Diesel vs petrol engines?

[Snortan]

The most important thing with a diesel engine is oil and filter changes MUST be done regular they are not as forgiving as petrol, if you drive short distances petrol is the way to go if you drive longer the diesel will serve better but that being said if you do drive the diesel short distances mostly you can avoid troubles by taking it for a long drive once a fortnight along a motorway or freeway whichever you have in your country to get everything nice and hot and blow out any excessive carbon

After not taking care to change the oil and filter on his current diesel, he learned his lesson.

Avoid any car that is labelled as a "city diesel", such as 1.1 or 1.4 sized engines. Diesels are really meant for the reasonably long drives in order to give their efficiency. There was a raft of these city diesel car being borked by DPF failure (diesel particulate filter) getting blocked because they had never gone above 50mph. The solution is to go for a blatt and clear the exhaust system of all the crap.

If you're doing the maintenance yourself I'd say petrol as it's easier and cleaner to maintain.

Good to know!

It depends on the budget he is spending.

Cars of that age will tend to have high milage, making diesels more of a gamble.
Another question is what journeys is it being used for ?
Short hops i would go for a petrol.
Long runs can bring the diesel back as a choice.
Dmf (dual mass flywheel) will be fitted to most diesels of that age, only recently have petrols had them fitted.
The cost of the parts (dmf) is not to bad, its the labour for the tame spanner man to get to it.

I would stick to something mainstream, ford, vauxhall etc as parts will be readily available, plus should have a good selection to choose from in your area.

Budget is around £1500, we had a look and there seem to be a decent number in good condition under 100k.
As for journeys mostly longer ones so I guess it helps.

 

[shambles1980]

you dont really need to worry that much about mileage done these days
provided it has a full service history you should be golden.

Also if you are buying a car and tend to use it for short drives you are usually better off buying a car with high mileage.

As an example..
if you buy a low mileage car then use it MOSTLY for commute to work of say 5-10miles 5 days a week and possibly an extra 40 at the week ends..
you pay extra for the low mileage when you buy it, and then sell the car on a few years later at probably a bit of a loss..

if you buy a higher mileage car (not going in to ridiculous high figures though) and have the same usage, and sell it on a few years later you can usually sell it on for more than you bought it.. because the car now has low mileage for its age, when it had high mileage for its age when you bought it.

But that's a different matter altogether.

generally though these days mileage is not a huge concern, but a decent service history is something you should be looking for.