Well i recently have had a drive of a ford courier turbo diesel and while i must say it wasnt a thrilling drive (it accelerated like my 80 datsun sunny) it effortlessly pulled and got great fuel eccomy i have also drivan a diesel powerd gemini (isuzu) and it was a true slug it still efortlessly drove around and its fuel ecconmy was unbelievable!
I personally would prefer to own a petrol motor as the high resale price of diesel motors and the cost to replace them on the off chance somthing gos wrong. But i wouldent complain about having one in a family car just drop the family in and whatch it go.