Does petrol or diesel hold the advantage?

I think everyone’s aware that today’s diesel cars are unrecognisable compared with some two decades ago but I think it’s fair to say that in the last decade, and more particularly in the last five years, petrol cars have made even bigger advances, relatively speaking. Whereas a few years ago, a petrol car would need replacement spark plugs every 15 000 kms, 30 000 km intervals are much more common and you’ll even find some makes going as far as 60 000 kms.  Thanks to the use of computerised electronic control units, ignition timing adjustments belong in Noah’s Ark so the petrol engine now needs next-to-no maintenance.
Further, the widespread use of unleaded fuel (I guess you still have little or no idea what’s being served up in Zimbabwe) in conjunction with hugely improved mixture control and the increasing use of stainless steel, has meant that exhaust systems last an eternity compared with what we were used to in the 80s for example. Diesel motors have always been kinder to rear silencers so that advantage has largely gone too. As far as fuel economy is concerned, it’s still advantage diesel, the more so if in urban running, but the gap has closed considerably and there’s next to no difference in price of the two fuels whereas years ago, diesel (in Zim) was half the price of petrol and generally, you could go twice as far on a litre.  The economy advantage for diesel was huge but now, I’d say it’s down to about 25 percent.
More importantly, diesel cars are invariably more expensive than their petrol equivalents, so you have to allow for this in determining longer term operating costs.  If you’re going to be covering big distances, the economy advantage may well become real, but for Mr. Average, it’s fair to say the advantage no longer exists.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if you do a lot of stop-start driving over short distances such as driving to work, don’t go the diesel route. Diesel engines take longer to warm up which means the wear factor in short distance driving can be significant and add to that, the fact that the quality of diesel fuel in Zimbabwe is invariably as bad as you can get in terms of sulphur content, and you’re sitting on a potential time bomb. 
You may shake your heads in disbelief but I know of highly reputable diesel motors that have worn their bores in 30 000 kms of stop start driving.  
Some of this is also due to the fact that top class lubes specially formulated to deal with soot that accumulates as a result of incomplete combustion in cold-running diesel engines is also not available in Zimb-abwe. 
Add the acid problem exacerbated by high sulphur fuels and you’ll understand why my once unmitigated enthusiasm for diesels has waned.  But it isn’t all sweetness and light for petrol as use of leaded fuel in modern petrol engines which now all feature expensive catalytic converters and lambda probes, will sooner rather than later,  lead to performance problems and below spec running efficiency.
So, in summary, if you cover high mileages and generally don’t sit in rush hour traffic, diesel holds sway but otherwise, petrol now has the edge, especially in the case of smaller turbo-charged motors which offer diesel-rivalling torque.
F1 speak
We’re still waiting to find out who will drive the second Mercedes GP entry in 2010 and I reckon it’s all because negotiations are going on with none other than Michael Schumacher who will need to undo a contract with Ferrari related to (I think) testing upcoming road cars and who will need to convince his wife that another year at full speed is the way to go.  If the MS rumours are without foundation, then I suspect Nick Heidfeld is the front runner for the seat, but why the extra long delays?  
The value to Mercedes having the seven time champ behind the three-pointed star is almost incalculable. 
Merc sales will become turbo-charged overnight but there’s still the issue of who’s bigger in F1 – MS or M-B?   Ferrari allowed Michael the luxury of using their prancing horse symbol on his merchandise and somewhat to their chagrin, the Schumacher gear outsold the Scuderia gear many times over.