DIESEL CARS VS PETROL CARS : WHICH ONE YOU SHOULD BUY? WE HAVE THE ANSWER !

Should you buy a petrol car or diesel car?

This is probably the first question that comes to mind when you think about buying a car.

The question is simple but the answer is not. In this article we are going to share pros and cons of a Diesel Engine and Petrol Engine.

Usually, Diesel Engine cars will run on Diesel or Bio-diesel only. The Petrol Engine car can run on petrol and can run on CNG when a suitable CNG kit is fitted on that engine. CNG kits are not available for Diesel Engine cars as Petrol and Diesel engine have some fundamental differences which make diesel engines not-suitable for CNG. Lets see these differences in detail.

Petrol / Gasoline Engine Car :

1. Petrol Engine cars are less noisy as compared to the Diesel Engine cars of similar type.
2. Petrol Engine cars give less fuel mileage (miles per gallon / KM per liter) when compared to diesel engine cars of similar type.
3. Petrol engine cars have better acceleration and top speed compared to Diesel Engine cars.
4. Petrol Engine cars have lower torque at lower engine speed when compared to a diesel engine cars. This means that a petrol car will face more difficulty climbing uphill when compared to a Diesel engine car.
5. Petrol Engine cars are cheaper to maintain and initial cost is also cheaper.
6. Petrol Engine is more efficient at higher speeds. This means it gives a better mileage on highway /freeway driving compared to city-driving mileage.
7. Petrol Engine can be run on CNG by fitting a CNG kit to the petrol Engine of the car.
8. It is more economical to buy a petrol engine car if you travel only a few miles a day, this is because the initial cost of petrol engine car is low and maintenance cost is low.

Diesel Engine Car :

1. Diesel Engines cars are noisy when compared to the similar petrol engine cars.
2. Diesel Engines cars are more fuel efficient compared to the petrol engine cars. Diesel Engines deliver more miles per gallon / more KM per liter of Diesel when compared to the petrol engine cars of similar type.
3. Diesel Engine cars have low peak power and acceleration compared to similar capacity petrol engine car.
4. Diesel Engine cars have higher torque at lower engine speed when compared to a petrol engine cars. This means that a diesel engine car can carry heavy loads uphill more easily as compared to a petrol engine car. So if you drive in a hilly terrain, you will find diesel car better compared to a petrol car.
5. Diesel Engines usually have higher maintenance cost when compared to petrol engines.
6. Diesel Engine cars are more fuel efficient at low engine speeds as compared to petrol engine cars. This means diesel engine car will give better fuel efficiency in city-driving conditions as compared to the petrol engine cars. 
7. Diesel Engines can not run on CNG directly by fitting a CNG kit. This is because petrol engines have spark plug and they have compression ratios which suit the CNG fuel, but the diesel engines work on compression ignition without use of spark plug and  have much higher compression ratio than what is suited for CNG. Although there is some research going on to use CNG in diesel engine is some different way, but that technology is still in labs and will take some time to become feasible and available in passenger cars.
8. It is more economical to buy a Diesel engine cars if you travel more than 20 miles a day or so because the high initial cost and high maintenance cost is offset by the low running cost of  diesel engine car.

Final Verdict :

Diesel has its major advantage of low fuel cost(now a days the difference between cost of petrol and diesel per liter is not much) and better mileage but when it comes to service and maintenance it will cost you more than petrol. This leads to a very logical answer –  Don’t just buy a car considering its great mileage and cheaper fuel price; buy a car after calculating the overall running cost and the tenure that you would want to keep it for. If you want to keep a car for long and drive more than 80-100km a day, diesel can be a valid option. Otherwise, if your running is quite less and you don’t prefer keeping a car for more than 3-4 years, go for petrol.