[AlanD]

I'd say get whatever you and SWMBO like that fits your budget.

We chose the diesel after I drove a Mk3 Ghia Wagon in the UK for a week in 2008 and I got hooked on the economy and it was a manual. The longterm fuel economy readout said 49.3 mpg at pickup and a week later I handed it back with the readout at 50.8 mpg after about 1500 miles half on motorways at 5 mph above the limit keeping pace with the traffic.

The big difference is the torque as it develops only 60 nm less than the Territory from half the displacement, so with a mass of 3/4s that of the larger car it can get moving in a hurry, but there is a bit of turbo lag.

We typically get mid sevens (litre/100 km) but have seen it as low as 5.8 on a longer trip.

However diesel fuel is smelly and messy compared with unleaded, so you might find yourself as the refueller of choice.

We are now up to 9000 km travelled and have had no concerns, except the dealer lost the average fuel consumption readout when they tried to upgrade the display, waiting until a scheduled service to get that fixed. This seems to be a problem ie local dealer service centres are not (or were not) up to speed with the on board electronics and the upgrades that are available, but this is not a vehicle fault.

But I do like the distance to empty readout at more than 1000 km after a fill.

Cheers

Alan