ovahimba

I'm in the process of renting a car for a Seville to Granada drive for early summer. I had assumed the majority of cars in Europe used diesel fuel. In the selections on the websites, very few specifically indicate they are diesel. Are most of these rentals gasoline powered? Of course I would prefer a diesel for fuel economy but also a larger car where I could store luggage in a trunk or boot.

bobthenavigator

1-800-223-5555
Autoeurope--they are helpful.

Cowboy1968

The difference between Diesel (gasoleo) and gas ("95") in Spain is not much. Mas o menos 5-6 €cents/liter.
Even when you take into account the somewhat better efficiency of a diesel engine, the overall difference during a regular vacation will hardly pay for more than a modest meal for two.

If you plan to drive 1K kms (650mls), and assume that your compact diesel car needs 5l/100km vs 7l/100 for a compact car running on gas:
€ 3.50 (difference gas vs diesel)
€ 28.00 (2l/100kms higher consumption)

Given the overall costs for airfare, hotels, restaurants and so on, those thirty euros will hardly make a difference.
= roughly €31-32 savings for 1,000 kms

Unless you plan to work as a traveling salesman, it's "nice to have" a diesel car, but nothing I would spend a minute's worth of brooding on.

BigRuss

Why did you assume they were mostly diesel? Petrol isn't diesel, it's gas and most European cars run on gas. The gas sold in Europe has "higher" octane ratings than US gas but they use a different octane scale (91 octane rating in the US is equivalent to 95 in Europe).

A diesel isn't necessarily more efficient, but usually is. Use Autoeurope (an aggregator) or Europcar/Hertz/Avis/Budget to find a car and go on the interweb to see what the car's features are. A main attraction of diesels is that the cost per liter is lower for diesel fuel than for petrol. This is true in Spain, but the difference is only about a nickel per liter (see here: http://www.drive-alive.co.uk/fuel_prices_europe.html). France, Germany, BeNeLux and some others have larger savings for diesel fuel.

ovahimba

Thanks all for the information. Americans don't have much experience with diesel cars and reading all the blogs saying always get a diesel, I thought there was a much more significant savings. I can put that lower on the list of things to worry about on the trip.

mandycloud

What diesel cars better then the gas car. If I have 2 cars same company same model one is in diesel and second is on gas So which one is better perform and which life has long according to engine line .
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