This week, DONAL BYRNEexamines the cost of ownership in the family car market, where diesel really is the dominant player since the carbon-based tax system was introduced
IF PROOF were needed of the economic virtues of diesel cars, the second part of our Merrion Fleet analysis, which examines the family and smaller business sector, provides plenty of it.
The analysis, which looks at the whole-life cost of new cars after three years and 36,000km from a fleet perspective highlights the fact that both Volkswagen and Renault, for example, have virtually given up trying to sell big petrol-powered versions of their most popular family-sized cars and offer them only in exotic and uneconomical versions. In addition, Citroën does not even offer a petrol version of the C5.
“Most of the demand for cars at the moment is for two- or three-year-old diesels. This is because the whole-life cost is lower than a petrol equivalent.
“This can be clearly seen from our new car figures but it is equally true of second-hand cars,” says Merrion Fleet sales director, David Wilkinson.
However, the survey also shows that diesel savings make more sense when mileage is high. As an exercise, Merrion looked at costings a for two-year-old petrol Mondeo being bought second-hand and run for another three years. If the average mileage was 10,000km, the petrol model achieved a saving of some €400 over the period when compared to buying and running a similar diesel.
“Petrol cars depreciate more than diesels and thus cost less to buy second-hand. If the driver does low mileage, the additional cost of fuel can be outweighed by the savings on the initial purchase price,” says Wilkinson.
It is worth reminding readers that when reading the data, they should bear in mind that the value Merrion puts on a car after three years is a trade figure.
It is not what you can expect to pay for a second-hand as described in the table, but, again, it gives a very good indication of how cars depreciate when compared with their main competitors across the sector.
Drops in value of about two-thirds after three years are not uncommon in this table and the running costs per kilometre are always illuminating.
A Skoda Octavia 1.9-litre diesel costs 36 cent per kilometre to run over the three-year period, while a BMW 118 diesel costs 48 cent. The anachronistic 2.0-litre Renault petrol turbo costs 77 cent per kilometre while the Skoda Octavia 1.4-litre petrol will get you around for a modest 38 cent.