With the European Union still moving towards requiring all new cars sold from 2035 to produce zero CO2 emissions you might be wondering if now is a good time to spend money on another internal-combustion-engined (ICE) vehicle – especially if you favour diesel.
Once Ireland’s favourite fuel, it has dropped off in popularity in recent years, with hybrid power now very much to the fore.
However, diesel is still the best choice of fuel in a lot of use cases, so is now a good time to try and bag a bargain on a used diesel vehicle?
It won’t suddenly be banned
Lots of people use the word ‘ban’ when describing the 2035 cut-off, but that always sounds a bit dramatic and as if, somehow, even the use of petrol and diesel cars will stop immediately at that point. Instead, all that is happening is that any further sales of purely petrol- or diesel-powered new cars will end – but there will still likely be cars with combustion engines sold after this point, either as hybrids (HEVs) or PHEVs. And any existing cars with just plain petrol or diesel engines will still be fine to be on public road.
This means that you can safely buy a diesel now, because you’ve got at least nine years to think about your next moves before the 2035 decision comes into effect. However, not all sellers – especially used and private sellers – will be aware of this, so you could drive a hard bargain on the vehicle’s purchase price on the basis the seller is simply eager to ‘get rid’ of the car as soon as possible.
Dwindling demand drops prices
As much as we’ve said there’s nothing wrong with buying a diesel car right now, that hasn’t stopped a notable decline in the numbers registered in recent years. According to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), in 2024 diesel cars represented 22.96% of all new-car registrations. By 2025, that share had dropped to 17.26%. And now? In 2026? It has dwindled right back to less than 13 per cent (12.87%).
As a result of this sharp drop-off in diesel demand, some manufacturers have stopped selling diesel models altogether, while others have significantly reduced their diesel offerings. Set against this backdrop, values of used diesels have tumbled relative to petrol and hybrid cars, so they can often represent a more affordable way of getting the car you want for less money. We saw a 2011 Ford Focus 1.6 Titanium 125hp petrol model, with 152,000km on the clock, up for sale for €6,000; a similar age, year and trim 1.6 TDCi with the 110hp diesel engine and similar distance was about a thousand euro less than that.
There’s a lot of choice on the used market
Despite the current plight for diesel, there was a period in the mid-2010s when pretty much every car sold was a diesel of some sort. And that means the used market is flooded with diesel vehicles, if you go back to the right period – the Volkswagen Golf Mk7, built from 2012-2020, is a great example. If you select a 1.6-litre engine on our website and limit the year to 2020, there are more than 200 examples (at the time of writing) of the German hatchback – and every single one of them is a diesel.
This means there’s the best possible financial situation for savvy car-buyers right now – supply far outstripping demand. You can leverage a lower price on the specific vehicle you want, by referencing other, similar examples that may be knocking around (unsold) for less money.
Check your use case is the right one for diesel
Even if you want to avail of a nice, used, cheap diesel, you have to remember that certain driving styles do not suit the fuel type. If you do lots of short-distance, low-speed, predominantly urban journeys, then a diesel – especially a more modern example fitted with a diesel particulate filter (DPF) – is not going to be the best choice for you.
The rough rule of thumb is that a diesel makes sense if you tend to do more than 20,000km a year – so they’re ideal for people who are regularly running long and at higher speeds, either on motorways or big national roads. That way, you’ll be better off in the long run, as diesel cars are more efficient at a high-speed cruise, but their fuel is a little more expensive per litre, and they may come with higher maintenance costs.