Petrol vs diesel

Hi there,

Haven't written many posts, but I have been an extremely regular and addictive reader here. Ever since my husband showed me the Evoque, i have been crazy about it. Still holding on to the dream of owning one.. hopefully in the near future, and not in years!

Anyway, we had a day out without the kids, and one of the things we decided to do was to visit the Land Rover dealership in the Valley. I was a little surprised to see only one Evoque in the showroom, and there was one dynamic, a pure diesel and a pure petrol outside. We managed to test drive (2nd time round) the petrol Pure, but did not get the time to test drive the diesel.

My husband is adamant in getting the petrol, as he likes his fast cars (having own a lotus elise back when he was in the uk) and now a 200sx turbo. He doesn't think the diesel would give it enough power. I said that he should not discount the Evoque until he has tested one, as it is not like other cars he has recently test driven.

So, my question is, for those who have similar tastes for fast cars, and have a diesel, what do you think of it?

For what it's worth, I absolutely love my petrol! So smooth, quiet and quite a set of the proverbialls for an SUV! I previously owned a 400+kw car and I still get a kick from the refined power of the petrol evoque. An M3 it is not, but it is damned good at what it does, you won't be disappointed with either!

Happy with performance of my Petrol, less happy with the fuel economy !

If most of your driving is short trips and around town without many longer trips then the petrol would be my choice, diesels are much less efficient in stop start motoring with lots of gear changes and the device of the devil, the DPF, is a real pain if all your driving is as above. In gear performance of the SD4 is excellent
and once warmed up is is pretty quiet. In normal driving I don't understand why 0-60 is so crucial for some people, the opportunities to actually accelerate flat out are few and far between, the 30-70 time is much more important as it is a good indication of overtaking ability and this is where a diesel's superior torque at lower revs is really useful.

(01-12-2012 02:29pm)gw76 Wrote:  Happy with performance of my Petrol, less happy with the fuel economy !

likewise but I expected that when I ordered it.

Sounds like most of you are recommending that we stick to the Si4. Thanks for all your comments so far. Would still love to hear from more people.

ived driven both the petrol and SD4 diesel.......they seem the same to me. i went with the petrol.

I had a petrol BMW335i before I swapped to the Evoque SD4 Auto. I can tell you that the higher torque offsets the BHP.
When accelerating past cars at circa 40mph I have to watch that I don't blast past the speed limit the acceleration is so good. Being a diesel the acceleration is more linear and that can make you think it is slower - but its not, trust me!

I chose the Diesel SD4... More relaxing to drive overall,yet at the same time, provides more of a powerful shove in the back sensation from low down due to the superior torque,and in the real world, that's where one appreciates it the most.

I'm a big fan of the petrol version but to extract the power, you have to be willing to rev the nuts off it. When you do, it will be rather faster than the SD4 but the SD4 may suit the languid RR driving style rather better.