Some manufacturers seem to have had good DPF designs from the start - BMW and Kia being two of the good ones. Our mileage is fine for DPF, but my mum, who's last car was a 116d, had no problems at all, even though only doing 20k in 3 years (I'd recommended she did not get a diesel, but she likes the torque on them, compared to petrols). However, her new car (2013 Golf 1.6 diesel) has already had to have 2 VW dealer regens carried out, with 11k on the clock.

Now, I'll entirely accept that a sample size of 1 is not in any way representative, but HJ has also said that he sees very few of certain marques suffering DPF problems, and has included BMW in that list. With a substantial 'older' section of the population buying Kia cars (though I'm not including Skidpan in that list, as I've no idea), and probably doing less mileage than younger/non-retired drivers, it would certainly seem to me that Kia come into that 'well-designed' group too.

Measwade. As an alternative to taking your car to a garage, search the VAG forums for anyone living near to you with VCDS. It has the functionality for DPF regeneration. I have it and I'm in Hampshire if that's any good to you.

Thanks for this information unfortunately I live in France. I have just got the vehicle back from a clean and within days the light has come on again. So I am now all over VW Germany, as the main dealer in Angoulême would appear to taking the p***.

Do you know if these filters can damage if they are cleaned badly?