S Max - Petrol or Diesel?

I'm thinking about getting an S Max as a family car but Petrol models appear to be thin on the ground. I'm apprehensive about getting a diesel as most of our journeys are short ones around town.

However, I live in Brighton and we do runs along the M23 and A27 fairly often to go places as well as through the Sussex countryside. My concern with getting a diesel model is the DPF and keeping it in good working order. Would a weekly run on the M23 for say 30 minutes be enough to stop it getting clogged up and causing problems?

Whilst a petrol model is preferable, there so many more used diesel examples out there and you can't argue with the fuel economy either!

Hope you can help!

Asked on 20 May 2015 by ollielewis

Answered by Honest John
You can't argue with the fuel economy of a diesels. But you can with all the expensive things that can go wrong with them: DPF, DMF, EGR, turbo. It takes a lot of economy over 2 years to make up for £5,000 of repairs over 2 years. All DMFs eventually get choked with ash by about 80,000 miles, but can be cleaned out by the Ceramex process for about £300. The problem is getting choked with soot from repeated short runs from cold and the effect that can have on the DPF active regeneration that can pump so much fuel into the engine that it blows itself up. So those are the risks.
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