Is there still a case for buying a diesel car?

They’ve had some seriously bad press, but the new diesels have been engineered to be far less polluting – and they come into their own on the motorway,

Diesel has been vilified of late. It’s seen as dirty, polluting, and the kind of stuff you’d only use if your hobbies include witchcraft and drowning puppies. Way back when, although diesel cars and fuel were more expensive, they were cheaper to tax and higher MPG figures made them appealing to run, seen as a cleaner alternative to pretty much everything. This is no longer the case.

While diesel was landed in the faeces a few years ago by the follies of engineers told to find ways to meet ever-stricter emissions targets, what’s come out of the other side isn’t necessarily the evil you might expect.

However, the cost of entry has increased: since April 2018,

first-year car tax has gone up one band for diesels, and company car tax has risen as well, yet diesel vehicles are still more expensive to buy and fuel.

New diesel cars have been engineered to be far less polluting than what’s come before. NOX emissions are lower than ever, while CO and MPG figures 2 remain appealing.

Cleanliness doesn’t necessarily mean godliness for all, though. Former cost benefits have gone the way of the dodo, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a small car equipped with an oil burner these days. But that doesn’t necessarily mean diesel should be off your list.

Those looking for a city runaround are unlikely to reap the benefits of diesel. Higher fuel costs mean that while you’re likely to get marginally better MPG in the city it’ll take far, far longer to see your money back on the initial higher cost of purchase.

The same can be said for people who still need a car to hit the motorway but spend the majority of their time in town. You’d need to drive tens of thousands of miles before fuel frugality started working for you.

Where diesel really comes into its own is the motorway. Drivers who spend their day to day hammering up and down the M1 (or any other motorway/high-speed road) will reap the rewards of better MPG.

If towing is your thing, be it caravans, horses or trailers, a diesel will suit you down to the ground. Not because of its meagre fuel consumption, but because diesel engines have huge amounts of torque available from low down the rev range. Newer turbocharged petrols may be catching up on the torque front, but diesel is still king when it comes to vast amounts of twist.

Low-down torque is a huge plus-point in the diesel camp – if you want day-to-day thrills or simply a low-stress, low-rev escape from the lights you can’t go wrong with an oil burner.

The market is shunning diesel, but it’s not likely to vanish from the UK’S roads any time soon. Modern diesel motors are cleaner, more powerful, and better than ever. However, buyers need to be 100 per cent sure of what purpose they’re going to be using their cars for before they sign on the dotted line.