SHOULD I BUY A DIESEL

Jenni_D

12-15k miles per year should be fine for a diesel .. as long as your journey profile means you're doing enough miles per journey for the engine/exhaust system to get to temperature for the DPF to work properly. (My own annual average - before COVID - was ~13k, with commute to work being a mix of town and motorway at ~16 miles each way - I never had any DPF/regen issues prior to COVID).

BOWFER

"Will I have DPF trouble", one of those questions that can only be answered by a shrug.
My wife and I have had diesels for a long time and our usage would undoubtedly be deemed unsuitable, yet no issues.
Not that the issues scare me anyway, there's a plethora of services out there for when a DPF acts up.
It's not like petrols are any 'safer' now, they now have GPFs which can be a pain too.
My petrol Polo Gti has a GPF and the MPG is being badly affected by the fact I never give it a long enough run to clear out the GPF.
Other owners report a 20% improvement in MPG after a long run and reduction in 'stuff' in the GPF (which can be measured if you have the ECU tool)

Jenni_D

I'd never heard of a GPF ... every day is a school day.

onlyfoolsandparking

BOWFER said:

"Will I have DPF trouble", one of those questions that can only be answered by a shrug.
My wife and I have had diesels for a long time and our usage would undoubtedly be deemed unsuitable, yet no issues.
Not that the issues scare me anyway, there's a plethora of services out there for when a DPF acts up.
It's not like petrols are any 'safer' now, they now have GPFs which can be a pain too.
My petrol Polo Gti has a GPF and the MPG is being badly affected by the fact I never give it a long enough run to clear out the GPF.
Other owners report a 20% improvement in MPG after a long run and reduction in 'stuff' in the GPF (which can be measured if you have the ECU tool)

The shrug answer is what my mechanic (of 30 years) says too, I get the impression he's not that concerned about DPF issues or any other issues in fact. He did say injectors, pumps etc were expensive to fix but also suggested a 4-5 year old diesel would likely be fine. The last diesel I had was a 2007 transit 350lwb 140 van bought new and never had any issues with it for the 10 years I owned it. Don't even know whether that particular model had DPF? I'm gonna chance the blueHDI, the fuel economy and £20 road tax is too much of a saving to pass up and if it goes wrong well my mechanic will get some work out of me and at least one of us will be happy.

BOWFER

DPF and EGR are the two parts that seem to get clogged up.
Obviously to someone watching every penny the repair costs might be daunting, but £70 for a new EGR that can be fitted by most home mechanics and a couple of hundred quid for a DPF clean or replacement doesn't worry me.
DPF reputations have been hurt by talk of £1000+ bills from main dealer, but that's owner error.
it's funny to think regular talk of DPF/EGR will be a thing of the past relatively soon, and you can see why parts suppliers and garages are petrified of the future.