Running a diesel car with DPF on not many miles per journey/year?

JustAnotherSaver

AdrianC said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

Hmm, is that fairly new that that had come to being then?

May 2018.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mot-changes-20-may-2018

That'll make sense then.

They bring in rules, people work around them. They move the goalposts again, and people shift with it.

It's like HID kids. Get the H7r they say, you'll have no problem they say. I've had them in mine they say and i've never been pulled they say. Be that as it may, a bit of a merry go round and nearly dropping my car down a banking to avoid a pull in my youth had them things lasting a grand total of about 24 hours in my car before they were removed.

These days if it's too much hassle then i really can't be bothered with it.

daveyjp said:

Unfortunately my last diesel ownership came to an end when I dropped from 20k to about 8k miles a year.  The car hated it so I went back to petrol.

I'm sure DPF tech has improved in ten years and I could run a modern diesel, but for the miles I now do a diesel makes absolutely no sense.

Never been taken in by the diesel making no sense talk. My experience comes from older diesels though so probably not applicable today. Before my current diesel i owned a Ford Escort 1.8 TDDi and the diesel before that was a Citroen ZX 1.9D (non turbo). I did perhaps 6k per year. Diesel was fantastic. 50mpg minimum. Not bad for someone who didn't do enough miles for a diesel.

These days I will travel around 4 miles in about a 30 zone and then the other 6 in a 50-60 zone and then the reverse of that. When this COVID thing sorts itself out my driving will include 6.5-7.0 miles of motorway driving a few days per week.

Enough for a diesel with a DPF to handle? By the sounds of the thread, maybe. Worth a gamble? Hmm I still possibly wouldn't. Things tend to not work out when i gamble.

AdrianC

Over 6k/year, the difference between 40mpg petrol and 50mpg diesel is 135 litres/year

TheProfessional

Out of interest I had a brand new Audi A4 2.0tdi with a DPF. A few times it needed to be towed as it was in limp mode and the garage had to manually force clean the filter.

My journeys were pretty much empty motorway drives every day (60 miles per day)

Apparently the DPF can cause problems if you go straight on the motorway, get up to 6th gear and sit at 70-80mph the whole journey as the engine doesn't rev hard enough. Or at least older filters did

As soon as I started revving hard every now and again in 5th when overtaking the problem didn't recur

L9XSS

Volvo V70 D5. Had it 18 months. 9000 miles per year, no issues so far. You here some stories on the internet car forums but I think they are representative of most diesel cars.

JustAnotherSaver

AdrianC said:

Over 6k/year, the difference between 40mpg petrol and 50mpg diesel is 135 litres/year

I hear them arguments all the time. 
However when you take the full picture into account rather than a snapshot, the diesel poo-pooers are usually talking about buying brand spanking new diesel vs petrol equivalent. 

I'm talking about paying £1500 on A CAR. It may be diesel, it may be petrol, it may be LPG but its a car and that's the price. So if that's what's getting spent then that's what is getting spent and you either save on fuel over what you currently own or you don't. 

Then there's the tax. Right now I'm £100 per year better off. I used my last one for 12yrs solid. I won't be doing the same with this one as it probably won't see 12 months if the coil pack I ordered fixes the last cars problem, but if I did then that's £1200 right there. 

AdrianC

JustAnotherSaver said:

AdrianC said:

Over 6k/year, the difference between 40mpg petrol and 50mpg diesel is 135 litres/year

I hear them arguments all the time. 

I'm talking about paying £1500 on A CAR. It may be diesel, it may be petrol, it may be LPG but its a car and that's the price. So if that's what's getting spent then that's what is getting spent and you either save on fuel over what you currently own or you don't. 

Does £1,500 get you the same petrol car as diesel?

Usually, you'll get a better/newer/tidier petrol for the same price point, because people are so fixated on MPG and VED. DPFs are changing that, and around London the ULEZ is also doing a great job - a grand and a half will buy a Euro4 petrol, easily, and everybody's avoiding pre-Euro6 diesels.

JustAnotherSaver

Everyone in London may be avoiding pre Euro6 but not everybody as a blanket statement. Also despite what they seem to think when announcing the weather and basically referring to London, it doesn't speak for the rest of the UK. I don't live anywhere near London and I don't particularly like visiting it so driving in London is irrelevant to someone like me. 

Yep £1.5k may get me a 'better' petrol than diesel equivalent but that's not how I buy a car. 
Last time round I wanted a specific make, model and engine size. I wanted one with the irmscher kit on it but had to settle without as too good a deal came up. This time round I wanted a diesel car that 'should' put out minimum 45mpg and was decent on tax and performance. To get a petrol equivalent I'd be looking at modern petrols and shooting the budget through the roof. I could've got a 45mpg petrol but then I'd be taking a hit on performance which I didn't want. 

The response will of course be well how did that work out for you. Obviously this time not so good. Last time very well. These are the chances we take when buying 2nd hand but then I won't pay the ridiculous prices of brand new. Old cars will need repairs, that's obvious, but not all old cars live in a garage being repaired 24/7 

Mickey666

JustAnotherSaver said:

Everyone in London may be avoiding pre Euro6 but not everybody as a blanket statement. Also despite what they seem to think when announcing the weather and basically referring to London, it doesn't speak for the rest of the UK. I don't live anywhere near London and I don't particularly like visiting it so driving in London is irrelevant to someone like me. 

Yep £1.5k may get me a 'better' petrol than diesel equivalent but that's not how I buy a car. 
Last time round I wanted a specific make, model and engine size. I wanted one with the irmscher kit on it but had to settle without as too good a deal came up. This time round I wanted a diesel car that 'should' put out minimum 45mpg and was decent on tax and performance. To get a petrol equivalent I'd be looking at modern petrols and shooting the budget through the roof. I could've got a 45mpg petrol but then I'd be taking a hit on performance which I didn't want. 

The response will of course be well how did that work out for you. Obviously this time not so good. Last time very well. These are the chances we take when buying 2nd hand but then I won't pay the ridiculous prices of brand new. Old cars will need repairs, that's obvious, but not all old cars live in a garage being repaired 24/7 

With you on the London thing.  Anyone driving there these days needs their head examining (and I speak as someone who regularly drove into London in the 80s/early - it was great being able visit the RAH for a concert and park right outside on a single yellow line . . . but those days are long gone).

You're dead right about not all old cars needing lots of repairs.  I've generally bought cars at 3-4 years old and kept them for at least 10 years, sometimes more, meaning around 150k miles at least.  Apart from regular servicing I can't recall needing any serious repairs, not counting the usual wearing parts.  Even exhaust systems seem to last for ages nowadays.
My worst experience was last year when I hit a pheasant and broke a headlamp.  Ended up costing me £900 for a replacement . . . but that's more of an accident than anything about poor reliability.