The x-drive is better if you are driving in mud or snow, but going up and down hills the s-drive is fine. All cars have traction control. The dealer should have mentioned diesel engines aren’t good for many short journeys. Unless you do lots of miles, I would get a 2 litre s-drive. Over the three years and 22000 miles we had ours it averaged over 42 mpg which was generally about 38 locally and on long motorway journeys 50mpg was easy to get.
All correct, but one thing to add, because that’s of importance for us in particular: Diesels take considerably longer to get warm. Not just the engine, but the cabin as well. Since my wife has to combat Raynaud’s amongst other things, for us it’s important that the cabin gets warm as quickly as possible. In a petrol (ours), it takes around 200 metres for the heater to spew warmth – it takes considerably longer in a diesel.
Not to mention that with many short trips, DPFs can create issues, though there’s better and worse engines for that. Short trips are never great for oil burners though, and there’s quite literally zero upside to them (higher up front cost, higher running cost, more weight, higher consumption due to the engine not getting warm on shorter trips/inefficiency etc). They are torquier in lower RPMs, but with turbo petrols, that’s negligible. That’s not to say that diesels don’t have their place – but for most non-commuting people, petrols are just the better engine.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.