For some reason and perhaps this is just because I am from before a time when diesel was not all that much used in passenger vehicles, but I just always have this fear that I am going to be way out back somewhere and low on fuel and the one and only place for how much I have left to get to is not going to have diesel.
Perhaps in the UK diesel is everywhere, but even for my area there are some places that just don't sell it, which also means the prices can vary too as if you need it, you are going to have to pay what ever it is.
But can also tell of this story from back in my youth when it was a severally cold winter night and me and my friends hooked up with these girls who wanted to go from a club in CT to one in NY State as those stayed open till 5am I think it was.
So for some reason us guys all piled into the one guys truck that was a diesel and followed them down there and hung out till 5, an then when that place closed was asked by the girls to follow them back to their place for um you know...breakfast.
So we all pilled back into his truck an went to start it but by that time it had sat in the zero cold for a good 3hrs, and it just would not start for nothing even with all the glow systems working just fine.
So there the three of us were all standing out in this parking lot freezing to death as we were just in our club cloths doing all we could to get it going and getting dirty and covered in diesel fuel trying to get the thing to start for like an hour till finally the battery just was dead.
At that point the moment was lost for even us and so the girls feeling bad gave us a ride back to the other club in CT where our other cars were and then we all went home.
For the guy who owned the truck he went back later that day with a truck that could jump it and he said in just a little while as the day had warmed everything up, it started right off.
So I guess I could talk about all the technical reasons I think I would prefer a petrol and I know things today are not built the same nor at my age would I ever probably be in that same situation again, but for some reason every time I think about getting a diesel engine in anything I would buy, I think back to the misery of that night and then check the box for a petrol.