Diesel motors service intervals?

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triangle1, May 4, 10:58am
Yes and from what you say the costs seem reasonable

triangle1, May 4, 11:03am
Have been using a petol townace for the last few years so this is a big step up.

mugenb20b, May 4, 11:13am
I normally service and repair Jap utes, old and new, petrol and diesel. Oil filters on most newer diesel vehicles seem cheaper than old ones. And newer vehicles seem easier and quicker to service, as long as they have spin on oil filters. So, most of the time, the cost is around $200 to $250 if we do the fuel filter.

Fuel filters on farm vehicles need doing more regularly than recommended due to water contamination on farm tanks.

Every two years we flush the cooling and brake hydraulic systems and change air filters (which of course puts the price up a bit). And we change gearbox and final drive oils when they look dirty.

triangle1, May 4, 11:26am
We operate a delivery service and do 25 - 30 000 km per year

triangle1, May 4, 11:28am
We would have prefered petrol but just couldnt get the right van.

scoobeey, May 4, 11:40am
do it yaself !

stevo2, May 4, 7:25pm
You will find that after about 20,000km per annum the diesel starts to get a bit cheaper than petrol to run. Use this site to compare:
just update the current prices as these are now out of date.
http://dieselvspetrol.webs.com/

thejazzpianoma, May 4, 8:51pm
Triangle, I STRONGLY suggest you do the maths very very carefully on the Hyundai. I havn't investigated this for 12 months or so but when I did last the Hyundai was no where near the bargain it looked to be.
Fuel consumption and high maintenance made it poor value compared to the VW etc. Also, Hyundai NZ have shown very publicly their disdain for looking after customers. (See the fair go episode with the elderly guy who bought a Diesel Hyundai that pooed itself).
Also generally the modern Diesels that still have short service intervals are the ones that are not well designed.
Good modern Diesels should have service intervals around 40'000km/2 years and no that dosn't mean they wear out quicker or cost a lot when the service rolls around.
I would be looking primarily at VW in a new van but also Fiat/Mercedes as well. Remember, Europe sells more diesel Cars than petrol cars and has for many years, the rest of the world is playing catchup to their massive volumes and huge investment in the technology. It goes against the grain of the old wives tales told by Hiace drivers, but if you want reliability and low servicing and running costs in a diesel van, European vans are what you want.
Best of luck but PLEASE do your own proper maths and research, it will pay dividends.

thejazzpianoma, May 4, 8:57pm
Diesel is vastly superior to petrol in a modern van, in terms of actual total running costs without compromising power (actually usable power is generally better), drivability or service frequency/costs.

triangle1, May 4, 11:36pm
Jazz thanks for that. It is a matter of what we can afford versus the points you make.

pestri, May 5, 2:32am
New. as in not used, Mitsubishi vans were being specialed off at about $24k when I was last in town. not so long ago, and the $15 k you might save is going to take a long time to spend on the extra fuel of a petrol vehicle I think.

triangle1, May 5, 3:04am
Yes I saw that but they do not come in automatic. They are a good van though. worth having another look at.

vtecintegra, May 5, 4:29am
Trouble is the L300 is small and incredibly outdated design - designed in the 80s remember and not updated in any meaningful way since.

thejazzpianoma, May 5, 6:51am
Just found this post.

Dude you would be nuts to pay that for one. Look at the VW above, its the same money.

In terms of savings alone my rough back of an envelope calculations put you down as saving up around $2000 a year in diesel and servicing costs for starters. Plus, its a better van and you only have to take time out to get it in for servicing less than half as often (expect about 2.5 services of the Hyundai to every one of the VW, if what they said above is correct) that saves you a lot of mucking about trying to get your work van off the road for servicing during work hours.

Also. if you really wanted an Auto its all the more reason to get a VW as the VW has the cracker DSG transmission. (The one in the link is a manual but you could get a DSG for similar money)

mugenb20b, May 5, 7:23am
It needs to be an automatic Jazz.

thejazzpianoma, May 5, 7:30am
O.K then get t a DSG Transporter, thats even more reason to buy a VW! (although Fiats automated manual is good too. but I prefer the DSG)

The Hyundai BTW, despite looking more powerful at first glance is not only a thirsty pig its a slow dog compared to the VW and Fiat, especially in auto form, their transmission is a joke straight out of the 80's. Go and compare them and see!

Even comparing manual with manual the Hyundai can't keep up with the VW. It appears to have more capacity and KW but its real world performance is pathetic. Of course it only gets worse when you are comparing 4 gears and a power sapping torque converter with 7 gears, more torque and no torque converter.

Yip, just drive them both and be blown away!

mugenb20b, May 5, 7:36am
We are talking about a Hyundai H1 here, right! Not the old H100.

thejazzpianoma, May 5, 7:46am
Yip the H1,
Sorry though I did get the 4 gears part wrong I think in fairness I suspect they might be a 5 speed now.

Yeah, go and drive it and compare. I don't know what Hyundai are doing but clearly the short service intervals and lack of real world performance is pointing to something.

I will see if I can find some actual figures as in terms of spec I am going on what I am remembering from last year.

triangle1, May 5, 7:50am
Yes it has to be an auto due to the nature of our deliveries.

triangle1, May 5, 7:52am
Can the VW carry 1100kg payload!

bwg11, May 5, 7:54am
[quote=Fiat invented the modern Diesel engine (common rail system) and in my opinion build the most reliable of all common rail diesel engines. VW's though are also fantastic.[/quote]

I've read this claim about a dozen times on this MB. Even though the "common rail" was invented many years back, the first commercial and practical use of common rail in a road vehicle was in 1995 with the Hino Ranger truck. Technology was by HIno (a subsidary of Toyota who some claim knows nothing about diesel technology) & Nippon Denso (also a member of the Toyota Group). True, Fiat did do some R & D in the 1990's before selling the technology to Bosch who did the final development of the product we see today.

mugenb20b, May 5, 7:55am
I don't know Jazz. The Jap and Korean common rail diesels have plenty of poke, especially the 2.2 litre SantaFe. That bloody thing has so much torque, it wheel spun in first three gears on a wet road. And you can get power upgrade chips for Jap (and other) common rail diesels. As well as increasing power and torque, they also improve fuel economy.

What you say makes sense when it comes to service and running costs, but Japan and South Korea are not behind Europe these days when it comes to diesel technology (imo).

thejazzpianoma, May 5, 7:57am
O.K,
Now this will teach me for quoting without checking. In fairness the 2.0 Van I was comparing may have been a twin turbo one, hence the big difference in performance. You would have to drive and see but I suspect the regular 103KW turbo VW like in the link won't be that much quicker than the Hyundai, but will probably still feel more zippy with the better transmission.

Payload. I seem to remember it being about the same.

Give me a moment and I will grab some spec from the VW website for you.

thejazzpianoma, May 5, 8:00am
I agree they have improved and they look good on paper but when you jump from a Hyundai to a VW I still don't think they are there.

There is something amiss because Hyundai are using 4 valve technology and have the bigger capacity but the performance, frequent oil changes and crappy economy show they are just not in the running in terms of efficiency. I always laugh because they advertise so heavily and pretend that economy is their strength. when they would have to be one of the worst on the market.

thejazzpianoma, May 5, 8:03am
Here is some spec for you:
http://www.volkswagen.co.nz/media/country/nz/x/specifications.Par.0051.File.pdf/t5_transporter_van.pdf

Now hold on a tick on the payload because that dosn't look like what I read last time. I think thats a minimum and the long wheel base one is about 1100KG. but I could be wrong so lets see.