[Aussie Mike]

Both our daily drivers are Diesels. I've been a diesel convert for about 4 or 5 years now. My Land Rover used to get 800-900Ks out of a tank depending on round town or open road. That works out to be about 11L/100 for a big heavy 4x4. The surprise was how good the economy was with a trailer on the back. with a tandem trailer and Cobra on back I was still getting 600KM out of a tank. My wife's car gets 1000Ks out of a tank or more on a long trip and regularly does less than 5L/100.

The Land Rover replacement is another Diesel and it gets 10L/100 driving to and from work and 9L/100 on a trip. It's got way more power than the old Discovery and is smooth and quiet and still has a 3.5 ton towing capacity. You would be hard pressed to know it was a diesel except for the puff of diesel smoke when you start it up.

One of the nice things about diesels is that there isn't as big a difference between city and highway fuel consumption. So if the manufacturer quotes a specific fuel consumption you are probably going to get close to it in a Diesel most of the time where as a petrol car will be much more dependent on how you drive it. With Petrol getting the manufacturer quoted figures may be a case of all the factors being right i.e road conditions, speed, traffic and alignment of the stars etc.

Diesels take some getting used to living with one but after a while you get used to the turbo lag and adapt your driving to it. They make power differently to a petrol engine but these days diesel doesn't = slow any more. My wife's Jetta had way more perceived get up and go than the petrol version when driven back to back. It just makes so much torque which is what you are using getting off the mark and driving round town. I've found the traction control regularly kicks in on her car.

Cheers