I've had the Captur for two weeks now, a TCE 120 EDC, it's replacing a Nissan Note DCI 90.<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
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A word about the DCI 90 powering the Note, which is relevant here as it is basically the same engine powering the Captur : very pleasant at low revs, you can easily start in second gear and quite nippy around town; also pleasant when cruising on M roads although a sixth gear clearly wouldn't go amiss; the main drawback is lack of punch when required to overtake on highways for instance. Note (no pun intended) that although Nissan does not use the latest version of this engine (still 200 against 220 Nm of torque for Renault @ 1750 rpm), acceleration figures given by Nissan are always better than Renault's , different weights, gear ratios, engine tuning ""¦ ?
Now why Petrol ?
Well I thought it was time to switch to petrol for several reasons :
Fuel price difference in France is increasingly irrelevant when you consider the extra money you have to shell out for a diesel engine, not to mention maintenance cost which can be heavy on these increasingly complex engines. Consequently the mileage required to recoup your investment is becoming critical.
Diesel engines are increasingly complex owing to ever tightening emission regulations, i.e. the requirement for particle filters, soon NOx traps and what next ?... As it is, a modern diesel car with particle filter is becoming practically unfit for strict urban use, owing to regeneration requirement. It can be costly if regen does not occur automatically.
Modern downsized petrol engines, lighter, turbo charged to give higher torque at lower rpm, are now demonstrating that they're on a par with their diesel counterparts and will gradually overthrow the latters' domination in Europe. If you look at the latest statistics, this trend has already started.
And last but not least, the engine noise issue, which I hadn't disregarded but nottaken into account much, the Note's DCI 90 being a very civilised engine and rather unobtrusive. How wrong I was became obvious when I got into the TCE 120 : ""¦ silence ""¦ you can hardly hear the engine, such comfort !
A word about the DCI 90 powering the Note, which is relevant here as it is basically the same engine powering the Captur : very pleasant at low revs, you can easily start in second gear and quite nippy around town; also pleasant when cruising on M roads although a sixth gear clearly wouldn't go amiss; the main drawback is lack of punch when required to overtake on highways for instance. Note (no pun intended) that although Nissan does not use the latest version of this engine (still 200 against 220 Nm of torque for Renault @ 1750 rpm), acceleration figures given by Nissan are always better than Renault's , different weights, gear ratios, engine tuning ""¦ ?
Now why Petrol ?
Well I thought it was time to switch to petrol for several reasons :
Fuel price difference in France is increasingly irrelevant when you consider the extra money you have to shell out for a diesel engine, not to mention maintenance cost which can be heavy on these increasingly complex engines. Consequently the mileage required to recoup your investment is becoming critical.
Diesel engines are increasingly complex owing to ever tightening emission regulations, i.e. the requirement for particle filters, soon NOx traps and what next ?... As it is, a modern diesel car with particle filter is becoming practically unfit for strict urban use, owing to regeneration requirement. It can be costly if regen does not occur automatically.
Modern downsized petrol engines, lighter, turbo charged to give higher torque at lower rpm, are now demonstrating that they're on a par with their diesel counterparts and will gradually overthrow the latters' domination in Europe. If you look at the latest statistics, this trend has already started.
And last but not least, the engine noise issue, which I hadn't disregarded but nottaken into account much, the Note's DCI 90 being a very civilised engine and rather unobtrusive. How wrong I was became obvious when I got into the TCE 120 : ""¦ silence ""¦ you can hardly hear the engine, such comfort !