A few points of why I feel Diesel is better engine
1. A diesel car always has a more effective air conditioning in summers even in temperatues like 45 degrees, because there is more idle power when a unit of diesel burns compared to a unit of petrol of the same quantity.
Also the lag in pickup is not present or if present is less in proportion to a petrol car.
Hence you may have obsevered that even in less maintained diesel cabs / taxis like Toyota Qualis or Tata Sumo or Indica, air conditioning of even a poor maintained car is generally good.
2. Next is people in India do not know how to drive a diesel car, where the use of clucth should be less while driving and not done as frequently as is need in a petrol engine.
3. Next is a diesel car engine must always always be given a heater well and maybe twice in winters before starting the engine and once the engine starts leave it running idle for some time like 3-4 mintues before you put your first gear.
If you do not do this your chances of spoiling your engine are high.
And do this as much as you can can but this routine must always always be follower in the morning when you start the car for the first time in the day.
4. Diesel engines of small cars are definately not as refined as they should be if compared to say an Indigo or CRDi Accent but still they are not that bad as they are made out to be.
5. Next diesel engines face a bad reputation especially by word of mouth, and that too by people who have never driven a diesel engine or very less if at all.
6. Diesel cars are especially good for people who buy cars on monthy instalmant EMI. With the disparity is fuel cost your outgo of fuel bill permonth will be less and you can use that money in paying the EMI and returning the debt faster.
If you still like a petrol engine which is definately much quiter but the cost of fuel pinches you, get a LPG kit of good quality and you can re fuel at India Oil gas stations where they sell LPG for cars under the brand AUTOGAS.
This will almost half your present per kilometer running, bring it equivalent to cost of running a diesel car and also save you the additional money you would have paid on a diesel model car.
Only drawback is that autogas distribution is still in its nascent stage so for re fuelling you may have to go some extra miles and on out of town trips especially to smaller cities autogas may not be available.