I'd be very dubious about any Mazda at all. There is a history of oil filter blockage problems, and engine failures resulting from these. A few threads on here, do a bit of research to see.

With Mazdas, it isnt diesel in the oil (though that can happen), as much as there is a second oil filter - almost a fibre one - built into the bottom of the engine by the oil pump area. These, it seems, aren't changed at servicing, so eventually they get blocked up, and the engine fails catastrophically on the spot.

Much like you, I run a BMW diesel - personally owned in my case though (a 'new-shape' 325d estate). I've run BMWs as personal cars for the last decade or more, doing 15-25k a year, and I've had 1 problem in that time, an electronic control module for the auto lights.

The biggest problem with BMWs is that the official oil change interval really isn't good enough, usually coming at every 20k miles or so. I used to work in oil development and testing, and the amount of degradation in oils after that amount of miles will be horrific. Might work in the short term, but after a few years, you get those horrible timing chain failures. The best solution to that is simply to ensure that the oil and filter get changed every 10k instead.

Hi everyone, thank you for the replies.

RobJP - Mine have both been the 2l x18d - I had a 118d sport 5 door and now a 318d msport saloon which have both been mechanically faultless other than a misaligned boot lid on the 3 series which got done under warranty. When I read all these threads about DPF regeneration I haven't seen any of those symptoms and being a lease car I don't exaclty look after it other than take it in when a service warning comes on.

Happy Blue and Alby Back, thans for the Quasqai recommendation, I do really like the look of the new one, big improvement IMHO. The reason for the Mazda as a preference is that I can get a significant amount off list price as a family member works for them, so it would be the CX-5 as a new car or another brand/model from the used market.

Grover - yes me too, the petrol not being something like a 1.6 turbo is quite appealing - I was saying to someone at work the other day there will be a massive market for turbocharger rebuilds and replacements in a few years time when all these forced induction small engines start having boost issues...

I need to go and test drive the petrol, I've driven a few of the CX-5 diesels but not the petrol so that will of course be a big deciding factor. I'm just waiting on getting my next lease car sorted as part of the plan is to drop my BIK/Company Car Tax in order to free up some funds towards the payments on this rather than to the tax man.