My Dad used to buy 2-3 yo cars and keep them until they were uneconomic to repair (not necessarily more than the car was worth, but until he felt the cost of any repair was better put towards repalcement). The problem with doing that on modern diesels is the amount of kit that can go wrong and cost you an arm and a leg. You'd have to be doing an awful lot of miles to cover a £2000 bill for engine repairs. And if you buy a new car to get around that with a manufacturer's warranty, then you're back to square 1 getting nailed by the depreciation again.

When the engineering normalises they may find ways to make these engines more durable over the longer term, but for now this feels like relatively rushed measures added to keep up with emissions legislation (not that I have a problem with that per se - but it is keeping manufacturers on their toes!)

Edited by steelghost on 10/08/2015 at 10:22

Indeed - given how the higher harmful effects of on health of diesel-powered vehicles has now been very publicly highlighted, I personally can't see a future (at least in the EU) for it for ordinary cars - with legislators now turning against diesel big time, forcing manufacturers to make their cars even more complex (as bazza says) and petrol engine technologies (e.g. small turbo varieties), petrol hybrids and (eventually) fuel cell/full electric [battery] technology coming good, only those wanting to haul heavy loads will be needing to use diesel.

The days of people (erroneously, in my view) buying diesel-engined cars when doing less than 20,000 - 25,000 miles p.a. because they think they'll 'save money' by virtue of just higher mpg figures is soon to be over.