There shouldnt be any problems as far as DPF goes or anything like that. Its really only an issue on cars used primarily in town at low speeds, you'd be using it on a motorway every day which would be fine.

However you will find a diesel model on the used market is more expensive to purchase than its petrol equivalent and can take a year or two to 'pay for itself' but those figures are only really relevent if you want a specific type of car.

Thanks folks, that's the answer I was hoping for. I know the cost to buy vs sell will also be a factor but we tend to run our cars to death so resale doesn't count for much.

BTW Bobbin, I notice from your other posts that you drive a Mazda 6. Great car, I used to own an '04 2.0 petrol TS2. Unfortunately it had serious rust problems but I think I was unlucky due to a negligent previous owner, great cars and if I was going petrol the new shape 2.0 would be close to the top of the list. It's a pity the 2.0 diesel has such a bad record and the 2.2 is a little bit too new for my budget.

Thanks Avant. Your comment is well noted, We used to own a Passat (Jan '08 2.0 PD) but only had it for 5 months before it was stolen so we never had an opportunity to find out how reliable it would have been. I thought it was a great car but won't buy another for a long long time as sitting in them just gets me angry now.

I don't want this thread to sound like we've had bad luck with every car so I'd just like to add that apart from one rusty mazda and a stolen passat we've never had any serious issues with cars other than general maintenance and we've been buying cars for about 15 years now :-).

Thanks, I've definitely noticed the same when running my girlfriend's diesel on my commute. Running it for a few weeks I got about 47 mpg (brim to brim) but definitely noticed the economy on the first 10 miles or so was much worse than the last five.

I'd also be very wary of buying a second hand modern diesel without knowing how the previous owner had driven the car. Dual mass flywheel clutches and the dreaded DPF issues when driven predominanty around town are enough to make me steer well clear of them.

That has been my view for a long time too. But having tested out a diesel on the same run for a few weeks and done the sums it's a much bigger saving than I thought it would be.

I also use the car regularly for other purposes so my annual mileage is about 15K. As I can fill up in the south of Ireland I can get diesel for the equivalent of about 125p per litre at today's exchange rate.