Diesel Particulate Filter fault, who is responsible?

tberry6686

I don't see this as a fault - just that the vehicle has not been used in the way it was designed for, and so would not be covered by a warranty

Iceweasel

Here's a few more sweeping generalizations then -


Most of the buyers of the big 3 premium marques (BMW, Audi & M-Benz) are high-mileage people - whether private buyers or companies.


They want the economies of a diesel and the drawbacks of DPF just simply don't affect the high mileage folks.


On all those brands forums you get loads of folks who complain that they can't find enough choice in 2nd hand petrols.


Diesel is the future whether we like it or not, as that is what the new car buyers across most of Europe want. Especially as almost all other EU countries have cheaper diesel than petrol prices.


AFAIK all new diesels have DPFs


Low mileage commuters need to look to electric or hybrid cars, (or stick with petrol) rather than being naively mislead by the diesel mpg figures

Indout96

When I worked in sales there was many an occasion a customer would come in
and say I want "y" when I knew that "x" would be far suitable and may have been
even cheaper. However, I soon learnt that as soon as you put that doubt into
their already made up mind your sale and commission was lost. So they asked for
"y" and I took the order for "y" every-time.

I know we are going off track a bit here but when we went to buy my wifes Saab (about 6 years ago) the Saab main dealer (Harrogate) went in to all sorts of questions about the type of driving it would be doing. We were told the cost of replacing the filters and the possible problems we could face and bought a petrol from them in the end (£££ cheaper). It was touch and go as we were using that as the family car at the time - myself having a weekend toy :-)
Now I drive a diesel (Passat 2.0 Highline) which we use as family car but for my wifes we still have petrol (now a Volvo S40) as her normal trips are about 1 / 2 miles at most.

redux

tberry6686 wrote: »

I don't see this as a fault - just that the vehicle has not been used in the way it was designed for, and so would not be covered by a warranty

I'm not picking on your viewpoint, but it seems to me that things are heading in the direction of conceptual absurdity.

A motor car should be designed to be driven on the roads in a range of operating conditions, and I don't think the designer is entitled to complain that the owner isn't using it properly.

Yes, if we go to an extreme in another direction, cars developed for racing on closed tracks have suspension that would not cope with road conditions, and vice versa, but that difference is part of the job of the designer.

If DPF systems aren't as good as they ought to be, and incidentally neither is a catalyst on a petrol car until it's warmed up, someone needs to do some more work, either improving them to work properly, or removing the legal obligation to have a device fitted to the car which doesn't work properly to achieve its declared purpose.

Not only that, some cities are finding that pollution is still increasing while motor manufacturers are passing off these devices as fully functional but refuse to support this assertion with a warranty.

jase1

What concerns me about all this is that you now have lease companies pushing cars like 1.6TDCi Focuses for £129 PCP, with 5000-mile limits.

Surely this is asking for trouble?

Iceweasel

redux wrote: »

I'm not picking on your viewpoint, but it seems to me that things are heading in the direction of conceptual absurdity.

A motor car should be designed to be driven on the roads in a range of operating conditions, and I don't think the designer is entitled to complain that the owner isn't using it properly.
QUOTE]


OK then - what if I buy an electric car and say nothing about the fact that I want to drive from Glasgow to London every other weekend.


To me that's the same as buying a diesel to go on the school run, or a 5 mile commute with.


Or do we expect that the salesmen should tell us all the things we shouldn't do if we are to get the best from the car.


Do Rolls Royce salesman warn prospective buyers that they will have difficulty parking in regular sized parking bays? Should the designer have made it smaller?


The OP bought an 'inappropriate' car for his needs - and I sympathise with him - but who made the bigger mistake?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

tberry6686 wrote: »

I don't see this as a fault - just that the vehicle has not been used in the way it was designed for, and so would not be covered by a warranty

I think that would be acceptable if the vehicle was not only designed that way but also sold that way, with a big sticker on the sales agreement directing the buyer to the conditions of use. The point here is that the buyer was entirely unaware of the limitations and the seller did nothing to inform them. Think selling PPI to a self-employed person - it is called mis-selling.

The example of electric cars is a good one - I would expect anyone buying one to have a serious conversation about range and do some serious investigation, and if I was selling I'd have serious concerns about selling one to someone who did not understand their limitations - I would make sure that there was an upfront disclaimer. By a Vauxhall Electron and you don't need to have to much of a conversation. A pure electric you need to qualify your sale carefully, though an Electron still makes little sense to someone who lives with on street parking and has no power point at work.

scaredofdebt

Presumably the DPF has become blocked with soot particles?

I have read somewhere, maybe on this forum, that you can clean them out with a power washer and a few hundred litres of water - it takes about 45 minutes to clean them apparently.

I'd advise trying that once the DPF has been removed though.

Ultrasonic

This older thread may be of interest to the OP:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4892328

System

jase1 wrote: »

What concerns me about all this is that you now have lease companies pushing cars like 1.6TDCi Focuses for £129 PCP, with 5000-mile limits.

Surely this is asking for trouble?

The 5k miles could be a small number of long distance journeys.