New car to us with DPF Filter

oliveoil54

Thinking of buying a newer car. Need 4x4 diesel for where we live & to tow a caravan.

Have been looking at various SUV's but all diesels after 2009 have to have a Diesel Particulate Filter fitted, which having checked a few web sites seem to cause a lot of problems, especially if (like us) you only do shortish local journey's apart from when we use it to tow the caravan.

The AA seem to think these DPFs are a problem:-
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/diesel-particulate-filters.html

Have also looked at petrol SUVs as an alternative.

Would welcome any advice or info re anyone experiencing problems with DPFs and any thoughts re petrol versus diesel in a 2+ litre SUV, costs & fuel consumption etc?
Many Thanks

Din85

Pretty much all diesels have dpfs now, the need a good run regularly to carry out a regeneration ( burn off the soot).

If used for lots of short journeys they clog up and the back pressure sensors sees this and puts the eml on.

Some can simply have a forced regen carried out, but some go in to limp home mode (i have experience of this while working at vw, iirc it was a tigaurn.

Where as we had next to no issues with them at bmw, not at least untill around 150k on police x5s etc.

Obviously petrols do not suffer with this, in fact for me, petrol engined cars are generally cheaper if something goes wrong.

Most diesels are pretty good, though I would research particular vehicles your interested in first.

cootuk

Any reason why it has to be a 4x4?
Would a normal car on winter tyres keep your mobility in winter?
I assume you don't always tow and don't always need 4x4?

I would start by looking at the towing weight of the vehicle you need - ok, for big caravans that might mean a large tow car, but does it rule out the larger saloons and estates?

As an aside the Mazda 6 2.0-litre 165ps Sport Saloon was named as the ‘Best Petrol Tow Car’ at the Tow Car Awards 2013

anotherbaldrick

If you can give the diesel a good run (about 40 miles at 40 mph or above) at least once every 2-3 weeks fine, if not get the petrol.

Richard53

oliveoil54 wrote: »

any thoughts re petrol versus diesel in a 2+ litre SUV, costs & fuel consumption etc?
Many Thanks

Fuel consumption in a petrol SUV will be scarily high.

That assumes you are looking at a big, heavy one. If you only want a light 'soft-roader', then a car would probably tow as well as an SUV, and be a lot cheaper to run.

Towing a 1300 kg caravan:

Disco Td5 manual (diesel): 23 mpg
Disco Td5 auto (diesel): 19 mpg
Range Rover auto 4.6 (petrol): 14 mpg
Ford Mondeo 2.0 estate (diesel): 32 mpg

(Those are my own figures, by the way, in real world driving. As far as I know, none of the above has/had a DPF.)

Nothing could beat the RR as a tug, but at a price. For the record, and purely subjective, the Ford tows easily as well as either Disco, and feels less strained when doing so.

If you have rough ground or muddy fields to deal with, then 4x4 is the only way, but 4x4 running costs are generally high.

bigjl

My 08 Pathfinder is a Dpf equipped Euro 4 auto model and the dpf has been troublefree so far.

Dpf has never come on in nearly 2 1/2 yrs.

Used mostly for shortish journeys of around 15 miles each way.

My Jag seems to be more of a pain. Seems to ask for a 20 min run down the A13 up the M25 and back down the A12 after a days work.

Orange light has so far gone off at roughly the same place on M25.

It was never like this finicky till a sensor played up on the dpf which needed a forced regen at the dealer. So i personally think it is close to full of ash.

Apparently a dpf will build up deposits of ash as a result of the regens.

Theee can only be removed by taking off the dpf and geting it cleaned in a special oven.

Dpf Genie in London can do that.

There is another comlany that does it which has several branches and i will post it up after i double check the name.

A Euro 3 or non dpf Euro 4 Pathfinder with an autobox will get near to 30mpg overall.

In my experience and the experience of owners on the UK and Aus forums you will struggle to get 23mpg overall in a dpf equipped Euro 4 models.

A chauffeur mate has a rental car whilst his BMW get some work done.

He gets 26/27 mpg out of his 730ld

He is now driving an S500L, which is petrol, last of the old model and in the same usage he is getting 21/22mpg.

He is seriously considering the new S400L hybrid as that is also petrol.

A V8 Disco 3 or 4 will be a nicer vehicle to drive than a diesel.

But the 3.0v6 diesel is a great engine. The 2.7 wasn't bad either.

Just don't expect more than 25mpg unless on a run.

I would think a petrol Disco would give 18/19mpg with the option of an lpg conversion.

bigjl

Dpf company is Ceramex.


They have been cleaned bus an lgv dpfs for many years

bigjl

Just a thought.

A mate has a 2.2 diesel CR-V which is an 07 and last of the old shape.

He gets over 45mpg in mixed running. 60% motorways.

Not sure how much the CR-V can tow. But i think the first year or so of the new shape were without a dpf.

The Mazda as mentioned above is apparently a decent enough vehicle but price could be higher as they are rare.

I personally think the extra fuel use is worth it.

Had a Disco4 for nearly a week when my Jag was in for warranty worm on the dpf and it never needed a run to clear the dpf but had only got 10k on it.

If you go for a Disco4 the later ones with the 8speed box are a better bet.

With less round London use and no working the Disco4 returned over 30mpg over 300 miles. Which included the school run each day.

When it comes to towing a caravan i would rather have a vehicle towing half its max capacity than 70/80%.

A cheap alternative may be a V8 Disco2?

Gloomendoom

We use a DPF equipped SUV to travel to work. The journey is around 22 miles, pretty much all of it on country lanes.

The car is two and a half years old now and has had zero problems.
.
.
.

bigjl

What make and model?

Gloomendoom

bigjl wrote: »

What make and model?

KIA Sportage