Have you ever played snakes and ladder?
Two opponents playing at a similar pace and suddenly one falls due to snake bite. Similarly petrol and diesel are actively having a cut throat competition between them. They play on similar grounds but as we say the demand curve keeps changing. They never know when they will climb the ladder of success at one step and be thrashed by venom on the other step.
Tata Indica Diesel and Tata Indigo Diesel are good example of diesel cars. The debate on choosing between diesel and petrol is never ending. There are few factors to be considered to make the choice easier.
Before accelerating the discussion further, let’s break a little to check out the speed breakers.
• Speed: Now if we compare petrol cars and diesel cars, the speed of petrol cars is much better. They are fast speed cars.
• Fuel consumption: Diesel cars have better fuel consumption ability which gives a good pulling power to the car. And of course there is less gear changing in this case.
• Mileage: In case of high mileage driving Diesel cars are easier to sell than a petrol car.
• Carbon dioxide: The emission of carbon dioxide is very unhealthy for our environment. It leads to global warming. The fuel consumed by diesel cars is 30 to 40% less than petrol cars, so diesel cars produce less carbon dioxide.
• Hydrocarbons: It contains very harmful chemical called benzene. It is produced more by petrol engines then diesel engines.
• Particulates: Diesel engines emit more PM10 particles that are particles which have a diameter up to 10 microns. These are invisible particles which penetrate into human lungs and cause a lot of health issues.
• Cost: As far as cost goes, a petrol motor has an advantage even before you drive out the showroom doors. The diesel option - particularly a turbo-diesel - can add thousands of rupees to the already high price of a four-wheel-drive.
• Running costs: A comparison of the running costs for petrol and diesel engines will often find the petrol models are cheaper - aside from fuel. Diesel models will normally require more frequent engine oil and filter changes.
• Cost of fuel: A petrol vehicle is a very thirst vehicle. The diesel vehicle wins the race where fuel economy is in stake. A diesel engine will use mere fraction of the fuel as compared to a petrol engine doing the same job.
• Carbon monoxide: It is a deadly poison and kills without even letting us know. A diesel engine wins in this situation as it does not produce carbon monoxide. Though catalytic converters are trying to solve the problem of carbon monoxide in case of petrol engines.
• Refinement: Diesel engines have always been very noisy in comparison to petrol engines. Though the new models of diesel are no doubt a better version but still there is a lot of scope to improve.
• Smooth drive: A petrol engines acceleration response is more desirable. Diesels particularly naturally aspirated ones need more input from the gear box to maintain the traffic flow.
• Performance: Some time back diesel engines gave poor performance as compared to petrol engines. But with the coming up of turbo chargers the situation has fairly improved.
