NY wrote

I bought my diesel car as much for the extra torque and therefore less
need to change down as far for every little gradient or junction,

I never need to do that with gradients in my Getz.

as for the saving on fuel consumption. Ironically, my wife's diesel Honda
is much more like a petrol: I forever forget that it needs one or maybe
two gears lower than my Pug when going round a junction or as a downhill
road starts to rise again.

Odd with the gradient. That's the CR-V ?

Heavier vehicle, engine probably depends more on its turbo - it's only a
1.6 but a much bigger car than mine.

Yeah, mine is a 1.6 but not turbo. Much lighter than a CR-V tho.

I reckon the turbo sometimes runs out of puff as you slow down for a
junction and then can't get enough air in the cylinders as you start to
call for power.

Yeah, very likely. I used to always change down
to 2nd for corners in the 5 speed manual Getz
but now stay in 3rd for most corners.

My present 1.6 HDi Peugeot 308 has averaged about 54 mpg since I got it at
18,000 miles (it's now done 180,000) and the last petrol car that I had
was a 1993 1.8 Golf which averaged 37 mpg. OK, so that was old technology:
better to compare the Golf with the 1.9 HDi Peugeot 306 that I bought
immediately after the Golf (in 1997) which averaged 47 mpg.

So a significant saving: 37 compared with 47. However you have to take
into account that diesel is now *more* expensive than petrol, so cost per
mile is a better indicator. I can remember in the mid 70s, when the only
diesel cars were taxis with tractor-like engines, diesel was about half
the cost of petrol, partly because it was taxed at a lower rate. Then the
tax rate became the same, and diesel rose to about 90% of petrol price,
and now the cost of the raw diesel is actually more than for petrol,
despite the much greater demand nowadays than in the 70s when only lorries
and taxis used it.

You never do reply to my question about how reliable the Honda has been.
Bit of a worry given this comment with the Jazz.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...s-so-good.html