I had a man fuel up at my station last night, and I posed the question to him.

Turns out he is a mechanic at a local dealership that sells gasoline fueled cars, but drives a diesel truck to haul his boat and trailer around.

His thoughts were that diesel engines in today's cars are more robust and require little maintance other than changing the oil on a regular basis, while gasoline powered cars require frequent preventative maintenance; plugs, points in non electronic ignition (electricity is switched by an electronic system rather than points) systems, timing checks, distributor maintenance, because diesel cars don't use any of these systems - the fuel is ignited by the fuel air mixture being compressed to the ignition point of the fuel. Aside from the injectors, it is a much simpler system, and since many newer cars now include fuel injection, the diesel is much simpler in operation, with less to go wrong.

Dave