Motoring Discussion > DPF suitable or not Buying / Selling
Thread Author: lucklesspedestrian Replies: 9
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New Thu 6 May 10 09:38 
 DPF suitable or not - lucklesspedestrian
Hi

Time has come to replace SWMBO's 5 year old petrol Focus with something a bit nicer.

As well as the familiar "bigbillifitgoeswrong" concern regarding buying a modern CR diesel which I'm resigned to there being no easy answer to, I was wondering if the usual daily commute would work with a DPF or would the thing never fully get up to operating temp leaving me asking for trouble?

What she has most days is:

0.5 mile to get out of the village
4.0 miles of 45-50mph single carriageway A road
2.0 miles of moderate town driving (lights/roundabouts the odd bottleneck) to get to school drop-off then workplace

then repeat in reverse (not literally!) 8 hours later.

Do you reckon a diesel with a DPF would be best avoided?

cheers

Steve
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New Thu 6 May 10 10:27 
 DPF suitable or not - Iffy
...Do you reckon a diesel with a DPF would be best avoided?...

That diet of journeys would not cause the Ford system to regenerate - other makes may differ - so you'd need to do a longer run each week or so.

Driving around for the sake of it is a waste of money, which leads me to conclude you would be better off with a petrol.

Wider choices of makes and models, and even though modern diesels are pretty good, petrols still tend to be smoother and quieter.

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New Thu 6 May 10 10:35 
 DPF suitable or not - ....
That only adds up to 3,380 miles per year. Doubling that to allow for extra weekend trips + holidays and it is still hard to justify a diesel unless you like the driving style.

The DPF in my wife's car is FAP type (fuel additive) and it has not complained yet on over a year of short journeys, ~9k miles, at 70km/h or less with a couple of longer motorway trips.
Last edited by: gmac on Thu 6 May 10 at 10:36
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New Thu 6 May 10 10:46 
 DPF suitable or not - Fenlander
That's a very short run Steve... typical of many folks but far from ideal for getting the best out of a car. My modern diesel just shows on the temp gauge around 4 miles (open rural roads 60mph) and hits normal temp around 5/6mls. If you took the fuel consumption just over this first 5mls to equate to your wife's run I'd get about 43mpg... my normal average is about 53mpg. So you're not going to get the best out of a diesel.

Add to that the DPF potential issues... and the initial cost saving and I'd probably go for a petrol engine of a modest size in this circumstance.
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New Thu 6 May 10 10:43 
 DPF suitable or not - Dog
When one buys a diesel car, you pay a price premium over the cost of an equivalent petrol engine.
So you need to do enough miles per annum before the purchase pays divs.
With all the costly problems that are possible with a modern diesel, I wouldn't even consider one.
But then I'm biased - I just don't like diesels, except in commercial vehicles.
And anyway - today's petrol engines are becoming more and more fuel efficient.
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New Thu 6 May 10 11:52 
 DPF suitable or not - lucklesspedestrian
Thanks for the replies so far.

I should have added that we would be giving it a 50 mile or so 'blast' at weekends and in the odd evening on fast dual carriageway probably taking the annual milage up to about 12K.
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New Thu 6 May 10 12:14 
 DPF suitable or not - Crankcase
Amazing the thread has run this far without someone exhorting her to get on a bicycle.

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New Thu 6 May 10 12:22 
 DPF suitable or not - lucklesspedestrian
hmmm, 6.5 miles each way, every day on a tandem (I did mention the school run in the OP) before and after a shift as a nurse on a busy psychogeriatric ward, yep, I can see that happening!
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New Thu 6 May 10 12:35 
 DPF suitable or not - Zero
Its really not worth paying extra for a diesel in these circumstances, the numbers simply dont add up. Its petrol territory, even without the added agro of DPF regen.
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New Thu 6 May 10 15:15 
 DPF suitable or not - Old Navy
If you really want a diesel the Kia Ceed 1.6 crdi 113bhp does not have a DPF. I agree with Zero, diesel is not cost effective, but that may not matter yo you.
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