Recommend me a family diesel car

sj999

I did 65,000 miles in a second hand diesel Mondeo in 2 years and all it needed except for 3 services a year was a clutch. It even drove really well!

C_Mababejive

Tobster86 wrote: »

Skodas are best price/build quality tradeoff. Had a Mk3 Mondeo last year; drove well and had a good engine but bodywork and electrics were just awful. They also suffer from seizing problems on the rear brake calipers that will cost a bit if you can't sort the problem out yourself.

Regarding the 'so many miles to justify a diesel' mantra; part of it stems from the emissions control systems (EGR valve and DPF) tending to have problems in low mileage conditions. Both of these components are completely unnecessary to pass the MOT; the only legal requirement for them rests on the manufacturer as it rolls off the production line in the form of Euro IV & Euro V compliance. Once you own it; it needs to pass the smoke opacity test and that's it; and both components make very little difference to this test. I removed these components on my old Peugeot 306 vegetable oil burner and the figures for the emissions test didn't change. I'm currently doing the same modifications to another veg oil burning 306 I bought recently.

I think there may possibly be a legal implication in other european countries, but definitely not in the UK.

In the event of a blocked DPF on a new car, I'd be tempted to price up having the part replaced with a straight-through exhaust section and having any necessary ECU reprogramming done, against replacing the part itself (The 306 has no ECU so behaves no differently).

EGR valves I'd be more careful with though as they lower combustion temperatures which may be significant on some newer vehicles.

Its quite incredible that fleet vehicles such as transit vans have EGRs and DPFs when so many of them are involved in start/stop urban operations. Guaranteed to fail in these circs methinks..