So the question lies is there a diesel car which does not have as many issues as others and is also a nice family sized good car to drive.

Try a Kia Ceed SW 1.6 CRDi and be prepared t be surprised, we were. If you buy one registered prior to September 2010 it will be Euro 4 and DPF's were not fitted to 1.6 CRDi Ceeds before Euro 5 models which were sold from September 2010 onwards. They do not have DMF's either plus they have a chain cam. Therefore you can get a large, confortable car with no DPF or DMF for a good price and providing it has been correctly serviced it will still have the remainder of the 7 year warranty remaining.

Don't be tempted by a 2.0 CRDi, although the have very few reported DPF or DMF problems they have an old school engine that is little faster than the 1.6 but uses loads more fuel. They also have a cam belt.

Anyone got the time / energy to reconcile the figures of Thunderbird and Countryroads? There must be a different assumption in there somewhere.

Good example of the difference between TDi's and Petrol engines GB. Some cars are only available in diesel if you want a decent drive. My S-Max in automatic was either an asthamatic NA petrol 2.3 or the 2.0TDCI. The TDCI is a far superior engine in all respects. If I wanted a manual gearbox I would have bought the five pot 2.5T.

They sell huge numbers of the TDCI engine in Fords, Peugeots, Citroens etc etc and there are so few complaints about it that it must be considered to be a reliable engine for enyone who drives one.

Countryroads, are those prices correct, that equates to a believable £1.30 per litre for petrol but £1.55 for diesel seems very high.

But doing 10,000 miles a year in a diesel at those prices would still be cheaper for me, £1688 for petrol, £1409 for diesel, a saving of £280 plus the £100 RFL saving, total £380, £1900 total for 5 years ownership. On top of that as said above a good turbo diesel is way better than an asthmatic 1600 petrol. Foregt the additional purchase price, you get most of it back when you sell (in my past experience).

My question answered, it seems from the above few posts. At least yours is under warranty, Dereek: many of them aren't.

I can't remember when we last heard of a problem with a petrol Mazda, so that's clearly the way to go if it's a Mazda that you want.

In reply to dereek1962

Thank the Lord you had just had it serviced or they would have blamed you for not checking the oil level.

The oil will almost certainly have been lost through one of the faulty turbo bearing seals.

If it failed on the inlet side you could have had uncontrolled acceleration & lots of black smoke. If it was the exhaust side it would have dumped the oil into the exhaust & left a trail of white smoke behind you.

Other damage could have been done to the engine if it was driven with very low oil level.

Edited by dieselnut on 15/08/2014 at 14:32