General Diesel or Petrol for traveling

[Alprider]

EU is good like that - Petrol makes sense. Australia - I drive to see the folks and its 600km round trip, go see brother 2800km round trip, sister 1200km round trip etc etc haha. Diesel is good for me!

Growing up in country Western Australia I completely understand mate, as a kid we travelled hundreds of km’s to play footy!

 

[DesertGecko]

Where you at Gecko? The HOPE Fuel stations are a new phenomenon and seem to be GOLD COAST based only? They are similar to PEARL ENERGY stations.
Hope only have about 7 service stations.
Pearl about 3 or 4.
Which jointly are spaced well enough here to get cheap fuel nearly all the time.

Whilst 91R is about 2.03 today at most places... HOPE was 1.87 on the same street.

Diesel just went to 1.97 here first time this low this year.

I'm Brisbane.

On the weekend when I was looking around.. for some reason Brisbane was like 30c above the regional areas for petrol. Who knows.

On a side note we have an EV on order, and I'll be delighted to be playing these games a lot less. (grenadier excepted)

 

[Sam]

Work/ play ... Week/ weekend ... EV/ diesel Grenadier

makes a lot of sense!

 

[Davman]

Noticing in Melbourne now that Diesel is even cheaper than the basic 91 Octane Petrol.

 

[Max]

I'm Brisbane.

On the weekend when I was looking around.. for some reason Brisbane was like 30c above the regional areas for petrol. Who knows.

On a side note we have an EV on order, and I'll be delighted to be playing these games a lot less. (grenadier excepted)

I have now had diesel engines for forty-plus years in 4x4 and passenger cars...one wise man who unfortunately is no longer with us, advised me that I must have a water trap fuel filter and put the best of fluids into the vehicle...he suggested the safest fuel is where it is turned over the most, not always available, trucking fuel stops and buy the highest quality...today for me that is BP Ultimate...a little more expense gives me better fuel economy plus engine and pump longevity...pretty much like our bodies, what we put in we get back out in energy and health but my problem is that I have a gene deficiency and my body is not producing enough alcohol, so I have to supplement...getting that right can be a problem...I believe my Grenadier will be worth going the extra yard...safe motoring

 

[DaveB]

I have now had diesel engines for forty-plus years in 4x4 and passenger cars...one wise man who unfortunately is no longer with us, advised me that I must have a water trap fuel filter and put the best of fluids into the vehicle...he suggested the safest fuel is where it is turned over the most, not always available, trucking fuel stops and buy the highest quality...today for me that is BP Ultimate...a little more expense gives me better fuel economy plus engine and pump longevity...pretty much like our bodies, what we put in we get back out in energy and health but my problem is that I have a gene deficiency and my body is not producing enough alcohol, so I have to supplement...getting that right can be a problem...I believe my Grenadier will be worth going the extra yard...safe motoring

Damn.
Have you been reading the draft copy of my autobiography??

 

[Max]

Is your Autobiography going to be diesel or petrol?...just keeping in the thread...love your work DaveB...

 

[trobex]

I'm Brisbane.

On the weekend when I was looking around.. for some reason Brisbane was like 30c above the regional areas for petrol. Who knows.

On a side note we have an EV on order, and I'll be delighted to be playing these games a lot less. (grenadier excepted)

I will be looking closely at an EV for the wife and the daily 'around town' vehicle. However, leaving the burbs can only be done in a Diesel for us, as our 'trips'' start at 600kms+++ and watching people line up for nearly two hours in semi-remote areas to get a charge spot is not something I will not entertain. See... as more EVs are hitting the roads, the supply v demand for actual points is becoming a problem. I am actually seeing queues haha and at 20+ minutes per person I am out! I can fuel up and be on the road in 3 mins MAX and have say.... 700-1400kms depending on what tins I carry on the day.

 

[trobex]

Noticing in Melbourne now that Diesel is even cheaper than the basic 91 Octane Petrol.

As it should be... Diesel is the cheaper fuel by all metrics to put in a servo. It should be 40c cheaper than 91RON! I am hopeful

 

[DesertGecko]

I will be looking closely at an EV for the wife and the daily 'around town' vehicle. However, leaving the burbs can only be done in a Diesel for us, as our 'trips'' start at 600kms+++ and watching people line up for nearly two hours in semi-remote areas to get a charge spot is not something I will not entertain. See... as more EVs are hitting the roads, the supply v demand for actual points is becoming a problem. I am actually seeing queues haha and at 20+ minutes per person I am out! I can fuel up and be on the road in 3 mins MAX and have say.... 700-1400kms depending on what tins I carry on the day.

So the family has two cars. One is our Defender and the other is a Golf. The golf does like 9/10 of the trips around the local area. The Defender for the most part sits in the garage on charge with the anti fungus stuff in the diesel in the tank. It's around town use is in the rare occasion that the other car isn't around or there is something big to move. It's not uncommon to only fill it up once every 6 months or before a big trip.

And then once every six months or so it gets taken out of the garage and driven for 2/3 weeks. Poor thing. It's 18 years old with 160k on it.

I was leaning to going petrol with the grenadier simply because the car is mostly only used in remote areas and we don't drive that much. The question will be how much fuel the car actually uses in the real world, and what larger tanks will be made available. As a side note it occurred to me that petrol does go off in a few months.. not sure about how I'd handle that.

It seems to make sense to replace the golf with an EV. I doubt we will ever even need to charge it outside of the garage.

 

[globalgregors]

I will be looking closely at an EV for the wife and the daily 'around town' vehicle. However, leaving the burbs can only be done in a Diesel for us, as our 'trips'' start at 600kms+++ and watching people line up for nearly two hours in semi-remote areas to get a charge spot is not something I will not entertain. See... as more EVs are hitting the roads, the supply v demand for actual points is becoming a problem. I am actually seeing queues haha and at 20+ minutes per person I am out! I can fuel up and be on the road in 3 mins MAX and have say.... 700-1400kms depending on what tins I carry on the day.

Sensible. My version of this is using a Vespa for local (inner suburb) use, which I'm convinced for 1-2 people has the minimal footprint (all things considered).

 

[DaveB]

Is your Autobiography going to be diesel or petrol?...just keeping in the thread...love your work DaveB...

Look along the bottom of my post

 

[trobex]

So the family has two cars. One is our Defender and the other is a Golf. The golf does like 9/10 of the trips around the local area. The Defender for the most part sits in the garage on charge with the anti fungus stuff in the diesel in the tank. It's around town use is in the rare occasion that the other car isn't around or there is something big to move. It's not uncommon to only fill it up once every 6 months or before a big trip.

And then once every six months or so it gets taken out of the garage and driven for 2/3 weeks. Poor thing. It's 18 years old with 160k on it.

I was leaning to going petrol with the grenadier simply because the car is mostly only used in remote areas and we don't drive that much. The question will be how much fuel the car actually uses in the real world, and what larger tanks will be made available. As a side note it occurred to me that petrol does go off in a few months.. not sure about how I'd handle that.

It seems to make sense to replace the golf with an EV. I doubt we will ever even need to charge it outside of the garage.

Going by all previous petrol vs diesel 'towing' comparisons is the only gauge I have. And petrol towing in anything 3.0L will chew the fuel. I mean 5.8L US tow trucks might get 16L/100 towing... but what else can we compare...

 

[Tazzieman]

As a side note it occurred to me that petrol does go off in a few months.. not sure about how I'd handle that.

Add fuel stabiliser, available from all good auto parts stores.

 

[Tazzieman]

Our Volvo EV rocketship is saving $$ on fuel costs. And no filters , fluids and the like.
Offsetting the Discovery...
The Ineos will be a fuel miser by comparison.
If we need to travel long distances we shall buy plane tickets.
In the mean time , the mountainous and coastal landscape of Tasmania is easily accessible in a petrol Grenadier.
I get why people favour diesel , but as always it depends upon personal circumstances, now and in future years.

 

[Max]

Look along the bottom of my post

Diesel

 

[Max]

I get why people favour diesel , but as always it depends upon personal circumstances, now and in future years.

You are right, I favour the diesel engine for the time I will spend in the bush and the long hauls on the road and how after time they seem to roll along by themselves...like a draught horse it plods along with torque to spare but a thoroughbred has to be kicked in the guts and I have ridden plenty of them...love them both...and reading your posts you enjoy the thoroughbreds also...the boat show was fantastic again and read of your sailing the harbour, what a pleasure...happy motoring

 

[bigleonski]

The wife’s diesel X3 will probably get swapped for a EV of some description down the track, but touch wood I don’t see a need to change it for a while yet.

 

[bemax]

So the family has two cars. One is our Defender and the other is a Golf. The golf does like 9/10 of the trips around the local area. The Defender for the most part sits in the garage on charge with the anti fungus stuff in the diesel in the tank. It's around town use is in the rare occasion that the other car isn't around or there is something big to move. It's not uncommon to only fill it up once every 6 months or before a big trip.

And then once every six months or so it gets taken out of the garage and driven for 2/3 weeks. Poor thing. It's 18 years old with 160k on it.

I was leaning to going petrol with the grenadier simply because the car is mostly only used in remote areas and we don't drive that much. The question will be how much fuel the car actually uses in the real world, and what larger tanks will be made available. As a side note it occurred to me that petrol does go off in a few months.. not sure about how I'd handle that.

It seems to make sense to replace the golf with an EV. I doubt we will ever even need to charge it outside of the garage.

We bought a E-Golf (Golf 7) 2019 when VE had to rise discounts to fulfill the EU rules regarding CO2. As a used car it would cost (or bring) the same money we paid nearly 4 years ago (because of the discount and the public promotion of that time).
For the city and trips up to 100 km (one way) it is absolute marvellous! It’s cheap (in the summer it’s filled 95% from our own solar roof), silent and small outside while quite spacy inside.
It’s not built to go for Africa but on the other hand it has a smaller battery which saves a lot of the energy you need to build a car. If you are able to have min. two cars in the household and one family member doesn’t need more range it is the perfect mixture.

 

[emax]

When I transferred the RTT to the trailer and repeated the same trip the fuel consumption dropped to between 7.1 and 7.5 L/100km....

And there is the point.

It is the air resistance that burns the fuel. The weight is negligible - on long-distance trips (!). In the city and everywhere where you have to brake, accelerate, brake .... you have a high weight penalty. But not on the highway.

Air resistance, to put it this way, is the big enemy. If there were no air resistance, a vehicle with no more than 10 horsepower could go 350 km/h or more. In the end, it is always air resistance that eats up the energy. Of course, there is also some rolling resistance. But compared to the aerodynamic effects, it is negligible.

And that's exactly the reason why I didn't spec a raised air intake. I don't drive through deserts in Europe, and so it would just increase air drag.