Which car to buy? Diesel or Petrol?!






Petrol price is increasing and it has no limit. Petrol car are cheaper to buy but maintaining daily usage is costly. On one hand, Honda only manufactures petrol cars, as they are more refined and more powerful, they don't have any diesel cars in india, People tend to buy diesel cars, concerning the increasing prices of petrol and cng fuel.

I would talk about few scenarios here.

As the petrol price is on top, people are thinking about the alternatives. Diesel is the most common one! For your information, cars take less then 10 percent of total consumption of diesel fuel (at the time of this writing!). Rest of the diesel is consumed by transporters (trucks, buses, tractors), machines used in farms and other machines used in rural areas. Government is planning tax on diesel cars to reduce numbers. Diesel cars are getting costlier and petrol prices are already high, i don't think it is good idea to buy car in near future.

which car to buy? Diesel or Petrol?!


I conducted an interesting study, hope you'll understand it!

Sample calculation [All prices assumed!]

9th may 2012.
Petrol : 78 rupees per litre.
Diesel : 46 rupees per litre.

Hyundai i20 Asta Abs CRDi [diesel] costs 7.8 lakh on road.
The same variant in petrol would cost you around 6.5 lakh. [1 to 1.5 lakh cheaper than the diesel car, before the proposed tax]

We assume, Your daily run is 20 kmpl.

Petrol i20 would give you mileage of 14 kmpl approx in city, that is without ac! A monthly cost would be 600 km / 14 kmpl = 42.8 litre petrol. That comes to 42.8 * 78 = 3342 rupees a month. Rupees 40,114 for a year! For five year it would cost 2,00,500 rupees.

If you plan to drive a petrol car for five year, it would cost 6.5 lakh car price + 2 lakh of petrol = 8.5 lakh [cost of petrol car for 5 year].

For a diesel car, i20 would give you mileage of 18 kmpl in city, of course without ac. A monthly run would be 600 km / 18 kmpl = 33.3 litre diesel. That is 33.3 * 46 = 1600 rupees a month. And 19,200 a year! 96,000 for five year.

If you plan to drive a diesel car for five year, cost would be 7.8 lakh car price + 1 lakh of petrol = 8.8 lakh [cost of diesel car for 5 year]

So your breakeven point would be 5 years when both diesel and petrol cars would cost you almost same.

update 2013
On long rides, petrol trip costs approx one and three quarters more compared to diesel trip. For example, if you ride from Surat to Ahmedabad and back to Surat, its approx 600 km.
For petrol car, 600 / 14 * 75 = 3171, while for diesel car, 600 / 18 * 54 = 1800.

PLEASE NOTE : I haven't included hikes in fuel prices in future. Of course, Petrol tends to get costlier over the time then diesel. Also i haven't mentioned proposed tax on diesel car which government is planning post petrol price hike!





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4 comments:

  Unknown

July 12, 2012 at 4:16 AM

Nice survey

  Unknown

July 12, 2012 at 4:18 AM

Nice survey

  Anonymous

July 28, 2012 at 10:09 PM

Interesting.....

  Anonymous

September 3, 2012 at 8:27 AM

U calculate it for 15 years:

Petrol: 6.5 + 6 = 12.5 lakh
Diesel: 7.8 + 3 = 10.8 lakh.

U see the difference?

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