Gazbut said:
Thank you for all of your replies.
I cannot change the company car as suggested so it needs to be a commuter for the good lady and a towing vehicle also.
It's the dpf that has had me worried.
From research igoing for petrol just doesn't seem a viable option.
So from your experiences just how often do I need to give a diesel a blast to look after the dpf? Weekly, fortnightly?
Another vehicle that has caught my eye is the mitsubishi outlander? Any thoughts?
Thanks again
Gazbut
In regards of how often a diesel with DPF needs a "blast" depends on which car you might choose, and how it's driven. I can only give my experience with a VW Passat 170 SEL DSG DPF from 2006 with a BMR
PD engine which automatically starts a regeneration cycle about every 200 miles of local 30 to 40 mph driving. Whilst it doesn't put up a warning light, I notice a raised tick over speed, and the auto box changes at raised rpm points, and when on constant throttle you can feel the engine has momentary small surges of power, not enough to cause any driving hazard but you know it's doing something.
On three occasions now the car has been unsuccessful to clear it's self using the automatic regeneration cycles, and it has gone on to second stage which does throw up the DPF warning light. On one occasion I was able to clear it by doing a longer than usual 2250rpm run, but two times I could not get to do a high speed run, and eventually the car switched to limp home mode with engine fault lights (no turbo boost,and other services like cruise control disabled) and it meant a trip to the garage. They can tell the ECU to do a super high temperature regeneration, so high that there is a danger of a fire unless the vehicle is moving at at least 45 during the regeneration.
So you can see it can be quite a nuisance, and unless you easy have access to high speed roads, it could become quite expensive with visits to the garage. I'd also begins to wonder about the value of any better mpg that deisel's offer, I suspect I'm using most if not all the savings of normal driving doing regeneration recoveries!
The Outlander PHEV could be the answer for you. Your wife would easily manage on the battery drive for daily commute (EV range about 30 miles) and the hybrid function would provide for towing. But the max towed weight is only 1500kg, so is that enough for you?
Also the engine in the PHEV is not as freugle as you might hope.
It's the very small commuting distance that's the big problem for any internal combustion engine.
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