Modern diesels, short journeys and dpfs.

youcantakethat

My mother is thinking of getting a new car about 3 years old. She commutes to a town 5 miles a day most days, and 5 miles home, mostly driving in the country lanes at about 50 - 80 km/h until the town suburbs. If she gets a diesel like a Toyota Auris 1.4 diesel or a Honda 1.5 diesel, would she have problems down the line with dpf etc? She seldom drives anywhere else or does long journeys. Her friends, shops, relations etc are all within a 5 mile ( 8km) radius. Most dealers just have diesels, I told her a petrol would be better but she likes the colour etc of a few local diesels.

Will she be ok when the car does a steady 50 to 80 km for say 6 or 7 km twice a day most days, with rest other few km town driving, or will the dpf clog? Any experiences? The salesman said it would be ok to go for a diesel but he just wants to sell the car? He said worst case scenario a light will come up on the dash and you just drive 30 minutes on a good road to clear the dpf.

Del2005

Even a petrol will struggle with that little driving. An EV is ideal for her.

kirving

With that little mileage, it could be fine for quite some time.

Where issues arise quickly is say a 25km drive in the morning and evening. Car does 50km/day and is never really up to temperature.

ronnie3585

Petrol, hybrid or EV with that kind of mileage.

Squidgy Black

youcantakethat wrote: »

My mother is thinking of getting a new car about 3 years old. She commutes to a town 5 miles a day most days, and 5 miles home, mostly driving in the country lanes at about 50 - 80 km/h until the town suburbs. If she gets a diesel like a Toyota Auris 1.4 diesel or a Honda 1.5 diesel, would she have problems down the line with dpf etc? She seldom drives anywhere else or does long journeys. Her friends, shops, relations etc are all within a 5 mile ( 8km) radius. Most dealers just have diesels, I told her a petrol would be better but she likes the colour etc of a few local diesels.

Will she be ok when the car does a steady 50 to 80 km for say 6 or 7 km twice a day most days, with rest other few km town driving, or will the dpf clog? Any experiences? The salesman said it would be ok to go for a diesel but he just wants to sell the car? He said worst case scenario a light will come up on the dash and you just drive 30 minutes on a good road to clear the dpf.

Don't get a diesel for that short mileage. It's not worth it. Have a look at dealers up north, they tend to have more petrol models available than down south.

NomadicGray

I dont know how the previous driver treated my car but after doing very similar mileage to what you say I was having trouble with the dpf right up until I got it removed.
Wouldnt recommend from my own experience.

bazz26

She doesn't need a diesel car, surely she can find a petrol Auris or Civic is the same colours as the other ones?

youcantakethat

Thanks all for your replies, I'll pass the info on and strongly recommend to her that she does not get diesel, even though the salesman in a garage said it would be ok. I agree diesel is not worth the risk for her type of journeys.

bazz26

The salesman doesn't care and won't be dealing with your mother if she has problems as a result of her unsuitable driving style, he just wants to sell a car.

wassie

Servicing costs on the diesel will also be higher. Contact a dealer and get a price on what servicing costs will be for say the next 3 years assuming an annual service.

wassie

wassie wrote: »

Servicing costs on the diesel will also be higher..

Why is this this myth constantly rolled out in this forum? Was it started on here or is this myth circling in the real world too?

jcd5971

The fact the salesman is saying a light on the dash is harmless, should be all you need to hear to nope the **** out of there as that shows you off the bat he has no integrity regardless of anything else.

On the actual car though, the egr and dpf will get blocked eventually with that kind of driving, strongly recommend a petrol or even a hybrid would make sense.

ofcork

It would need a decent drive every few weeks to keep it clear ive a diesel avensis over 4 years with a 46km round trip to work but I still give it a blast and not a single issue so far.

Toyotafanboi

Joshua Blue Vista wrote: »

Why is this this myth constantly rolled out in this forum? Was it started on here or is this myth circling in the real world too?

Traditionally, it was true. Not so much any more.

easyvision

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Traditionally, it was true. Not so much any more.

Im assuming the same thing, I don't notice a difference really from petrol to diesel servicing costs for me. Basically same cost for me as far as I can see, unless is this relating to one off costs of particular items going wrong? I don't like to keep a car over 5 years old, things start to cost a lot in repairs from past experiences and I had reliability issues. I just want to get in and know my car is good to go all the time

green123

easyvision wrote: »

I don't like to keep a car over 5 years old, things start to cost a lot in repairs from past experiences and I had reliability issues. I just want to get in and know my car is good to go all the time

Costs a lot more to more to buy a new car than to repair a 5 year old one

bazz26

easyvision wrote: »

Im assuming the same thing, I don't notice a difference really from petrol to diesel servicing costs for me. Basically same cost for me as far as I can see, unless is this relating to one off costs of particular items going wrong? I don't like to keep a car over 5 years old, things start to cost a lot in repairs from past experiences and I had reliability issues. I just want to get in and know my car is good to go all the time

No offense but that's just daft logic. How did you arrive at 5 years, why not 4 or 6 years. It's the same logic as changing a car when it needs new tyres.

jmreire

green123 wrote: »

Costs a lot more to more to buy a new car than to repair a 5 year old one

Agreed completely...but what most people are thinking about is reliability...and "HUGE" garage bills. ( huge garage bills do exist too) but if a car is kept well serviced, and serviced on time, the chances of "HUGE" garage bill's decrease's. The only way to really find out how much your car is costing is to itemize every cost... repairs, fuel, normal emplacement's IE: Tyres, Brake pads etc. over say a 3 or 4 year term, then divide that total cost by the Nr of klms driven. So you get a cost per Klm driven.
Then see what a new car will cost you in terms of finance, servicing etc, per Klm. and compare the two.
In this case of course, the more klms driven, the cheaper they become. For me personally, say on 4 years of finance, the car will only start "paying" its way after the 4th year. But quite a lot of people will go straight into purchasing a new car again at this point.

The car is also worth more as a trade in at that point though so you are paying less for the new car compared to waiting longer and having a bigger amount to pay to change.

jmreire

Joshua Blue Vista wrote: »

The car is also worth more as a trade in at that point though so you are paying less for the new car compared to waiting longer and having a bigger amount to pay to change.

Yes there is that too,,,but even so, overall, when you consider what dealerships are allowing on trade ins now. I was recently speaking to a car salesman, and he told me that if the trade in has 100'000 Klms on the clock, first, he was not interested, and the only price he would quote would be whatever he would be offered from other car sellers after speaking to them on the phone, as he was a main dealership. Bear in mind, that 100'000 KLms is only 62'000 Miles and even as far back as the 60's, most car's were lasting longer than that. So while I can understand people frequently changing their cars because of reliability or they want a newer model, or just want a change of car etc, given the low trade in values, I think that going by cost per klm, over the life of the car, you will do much better financially. As I mentioned earlier...say you have paid for the car in 4 years,,, then run it for another 4 ( or more years ) these extra years are free of HP ...so you would be in a good position to start all over again.

Harika

Kevin Irving wrote: »

With that little mileage, it could be fine for quite some time.

Where issues arise quickly is say a 25km drive in the morning and evening. Car does 50km/day and is never really up to temperature.

That kept me thinking as I have a petrol and was considering a diesel as next car. Morning drive is 25km and of that 15-20 km on motorway 100-120 km/h depending on traffic. Way home through town, urban and rural areas to avoid the traffic. Would that be enough for a diesel or does petrol/hybrid make more sense here?

wassie

Joshua Blue Vista wrote: »

Why is this this myth constantly rolled out in this forum? Was it started on here or is this myth circling in the real world too?

20 years experience of owning and running multiple petrol & diesel cars.

It has shown me that whilst the diesels are more efficient developing less problems than the petrol models, when something did breakdown, it is was significantly more expensive - YMMV.

A big factor is how a car is used and hence why the OPs question is a really good topic.