I bet the salesman gave the usual patter "diesels cars a great becaue they're quiet and smooth now. You get great MPG and pay virtually no road tax".

And never mentioned additives, DPFs or regens.

Perhaps the OP is one of those who changes their car every couple of years, so it will end up being someone else's problem.

Then they will complain about reliability and unfairly slate diesels in general because of it.

According to HJ the 1st DPF was used on a citroen C5 in 2001, larger(?) diesels needed them for euro4 in 2005, but it wasn't until 2011 that all diesels had to have them. So how have you managed 20 years experience of trouble free DPF diesels?.

As I said my experience of driving diesels I’ve never had any problems

Other people have had different experiences though...and people like HonestJohn would recommend against it as well. I'll follow their advice as they have a lot more experience in it.

Many modern mid-size petrol hatchbacks are now capable of 50 MPG on motoways. So really don't see benefit for diesel unless doing starship mileages or pulling heavy loads/off roading etc.

Our 1.4 TSi Leon would do just over 50 mpg on a holiday run and 45 mpg overall. Our 1.4 TSi Superb does slightly better than the Leon on a holiday run but a bit less overall. These are calculated and not from the fuel confuser.

We have had diesels that did less or no better than this, a Mondeo 2.0 TDCi would just do 50 on a run but only 40 mpg overall. Even a 1.6 TDI Focus only did 44 mpg overall. the last diesel we had was a Kia Ceed 1.6 CRDi. That would do about 56 mpg on a run and averaged about 50 mpg overall so a bit better.

As I said my experience of driving diesels I’ve never had any problems

We never had a problem with diesels but why risk it when modern petrols drive far better and are nearly as economical. The Ceed would cost about £100 a year less to fuel up than the Superb but was £100 more a year VED. Cost was thus the same.

To me it makes no sense to risk diesels on 8000 miles a year.

"Future petrol engines are also likely to get a particulate filter to meet emmisions."

Oh, yes! GPFs* are are on the way. But they won't have the same problems as diesel particulate filters.

“At last, this month European legislation has caught up. As part of the efforts to stop another VW-type scandal, all new models have to undergo extra tests and from September 2018 every new car will be subjected to these tests. PM limits now for the first time apply to direct injection petrol engines…

“We hope that all manufacturers will see sense and fit GPF as standard. Each filter costs around £25, requires no maintenance, doesn’t increase fuel consumption and is simpler than a DPF because it won’t clog up in urban running as the exhaust from a petrol engine is hot enough to allow the filter to clean itself without any extra help.” From tinyurl.com/y7ekadup, dated September 2017

*Gasoline Particulate Filter. We seem to be lumbered with the Americanism.

Edited by FP on 25/01/2018 at 16:12

Many modern mid-size petrol hatchbacks are now capable of 50 MPG on motoways. So really don't see benefit for diesel unless doing starship mileages or pulling heavy loads/off roading etc.

Not even "modern". I went from a 2003 2L diesel to a 2008 1.4 petrol and get almost the same mileage per 50L. It had been years since I last owned and drove a petrol, so I was pleastantly suprised to reach 450 miles before the low fuel light came on!