I've had a Pug 406 HDI turbo estate for about 15 years, I brought it off a customer that had the old problem of the engine running on it's sump oil after the turbo seals failed and knackered the engine.
I rebuilt an engine that I had kicking about and installed it with a new turbo.
I think with buying the car and fitting the engine it cost me about £1000 all up back then and I have used this all these years since without a single problem. It does between 50/60 mpg and will cruise all day long at 100mph and has tons of room inside. The car has absolutely no rust anywhere and is quiet at all speeds and a joy to drive and doesn't have a DPF.
The car is not worth a lot of money and there is no sense in me selling it as I don't use it much in the UK and the maintenance costs are next to nothing as I do all my own work.
I think if you can buy something like that for under a grand in good order then I would go for it, obviously if you do most of your driving in cities especially London then petrol is probably the way to go at the moment UNTIL THE POWERS THAT BE CHANGE THE GOALPOSTS AGAIN !!!
I'm fully aware that petrol is cheaper than diesel and some petrol cars do decent MPG, also the government can increase the price on diesel to deter people but seeing that most vans and all lorries/buses run on diesel then I can't see it happening for a few years.
As there will probably be a glut of used(and even new) diesel cars and estates for sale at reduced prices it may be a buyers market to get a bargain to run for a few more years !
One last thing I will add is that some diesel vehicles are a lot better than others as far as reliability and DPF problems are concerned and some are a definite no no, so get really good advice from people that work on them all the time and not some "bloke" in the pub or some "idiot" on the internet that always knows better than genuine decent mechanics !!
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