ok, I dont dont know nothing about diesels or their costs, haven driven petrol vehicles all my life I would like to know exactly how much cheaper it is, is it really worth it! * Registration - is this the same as petrol! 6 month rego * RUC - how much is say 500km for a typical SUV / 4x4 * diesel at the pump Any other costs! apart from servicing which I know is more frequent than a petrol!
jandah,
Feb 13, 6:34am
Hi there, sold my diesel ute 2 weeks ago, so over the Govt. ripping me off. Costs, Rego $585 12 months, RUC $440for $10000ks,Tyres were $290 each average 245/45/16s, the pump price changes like petrol however diesel rarely goes down when petrol does. Ute was doin 10L/100ks Have a Cruze now and in two weeks is cheaper to run, doin same Ks. My thoughts anyway!
gammelvind,
Feb 13, 7:08am
Simple guide, if you are doing high milages, it might be worth it, if not then only if you need a specific vehicle for a specific use, but if that were the case you wouldn't be asking here.
3tomany,
Feb 13, 7:18am
diesol is good if fuel consumption is high ie: towing, farm work, short runs etc because the fuel is cheaper but if you are doing easy road ks i would say most petrol cars are just as cheap or cheaper to run
morrisman1,
Feb 13, 7:22am
a typical 4x4 will definitely be cheaper in diesel flavour and the point where it will overtake the petrol in terms of lower operating costs will be between 5 and 10 thousand kms, depending on the thirst of the petrol model and diesel model.
With tax on petrol being on the pump and per litre, if you have a thirsty petrol vehicle, like most petrol 4x4 are, then you end up paying a fortune in tax. This is where the diesel RUC system is more cost effective for the user, even though it may seem the opposite seeing you are paying it seperately but on an SUV this extra cost is entirely in your head.
Extra registration costs is why petrols are cheaper if you only do a couple thousand km a year. Diesels have about an extra $200 per year registration and they tell us that it is because less ACC is collected at the pump. There is a point where the lower per km running cost of the diesel will overcome this extra registration cost.
Servicing costs will depend on if you do it yourself or not but many of the older diesels, 2000 and earlier, require changes every 5000km, take close to 10L of oil and some even have a couple of filters. This adds up big time to the servicing costs.
Reliability wise, it really depends on what model you get. Some are bombs and some are bombproof but the same applies for both petrols and diesels: it comes down to what engine you have and how you treat it.
mdallas,
Feb 13, 7:24am
i cant get over how cheap my 2.4 hilux d is to run. it is near a joke
scoobeey,
Feb 13, 7:34pm
some people seem to think filters cost a lotmore with diesel my isuzu elf 4bc2 truck fuel filter 8 bux oil filters 12 buk each .
studio1,
Feb 13, 8:06pm
Have only had diesel vehicles since 1994. Currently have two of them. Registration is more expensive, but I do a lot of travelling - I am on the road most days so it works out cheaper. RUC = $54 for 1000 km and that's for a 02 vehicle (weight up to 2 tonne). My car is very economical (it's a manual turbo) and will do 5 L / 100 km if I am taking it easy and it's a long trip (Auckland to Wellington for example). Servicing isn't a major - gets new oil and filters every 5000 km, and a can of diesel conditioner thrown in once every few months.
socram,
Feb 13, 8:10pm
The last service we had on our previous TD4 Freelander was really cheap - but it was done at an independent Range Rover specialist,formerly chief mechanic at the main dealer.Go figure.
intrade,
Feb 13, 8:13pm
basically it will be the same expensive or even more expensive if you dont use a diesel additive to prevent the damage fuel does to diesel. basically you need a additive just like when they switched from leaded petrol to unleaded. On diesel its the sulfur that is missing = not enough lubrication and shrinking damaging seals are the result after some years you can even get destroyed injectorpump from not enough lube on diesel with ulsd= ulta-low-sulfur-diesel. so once you root your diesel your going to have to spend thousends of $ in repair. Just resealing a injector pump will set you back 800 to 1600$ depending on how long it takes for the job. petrol verses diesel unless you towing every day then a petrol will be far cheaper. you can add lpg injection kits on petrol and save loads on fuel like that. System has to be latest lpg-injecton.
berg,
Feb 13, 8:17pm
Went from a 2.8 Turbo DSL Rodeo to a 3.6 V6 Commodore. Due to it only doing about 5000km a year it is cheaper for me to have the petrol.
geminidragon,
Feb 13, 11:04pm
i,m getting my 97 izuzu bighorn diesel 4x4 serviced tommorrow for $180 inc gst and he will ring me if it needs a airfilter does that sound a good price for that vehicle
opos,
Feb 13, 11:24pm
thats a fair price
3tomany,
Feb 13, 11:30pm
i have a diesol ute and a ford falcon, the falcon is by far the cheaper car to run
rover79,
Feb 13, 11:41pm
I have a 2.7 litre diesel and the km I get to a tank of gas works out in RUC to roughly adding 50cents to the price of diesel per litre.
bwg11,
Feb 14, 3:18am
I have just traded a 3.0 litre diesel Prado on 4.0 litre petrol FJ Cuiser. The Prado had a lifetime comsumption of 12.8 litre/100km and the FJ is doing 13.9 litre/100km to date. Using these figures, and todays fuel, RUCandRego costs, breakeven for me is at 6000km/year, and at the 10,000kms I do, the petrol FJ will cost $365/year more (less any additional diesel servicing costs). And of course 200kw is another petrol bonus.
morrisman1,
Feb 14, 4:43am
A more useful comparison would be petrol prado vs diesel prado. You are comparing old tech diesel motor to new fandangle petrol
geminidragon,
Feb 14, 5:03am
diesel utes cost a lot more on rego as they are classed as commercial vehicles
mrfxit,
Feb 14, 6:51am
Not all. Mine's import reg as a station wagon & pay $415 for licence
mrcat1,
Feb 14, 8:20am
Nowadays you would need to do more than 40,000km per year before the diesel would be worth while, unless your like me thats towing all the time and i have diesel on hand all the time. I do 25,000km per year and even as i said i am still posssibly better with a petrol.
bwg11,
Feb 14, 9:26am
Is 2007 Prado "old tech"!
r15,
Feb 14, 8:00pm
There are a lot of people spouting mis information here. Rego on a ute is as above. Suv is a station wagon so its 417 a year. Diesel additives are not needed, just like all the petrol magic potions
my surf and others with surfs i know are stationwagons on the rego. likely because yours is a ute like you say
suv is a term used by most to describe any truck wagon thing. eg surf / terrano / exploder / bighorn / whatever
mrfxit,
Feb 15, 5:29am
My Surfs reg as a station wagon yep. Are you talking about the dearer licence being reg as a ute under the commercial section
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