (got too much market share and don't care if they piss you off).

What we are needing, is a decent tough driveline in a ute, mated to decent load carrying suspension that is tuned to give an acceptable ride along with a good powerful engine and body/chassis/internal plastic bits that don't easily fu*k out. The PX Ranger is wayyyyy to plasticy and bits are starting to die on mine. Also the electronics actuators and ECU systems are a joke, just had to take it back to the dealer to get the reversing sensors reprogrammed after they stopped working (apparently due to going out of calibration) - that required an hour of tech time and approx $110 to recalibrate the ECU to allow the parking sensors to work again.

That shit should not happen on a commercial vehicle - what does not help is turning up to the dealer and looking down the row of the service desks and counting 15+ people of which only about 6 are appearing to be actively doing something productive. I suspect I will be going to a new service outfit very shortly, I have one lined up who is better in every respect apart from the coffee served. And at half the price!!!

I hear ya. I have 2 diesel Vehicles a 93 Pajero SWB and a 2009 BT50. The pajero has done 240K , never been babied and drowned twice, and apart from a wee gearbox repair and servicing costs me nothing but RUC and diesel and always starts / runs the other "thing" cost 36,000 second hand and has done 117K and cost in repairs so far is $11,000. Now we purchased a 3 year warranty when we brought it and another when the original warrenty expired so this cost has been met by them. The ironic thing is this was the most I have ever spent on a vehicle, the most we have ever spent on preventative maintenance and the lowest KM vehicle I have ever brought but over the 4 years we owned it would have crippled us if not for the warrenty (and thats another story)

Now I reckon it would not matter weather it was a Mazda, Toyota , Nissan or ............................................ we would have same issues. One of my mates upgrades just before the warrenty expires on his new ones as he reckons he could not afford to fix one out of warrenty with even a simple "few thousand dollar" repair