Is it a new or used D5 you're looking at?

Latest-generation coated DPFs seem to be pretty reliable. My experience over the last 3+ years with a Mondeo TDCI has been positive with no DPF issues, and around 60-70% of my driving is urban work at under 40mph.

I do make some concessions to DPF cleanliness: using 3rd gear in town (the engine feels happier at 30mph in 3rd, anyway) and the car does get a 10+ mile run every couple of weeks to get things hot.

Your best bet for this sort of stuff is probably the UK Volvo Owners' forums.

I should add that when I do 60-70% urban driving, that's journeys of less than 5 miles, so the temp gauge is scarcely registering.

According to the DPF doom-mongers, my car should have either a) drowned in its own diesel-diluted sump oil or b) self-immolated with runaway combustion a long time ago.

The Ford coated-DPF implementation seems to be very robust. And remember that Volvo was owned by Ford until recently .... hopefully some of the know-how might have been shared.

I know that the latest (2010 / 2011) DPF-equipped Volvo 5-cyl diesels do have a DPF warning light in the dash that illuminates to tell you that you need to go for a longer drive to start a regeneration. The owner's handbook says this can happen as frequently as every 200 miles, according to usage.

I don't know if the model years you're looking at will have this, see if you can find an owner's handbook online or similar.

Fair point - but I do 12,000 miles per year, even though the majority of my driving is short runs. The Mondeo has averaged a true 42mpg over the 36K miles I've had it, measured at the pumps, not on the trip computer.

What would the 2 litre petrol equivalent have given me? I reckon I'd be lucky to average 30mpg in the same driving conditions ... not to mention the differences in driving characteristics.

And as a company car driver, BIK tax is a big factor too. My next car is a V60 D3. Under £2K per year BIK. The petrol equivalent, the T4, would be £2,400 per year BIK, not to mention steeper fuel bills.

I agree DPFs have proven to be a problem in the past couple of years. At best, they add yet more complex componentry to go wrong. But the same was said about catalytic converters when they were introduced in '92. I remember Top Gear etc fulminating about £1000 bills for shattered cat cores from driving over speed bumps, etc etc. Who even thinks about cats now?

DPFs will get more reliable. And petrol cars are getting steadily more complex too, with the move to direct injection, increasing turbo usage etc.

My 3.5 mile commute isn't good for ANY conventional car ... it's a shame I'll have to wait until my next lease for the next generation of hybrids :-/

Thank you both. I too do fairly little mileage and have considered petrol - the 2.4i V50, but with an automatic transmission, it only gives 20 (urban) to the gallon as opposed to the D5's 30. There doesn't seem to be a big enough difference in price bewteen the two models to justify the drop in mileage.