Well, this thread has been a bit quiet lately!
It's time to replace the wife's 2012 2.2D 175 and we've been looking at the Sportage, Kuga and of course the CX-5. We've ruled out the Sportage and Kuga so are looking at a Sport Nav CX-5.
When we bought the 2.2D my wife was doing around 20K miles per year, so the diesel made sense, but she is now doing no more than 10-12K a year so it is less clear cut. The 2.0 petrol is around 1800 cheaper than the 150 diesel, which would buy a lot of unleaded despite the lower MPG. But when I test drove it I found it a bit gutless, although to be fair it was bound to feel that way compared to the torque the 175 has.
Can anyone with a petrol advise if it frees up a bit once run in?
I think that the petrol will always seem a bit gutless compared to the torque of the diesel and as driving pleasure should come into the equation as well then get another diesel. In the U.S where they only have petrol they also fine the 2.0 a bit slow and unresponsive but they also get a 2.5 litre that apparantly is a lot better. In order to compete with diesels a lot of manufacturers are now doing turbo petrols and they are a lot better in terms of pulling power and responsiveness.