diesel is a horrible, utterly spiteful fuel which belongs in space heaters and cross-channel ferries - only.
Any diesel will be terribly slow and sound just like a skeleton masturbating inside a filing cabinet. Aviod.
+1 could not agree more. Would just add they are awfull for your neighbours. when they start up on a cold morning it wakes the entire street up 
..and anyone following you in a rag top or on a bicycle, of course, especially if asthmatic. Horrid stinking tractors. 
If they follow me in my Cavalier they will be treated to the aroma of fish & chips or maybe even curry,depending where the latest batch came from. 
Actually,maybe TB should acquire an old diesel and run it on the waste veggie oil from that curry house he frequents.He could then divert some of the exhaust gases through a pipe into the car and at long last have his perfect air freshener.

That's probably not so bad. It's the modern diseasels that seem to be the worst for clag out the back. I guess the ones I've come across:
Are completing the daily farce of failing to complete a DPF regen on the school run
or:
Have been chipped by some teenager who advertises on Ebay to try to get some glimmer of performance out of them
or:
Have just plain suffered the neglect of a manufacturers service schedule and clearly the MOT emissions test isn't strict enough to get them off the road.