Hi Michael,

Not really, no although the fact that you can, for business purposes, reclaim the VAT on diesel and not petrol does throw something of a spanner into the calculations. Leaving that aside, we always use, as a rule of thumb, that if you’re covering fewer than 20,000km a year, then a diesel is a waste of time for you. That’s especially true now that new-generation petrol engines, such as Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost, Toyota’s D4-T 1.2-litre, Peugeot and Citroen’s 1.2-litre PureTech and Volkswagen’s excellent 1.0-litre TSI are on the market. These engines can, genuinely, give you diesel-like economy, and low emissions, but without the penalties in maintenance or extra purchase price.