Difference with petrol and diesel?

psy obliviously hasn't driven both.

There's a host of differences that are direct and indirect factors related to the fuels.

Power delivery is significantly different in a petrol compared to a diesel and so is torque. These are directly related and a diesel engine does deliver more torque low down the rev range so is more difficult to stall at traffic lights etc. However a petrol engine usually delivers peak power somewhere between 65% and 85% of its rev range whereas a diesel is more usually higher up still and this can cause problems with red-lining in racing which is one of the reasons diesel racing cars are so rare - even though for example theres touring car diesel only classes.

Efficient driving is easier to achieve in a petrol compared to a diesel. A diesel typically has a lower rev range than a petrol EG 1000RPM tick over and 5000 RPM red line where a petrol may rev to say 7000RPM. That gives you a 50% wider useable range. That's not the best bit. A diesel if you want to wring every last possible mile out of a gallon has a sweet spot only a few hundred RPM wide, That's why a tractor has up to 60 forward and reverse gears - so do HGVs. The Sweet spot in a diesel worst case can be as little as 200RPM wide. Outside that the efficiency starts dropping. The bonus for a petrol vehicle is that the sweet spot can be 15% of the rev range. That's more likely to be about 500-700RPM wide instead of 200RPM and efficiency drops of slower outside it with a petrol. The flip side is that even though a diesel can give you 45% efficiency if used perfectly a petrol can give you 27% maximum.

As for handling the petrol engine is way lighter than an equivalent diesel engine, and most cars have a set-up optimised for petrol instead of diesel so even though they beef up the suspension in a diesel vehicle the weight distribution is not as good and cant be changed.

There's also water to be considered. Petrol engines use spark plugs which need very high voltages (up to 50kV) to work. If the engine gets wet enough from ground spray you need to spray WD40 or similar all over the HT leads etc after it dies. A diesel engine does not need spark plugs so does not get this problem. Thankfully this problem is rare in modern cars but it still can happen if there is a lot of surface water, your engine is cold and your moving fast EG after leaving a motorway services after being there for say ah hour or two.

some differences between driving diesel and petrol:

- diesel will feel heavier to drive (engine is heavier)

- filling up: diesel is greasy, so gloves are a good idea

- diesel engines MUCH more fuel efficient usually

- for beginners especially, manual diesels are MUCH easier to drive than manual petrols - the inherent power of the diesel engine means the accelerator is less needed when starting off. Making a diesel much harder to stall.

- no sparkplugs to buy or worry about in a diesel!! horay!

- but if things go wrong in a diesel, expect more enpensive repairs than a petrol

The first thing you will notice is that the petrol car will need more accelerator before engaging the clutch when moving off, particularly uphill. The diesel car will take higher gears earlier when normal driving. Apart from that its just a matter of getting used to the little differences.

In terms of driving, there is no difference between petrol and diesel, the car is controlled and will handle in exactly the same way.

The difference in size between the Ford Focus and the Freelander is something else, it can take some getting used to a bigger vehicle, but I'm sure you'll find that you adapt to it in no time.

nothing.