But in reality it is a subjective decision that should be taken cautiously. So below are some rounds between Petrol and Diesel.
- Round 1 Petrol/Diesel Price - the Government is reluctant to increase the price of Diesel as this will directly affect the common man. It is true that the food prices (and many other commodity prices) will be impacted if the diesel price go up and also the manufacturing units. So considering all this I don't think that diesel prices will be updated frequently compared to petrol prices. But than nobody thinks that by petrol price hike too, the common man will be affected as there are atleast 100 million motorcyclists in India which have petrol engines.
- Round 2 Buying a Diesel car vs Petrol car - If you will compare the prices of the petrol variant with that of a diesel variant you will see that there is always more than 1,00,000Rs. difference. Let us take the Maruti Suzuki Swift VXi and VDi as an example. There is almost 1 lakh rupees difference between the two. Take a look at the below image
| | Maruti Swift VXi | Maruti Swift VDi |
| Ex showroom price Jaipur | 4,84,385 | 5,75,432 |
| Mileage-City | 15.7 | 18.1 |
| Actual Mileage | 14 | 16.5 |
| Cost of Fuel Petrol/Diesel | 71.1/- | 42.06/- |
| Cost of 1000Km | 5071 | 2549 |
Considering the running of 1000 km a month there is only 2500 Rs. difference. This means that the owner of a diesel car driving an average of 1,000 km a month would recover the Rs 1 lakh extra he paid for the diesel version in 40 months. At 1,500 km of travel a month, he recovers it in 26 months.
So someone who tends to change his Car in every 3 years (like me) will not even come to a break-even if driving 1000 kms a month.
- Round 3 Maintenance - Diesel parts are little costlier and the maintenance is also a bit high as compared to petrol variants.
- Round 4 Resale - Looking at the price differences between petrol and diesel, people are going towards diesel cars and hence the resale is a bit better for diesel cars. But seeing the resale of Maruti/Hyundai petrol cars this is difficult to identify that which has better resale.
- Round 5 Petrol and Diesel performance on Road - Earlier petrol engines were far superior than their diesel counterparts. But today with the advent of new technologies and turbo-chargers a lot has happened on the diesel side. However the refined petrol engine driving experience is still radically distinctive.
Finale - considering all the above rounds the only disadvantage of the Diesel car in India is the higher price. And if you travel a lot than Diesel car is a must.
But, the serious point here is the ever rising petrol prices and the subsidy on diesel. This surely has a sharp biting on the wallets of Indian Car drivers.
Your comments and updates are welcome.
