Diesel engines are more efficient. Due to the higher compression ratios, diesel engines tend be heavier than the equivalent gasoline engine. Diesel vehicles and diesel engines tend to be more expensive than gas.

Because of their weight and compression ratio, diesel engines tend to have lower RPM ranges than gas engines. This gives diesel engines more torque rather than higher horsepower, and this tends to make diesel vehicles slower in terms of acceleration. Diesel engines have to be fuel injected, and in the past fuel injection was very expensive and less reliable.

Diesel engines tend to produce more smoke and smell very funny when compared to gasoline engines. They are harder to start in cold weather and if they contain glow plugs, the diesel engines may require you to wait before you start the engine so that the glow plugs can heat up. Diesel engines are much noisier than gas engines and tend to vibrate quite a bit. Diesel fuel is less available than gas.