Mixed feelings about diesel cars
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TRANSPORT managers who also have responsibility for their company car fleet often say that it is the cars, not the lorries, that cause most problems.
If that is true, they might find some value in the latest report that compares the economics of fleet cars. It Conies from contract-hire company Interleasing (UK) Ltd.
Its league tables group ears into different classes; several factors are examined, with the salient ones collated into a cost-per-mile figure. This includes contract-hire rental costs (based on a two-year hire period and 20.04 (miles per year, and calculating expected residual value), Mel consumption and insurance costs.
The report's authors express sonic mixed feelings about diesel cars: "Since the big diesel push M 1984 and early 1985 things seem to have gone :I bit quiet on the diesel front. The stark reality is that despite marketing a
clean image and despite the savings that can he made, the diesel differential is just not enough, dery is just not cheap enough. the future is not predictable enough, the cars aren't quick enough, the choice is not big enough liar models or specs, drivers are not convinced and may be the manufacturers aren't either."
Interleasing figures hear this out; diesel cars are cheap to run, but by a margin that is not large enough to tempt fleet buyers away from petrol-engined models. For example, the Ford Orion 1.6L diesel is the cheapest car to run in the 1.6 to 1.8-litre class with a cost per mile of 18.9p. But the petrol-engined equivalent Orion is not far behind at 19.34p per mile.
According to the Interleasing report, the Mini Mayfair is the cheapest car to run, at a cost of 13.8p a mile. The petrol-engined Sierra 1.6L and Cavalier 1.6L are credited with 20.75p and 20.42p a mile respectively.
And the most expensive? That "honourgoes to the Jaguar XJ6 4.2 Automatic at 53.3p a mile.