Compare the best diesel cars

Best for: Pretty much everything
The BMW X5 has been a totemic car for BMW ever since the first model was introduced way back in 1999. Back then the X5 combined the comfort and sporty driving pleasure of a lower-slung BMW saloon with smooth straight-six diesel power and the space, practicality, and rough-road potential of an SUV. In the intervening 26 years, not a great deal has changed…

Okay, so this X5 is bigger, more luxurious, and more expensive than that 1999 original, but the basic recipe is the same. Power, in diesel form, comes from BMW’s familiar 3.0-litre 30d engine, which is buttery-smooth and refined, but which now has a substantial 298hp. Not enough? Well, there is the option of the 40d version of the same engine, which has a stumpy 352hp, and which cuts the 0-62mph time from 6.1 seconds to 5.5 seconds. Both engines are capable of close to or better than 40mpg in daily driving, and CO2 emissions are under 200g/km, which isn’t bad for such a chunky vehicle.

The interior of the X5 comes with the new BMW widescreen digital dashboard, which is high-tech and all, but not quite as easy to use as the older version with separate instrument and infotainment screens. The lack of physical buttons is also annoying, although at least you still get the iDrive clickwheel controller, which is easier to use on the move than touching the screen.

There’s plenty of space in both front and rear, and exceptionally comfortable seats too. The 650-litre boot is fine, but not exceptional when you consider how much more room a rival Audi Q7 offers. However, you can spec the diesel X5 up with extra seats in the boot, turning it into a seven-seater. Mind you, those extra seats are strictly for kids.

Make sure you spec your X5 with the optional adaptive suspension, as then it’s smooth and easy-riding around town, but still properly sharp and rewarding to drive on the open road. As a long-haul cruiser, with that fuel-sipping engine and that luxuriant cabin, the X5 is pretty hard to beat.

Best for: Long-distance comfort
The Skoda Superb has always flirted with disaster with its name. It’s kind of like calling your kids King and Superman and hoping that turns them into something special. Skoda could so easily have fallen flat on its face with the Superb’s name, yet every time a new one is launched, it continues to be a car that genuinely lives up to its name. The latest Superb is, as ever, closely related to the VW Passat, although unlike the latest Passat, you can have this Superb as both a fastback saloon and an estate — the Passat is now estate-only.

Mind you, even with the choice, it’s the estate that you want because it has one of the biggest and most useful boots in all of motoring. There’s 690 litres of storage space back there, and that’s only assuming that you pack it up to the luggage cover. As far as versatility and practicality goes, the Superb estate knocks most SUVs well and truly off their lofty perches.

Don’t go thinking that just because the Superb has a price tag of less than £35,000 and a mission as a sensible-shoes family car that it has some dowdy interior, though. The dashboard is almost avant-garde, with those big, distinctive vertical strakes that run from behind the digital instruments all the way to the passenger’s door. It’s actually quite striking, and even if you can find some cheap plastic bits around the place — and that handy trio of rotary controllers for the air conditioning and infotainment screen aren’t quite as robust as you’d like — few will ever complain about the Superb’s cabin quality.

Mostly, people will just be too happy stretching out in their comfortable seats, with their Club World levels of legroom. True, getting three people in the back isn’t the easiest, as the middle rear seat is narrow and there’s a transmission tunnel to deal with, but for four people the Superb is a supremely relaxing car to drive cross-country.

That’s helped by the 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine lineup, which comes with either 150hp or 193hp if you want your Superb with four-wheel drive. Front-wheel drive versions can keep their emissions as low as 127g/km, and 55mpg is pretty easy to do.

Best for: Family life
One of the big dilemmas of modern family motoring is that thanks to the fact that SUVs have supplanted MPVs as the default family car of choice, suddenly it’s hard to fit enough child car seats in. MPVs of old would almost always be able to carry three child safety seats across the back row, but in most SUVs, thanks to narrow centre rear seats, that’s not always possible. Well, it is with the Citroen C5 Aircross, because unlike most family SUVs, this one comes with three individual seats in the back, each one of which slides and reclines, so it’s an utter doddle to get three kids safely and securely in the back. That’s a big tick in the box for mums and dads.

The Citroen C5 Aircross also just happens to have some other strong points. There’s a massive boot, which varies from 580 litres to 720 litres, depending on where you’ve positioned the back seats. The C5 Aircross also has an exceptional level of comfort — Citroen has fitted the C5 with both its Advanced Comfort seats and Advanced Comfort Suspension. So the suspension has little reservoirs with hydraulic fluid in them, which makes the C5 Aircross smoother than most alternatives, especially around town and over speed bumps. The seats are also wonderfully squashy and soft, almost sofa-like.

The cabin is well-made and looks almost premium in some versions, and you get big digital screens for your instruments and infotainment, although these can be fiddly and awkward to use.

It’s not perfect — space in those back seats isn’t great for adults, and there’s no seven-seat option — but the 1.5-litre BlueHDI engine is certainly an economical thing if you’re hauling those kids up and down the motorway every week. It’s also smooth and refined, but with only 130hp, don’t go expecting any sparkling performance. The easily-achieved 50mpg will be welcome news to many family drivers though.

Best for: Being rugged

The Land Rover Defender is not so much a car as it is a legend. Land Rover spent 72 years coming up with this replacement for the original (sort of…) and frankly it was worth the wait.

The modern Defender treads a careful line between the rugged usability of the original, and the sort of modern refinement and technological advancement that we crave. Few other 4x4s will keep up with a Defender when the going gets properly tough. After all, which other cars can wade through more than three-feet of standing water? You can go deeper than that if you spec the Defender with the optional air intake snorkel…

The cabin is also a masterclass in taking classic design cues — especially the sixties-look powder coating — and mixing them with modern stuff like touchscreens and digital dials. The Defender is also hugely practical, with five, six, seven, and even eight-seat cabin layouts available, although you should steer clear of the shorter 90 model if you want a decent boot.

Diesel power for a Defender comes from a single 3.0-litre engine, with either 249hp for the D250 model or 350hp for the D350 version. Clearly, more power is almost always better, but actually performance isn’t really all that different on the road, and both engines will average around 30mpg if driven gently.

Best for: Luxury

Slide into the leather-and-wool seat of your Range Rover and shut the big door behind you. Ahhhhh… you are now sealed away from the hubbub and hassle of the world outside, and sitting in a cabin of exceptional luxury and comfort.

We can quibble about Land Rover’s recent decision to excise almost all physical buttons and switches (never a good idea) but the clean surfaces and quietness make the inside of a Range Rover feel more like a high-end spa than a car.

It would be a shame to spoil that with a noisy, clattery diesel engine, but that doesn’t happen here, thanks to the choice of D300 and D350 mild-hybrid straight-six turbo diesel engines, which are as smooth and refined as Pinot Grigio dropping into a glass. Well, almost, and the better news is that you can squeeze 35mpg out of these engines if you’re careful, not that many Range Rover owners really worry about fuel bills.

The soft air springs of the Range Rover allow a bit of body roll in corners, so if it’s more precision you want, consider trading-down for a more agile Range Rover Sport. However, the slight trade-off in cornering prowess is worth it for the Rolls-Royce-like feel in all other aspects.

Best for: Pretending to be a Range Rover

The Kia Sorento and the Hyundai Santa Fe are, mechanically, twins but while Hyundai decided to go all retro and Lego-like with the looks of its latest big seven-seat SUV, Kia preferred instead to take the Sorento that it had and just mildly update it. That update included a new front end with slightly more American-esque styling, but thankfully it didn’t erase what was already good about the Sorento.

What was good was a sense of luxury and refinement inside that actually takes some beating. Sure, you can find plenty of bits and pieces in the cabin that are shared with lesser Kias such as the Sportage, but the overall effect of the Sorento’s cabin is that it just makes you feel better as soon as you sit in. Does that remind you of another big 4x4, one with a double-R badge?

The 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine is a bit old now, and it certainly can’t match the premium boys for refinement and smoothness, but it’s still game, and with 190hp it has just enough power to make the Sorento feel reasonably rapid. Fuel economy could work out as good as 40mpg if you’re gentle, and with seven seats on board the Sorento becomes a seriously useful, semi-luxurious SUV. Not the newest car on the block, but definitely one of the most impressive.

Best for: Luxury with seven seats

The Corolla is Toyota’s answer to the Volkswagen Golf, which means it’s perfectly sized for a When it first launched, the BMW X7 had a pig-like face that only a mother could love. So, BMW decided to rectify that by slapping the lights and grille from the massive 7 Series saloon onto the X7. And now the X7’s mother won’t even look at it…

Actually, that’s a bit harsh but there’s no getting away from the fact that the X7 is designed for markets more tolerant of bling and brash than the UK. However, once you get past that and get into the cabin, the X7 is really rather lovely. Much of the interior comes from the smaller X5, but in the X7 there’s definitely an extra sheen of luxury and a slightly higher-quality finish. The X7 also gets around the problem suffered by the seven-seat version of the X5, which is that there’s not enough room in the third row. In the X7, there’s plenty of space for full-grown adults.

Diesel power comes from the turbocharged 40d engine, whose 352hp can shift even the X7’s mighty bulk with some vim, although you’ll struggle to get close to the claimed 36mpg fuel economy figure.

Ugly on the outside it might be, but the X7 is truly lovely within, and it’s an accomplished and hugely comfortable long-haul transport.

Best for: Being sensible

It’s hard to think of a car that does ‘sensible’ better than a Skoda Octavia Estate. It’s sensibly sized, so although it’s roomy (660-litre boot!) and practical, it’s not too big and bulky to drive around town and it fits into normal car park spaces. It’s also sensibly priced, yet the interior actually looks and feels relatively upmarket, especially if you go for the upgraded SE-L version which has really nice soft interior fabrics that extend onto the dashboard.

You can have the Octavia Estate with petrol or plug-in hybrid power, but again diesel seems like the sensible, and most versatile, choice here. There’s a standard 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine with 116hp, but it’s worth taking the leap to the slightly pricier 150hp version, which is a better all-round performer (although its DSG automatic gearbox can be annoyingly hesitant around town). Either way, you’re looking at 50mpg without any effort.

Add that to Skoda’s usual reliability and solid build quality, excellent rear seat space, and handy touches such as a built-in umbrella in the driver’s door, and you’ve got a car that glories in its own sensibility. An exciting choice? No, but a deeply satisfying one. Spend a few weeks with a Skoda Octavia Estate and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without one.

Best for: Keeping it simple

Back in the 1980s, the diesel-engined version of the VW Golf was so economical that it was actually called the Golf Umwelt — Golf Environment. Imagine if VW tried to pull the same marketing trick these days?

Still, the modern Volkswagen Golf diesel has a role to play, thanks to it being hugely economical. You have the choice of 116hp or 150hp 2.0-litre TDI four-cylinder diesel engines, and while both can easily exceed 50mpg in daily driving, you might even tickle the edge of 60mpg if you’re being very careful. The 2.0-litre engine is also rather nicely refined these days too. Performance is brisk, with the 150hp version hitting 62mph from a standing start in 8.0 seconds.

Volkswagen has also given the Golf — the Mk8.5 — a useful update, with a much-improved infotainment screen, and better cabin quality than the model that was launched back in 2019. It’s also sharper and more rewarding to drive too, thanks to better steering.

There’s decent space in the back seats, and if the 380-litre boot isn’t massive, then it’s at least roomy enough for luggage for four for a weekend away. The styling also looks sharper now, especially in sporty R-Line specification.

Basically, the diesel-engined Golf has gotten back to its old position of being the answer to most motoring questions. You want a stylish car, that’s nice to drive, but still practical and economical? Well, this is it.

Best for: Sporty luxury

Now that BMW has dropped diesel power from the 3 Series saloon lineup, the Audi A5 — not a coupe any longer, but a sleek fastback saloon replacement for the old A4 — moves up a notch in diesel fans’ lists. While the old 320d might have been the king of this diesel sports-luxury saloon segment in the past, now that the king has laid down his crown, the Audi is ready to snatch it from under the nose of the Mercedes C-Class saloon.

The A5 does this by being really very handsome. It’s clearly an evolution of what went before with the old A4, but it’s sleeker and meaner looking at the front, and if the 480-litre boot isn’t exactly massive, then at least it’s more practical and useful than the old A4’s.

Inside it looks very much like that of the bigger, more expensive A6 and Q6 electric models and the big curving screen is clear and quick, if not the most logical thing to navigate around.

The 204hp 2.0-litre TDI engine has plenty of poke, and can easily do better than 50mpg if you’re careful, plus there’s the option of quattro four-wheel drive if you regularly tackle slippery country roads, or you’re worried about snowy cold-snaps. The A5 is also much better value for money than the Mercedes C-Class, and while it’s not quite as much fun as a BMW 320d was, it’s still slick and precise to drive.