Congestion suggestion?
I have been having a hell of a problem since April with a Skoda Fabia Estate diesel with a DPF, blatantly mis-sold to us and obviously "not fit for purpose".
We were told nothing about the inner city problems with DPFs, or even shown the official Skoda DPF warning leaflet that is supposed to be given to all potential diesel purchasers. The dealer was totally aware we live in central London.
So now, every 4-5 days we have to take a totally useless 40 mile drives up the nearest motorway to clear the DPF. Hardly helping the pollution problem that DPFs were supposed to be solving and casting doubt as to why it should be Congestion Charge Exempt.
My concern is that all diesels have this DPF nowadays and as I only do 9k or 10k pa it may damage the engine because many of the runs are under 10miles. Should I just avoid diesel altogether and go for petrol? Before anyone buys a diesel engined car these days they need to get a guarantee in writing that it will be suitable for the type of motoring to which they want to put it, and make that part of the purchase contract.
We were told nothing about the inner city problems with DPFs, or even shown the official Skoda DPF warning leaflet that is supposed to be given to all potential diesel purchasers. The dealer was totally aware we live in central London.
So now, every 4-5 days we have to take a totally useless 40 mile drives up the nearest motorway to clear the DPF. Hardly helping the pollution problem that DPFs were supposed to be solving and casting doubt as to why it should be Congestion Charge Exempt.
My concern is that all diesels have this DPF nowadays and as I only do 9k or 10k pa it may damage the engine because many of the runs are under 10miles. Should I just avoid diesel altogether and go for petrol? Before anyone buys a diesel engined car these days they need to get a guarantee in writing that it will be suitable for the type of motoring to which they want to put it, and make that part of the purchase contract.
Asked on 10 September 2011 by PM, London N1
Answered by
Honest John
The first start of the day fills the DPF with soot. But once the engine is warm, as long as it stays warm, subsequent starts do not create the same problem. If it gets completely cold, then more smuts will be emitted when re-started. All you can do is return the car to the dealer as "not of satisfactory quality", then get into protracted and possibly expensive litigation to reject the car. See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/consumer rights/ PM later wrote, “This morning the dealer and Skoda Customer Service offered to take back the car and let us have a courtesy car while they order a new replacement petrol car.” I think this is a fair result.
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