From sunshinecoastdaily.com.au

DIESEL is getting a lot of traction in the new car sales market and the fuel miser European makes are leading the way.

A diesel ride no longer means labouring about in a smoky oil burner, but purring along with a fuel economy rate of 800 kilometres per tank or better.

And with diesel prices yesterday on the Sunshine Coast two cents a litre cheaper than unleaded petrol, the appeal of classy diesel family cars made by VW, Peugeot and Renault can only get stronger.

Higher refining prices in Singapore have been blamed by fuel pricing watchdog FUELtrac for pushing the retail price of petrol higher while diesel remains fairly constant.

In Coolum yesterday, ULP cost 115.9 cents a litre compared to diesel’s price of 113.9 cents a litre.

FUELtrac’s Geoff Trotter said he expected ULP petrol to fall from its south-east Queensland low yesterday of 112.9 cents a litre to below 110.9 by tomorrow before heading back up on Thursday.

But even when diesel has been higher there has been a steady trend towards drivers making the switch.

A Garry Crick Auto Group spokesman said the VW Golf diesel models have been outselling the Golf petrol range for the past 18 months.

According to one car test on the Australian Car Advice website, the VW Jetta diesel recorded fuel consumption of 5.8 litres per 100 kilometres of city and highway driving (1200 km a tank) - only slightly less than the Toyota Prius hybrid car’s 4.4/100.

“The thing with these diesel cars is that you get so far on one tank of fuel that people were buying them even when diesel cost more,” he said.

“At the moment the market is being led by the European car makers, but it will not take long for the Japanese to catch up.”

According to Steve Cornish of North Coast Diesel Service, there has been a huge improvement in the performance of diesel engines in recent years.