Diesel engines have come on in leaps and bounds performance wise these last 10 years but modern petrol engines are now offering pretty high MPG figures too*, so, given the current dislike of Diesel engines and the moves to ban them from major cities Diesel engines to be banned will manufacturers continue to develop and ship new units?

Some cars, like my own Kia Soul* (I know, I know )are available as diesel variants only. Will manufacturers concentrate on developing petrol engines for these, continue with diesel or just drop the models?

*Kia soul - crap 2.0 ltr diesel engine averaging 40mpg
BMW 4 series 2.0 ltr petrol averaging 50 mpg

What do you think?

Forced induction petrol is the way things are going. Forced induction delivers the torque. Towing is possibly the only place I'd miss diesel - though I was getting 50mpg from my last 200+bhp BlueEfficiency E-Class estate and 30mph towing the race car.

in 5yrs time Diesels will be phased out in cars as more cities talk about banning them, the public will avoid being left with an unsaleable car.

While I can see that for cars, I'm not sure it'd work for lorries and other heavy vehicles.

IMHO diesels should be be banned and a scrapage scheme started. I own a diesel and okay when new and used out of town, but so many old smoking and polluting dogs on road with numbers that will just go on growing as they soldier on for monster low maint. miles.

Stick with forced induction petrol and or hybrid's if we must.

Start 'random' roadside smoke tests. A high mileage diesel on a highway isn't a problem, it's when it's in the city that it should really be electric.

Mind you - had a hybrid taxi ride today. Looking at the displays, it's average mileage (I suspect since the last fill-up) was something under thirty mpg...

Manufacturers are (more or less quietly) backing away from diesel. The last thing they need is a class action lawsuit for killing children through particulates.
Currently, there are still too many around (and too many manufactured) to kill them off straight away, but I reckon they'll be doing the dodo in 5-10 years.

I think you're all deluded! It's the ICE that's for the chop, not just a certain type. I doubt anything will get outright banned, just battery will become cheaper and ICE more and more expensive.

The efficient petrol engines are indeed forced induction, to get the torque but almost all will be direct injection engines too.

These engines have two main drawbacks.

1. CARBON

Manufacturers have been working hard to find ways to reduce carbon on petrol DI's (catalytic valves for example) but it is still an issue. If carbon build up is left untreated fuel consumption soars, power is reduced and eventually it will probably kill the cats too. Using premium fuels with detergents does help and this is often recommended in the owners manual of some cars. This though significantly increases the running costs so many owners choose to ignore!

2. Emissions

The direct injection of petrol does get the CO2 to drop significantly. However the inefficiency of fuel air mixing within Petrol DI engines often causes them to produce MORE particulate matter than modern diesels. To meet Euro 6 emissions some DI petrol engines now also need a particulate filter in addition to the CAT.

A Euro 6 3.0 Tdi with it's cheap car tax, more than reasonable power and reasonable economy currently makes more sense than a petrol, so I'll stick with that for now.

I am seeing a trend over the past 6 months as its inevitable I will need to change my 2 Ton Diesel SUV as the road Tax is not getting cheaper, already over £300 a year and economy will not be winning any prizes.

Those of us who have a diesel car know that we may of paid upwards £2000+ more over the equivalent petrol car, but it seems of late that the depreciation on a diesel is worse than it used to be compared to a petrol. Another thing I see, is where a diesel car is more expensive to buy new, like for like with a petrol, at 1 year old, both petrol / diesel cars are more or less the same price and that large price diff does not really exist. But generally people are still buying diesels even if they are potting around town doing less than 5000 miles a year, but dealers are just interested in peddling the advertised mpg figures I think.

To be fair I am myself are leaning towards a petrol turbocharged car as their overall economy in the real world etc etc has significantly improved over the last 15 years, when I converted to the former Pug HDi diesel engines.

I've just taken delivery of a BMW 640d. As people say, the diesel engine may be coming to an end in road cars, so I thought I 'd try a high power one.

Very similar in terms of performance to my Jag 4.2 supercharged V8, though real world relaxed driving it's quicker due to the lower powerband and instant gearchanges.

What shocks me is in Eco Pro it's more economical on short town journeys (from cold) than the Ecoboost Ford I hired and not far off a basic Fabia TSI. On the motorway it's better. The you put it in Sport+ and it may as well be the Jag, with a silly turn of speed; just with less aural excitement. Astonishing flexibility.

My brother had the Audi A8 4-litre diesel a long time back and, even then, the grunt was neck-snapping. I'd imagine a modern BMW is incredibly impressive.

It's a shame that diesel has the issues it does - it feels like the engine manufacturers were really getting on top of how to make them brilliant. Hopefully electric will pick up from where diesel left off in the torque stakes.

Nice - I once had a run-in with one of these and had to work the Coupe very hard to reel it in - extremely impressive piece of kit, and definitely on my radar if I find myself in a position to afford one

What kind of mpg are you getting?

They're a bargain, either leased or bought new/second hand.

I've only done 300 miles due to Christmas etc, but on my 4 miles cold journey 30mpg isn't too hard and once warm round town it's well into the 30s. Motorway, I've only done one decent journey so far and was probably about 45mpg on a 30 mile round trip with traffic at either end. The Eco Pro dulls the engine a bit, but the main thing is it decouples the drivetrain whenever it can. The point is, you can have the best of both, save fuel when there's no point trying to get somewhere quickly and when the road is clear...

Plus if it isn't new, they can be tuned to ludicrous figures with better mpg. I know Leighton has done a couple of the 35d engines.

I'll do a review when I've done a few more miles.

My dad has a 435d x-drive which really surprised me performance wise, so a 640d must have a mountain of torque!

I found the BMW 6 and the A7 to be huge cars, heck there are times when think the A5 is too big too

I borrowed my brothers 325d a while back for a few days, which had had the dpf gutted and a re-map. I was genuinely suprised how quick it was - still hate the clatter on start etc. though.

He's now got a Jag XF 3.0d - with re-map and DPF removal it's just over 500 lbs / ft. and 40mpg on a run.... not had a go in it yet though.

Does he use red Diesel too?

One hears of so many of these 'wonderful performance cars with legally required parts disabled/removed and the engine remapped' and can't help wondering how much worse they are to the environment than even a bog standard diesel?

The new Audi (B9) 3.0 Tdi's have this feature in ECO mode.

A friend has one of the new B9's and recently we've been running brim to brim fuel comparisons. The newer car is more punchy with 270hp, 600nm of torque and the decoupling 8 speed DSG gearbox. My B8.5 has 245hp, 500nm and a 7 speed DSG.

The changes Audi have made are though having an alarming effect on economy. I am managing to get just shy of 39mpg (Brim to brim) but my friends new car is returning late 40's

During September I had the lower powered (218) Audi 3.0 A4 for a week. That was returning 60+ mpg on the computer and I thought it was just being hugely optimistic, maybe it wasn't far off

Yes it's amazing how well it works. I'd say it's 30% more efficient on the BMW. Odd feeling to get used to though. It knows the gradient of the roads and tells you when to take your foot off.

Ha, yes. When I had the A4 I had to stop and get the manual out. I couldn't work out what the accelerator graphic, which kept changing colour, was all about

I'd love to see the emissions results on a modern diesel whilst it's mid trying to re-gen a clogged DPF..... probably more than makes up for the reduction in running one in the first place.

I run a Skoda VRS as my business vehicle and normally get 550 miles on a 10 gallon tank which is pretty good. It has a reasonable turn of speed through it's dsg box as well. It is awaiting the "diesel-gate" fix of which I am not sure whether to have completed or not as I have some concerns over what impact it may have.
I would think that there will be some further technology changes that may keep diesel as an option.