I came from 1.9PD passat (via a few other cars) to a 1.6TDI octy 3.

I've not had any dpf issues, other than the obvious regens it does on its own.

I think the only real annoyance i've had was when it did the full annoying fans as i arrived home at around midnight. Ironically after a 3 hour mile munching journey.

 

I was of the same mindset as yourself and fancied the 1.4, purely because i don't regularly do big miles anymore. The relative scarcity meant that the pricing was no where near as keen / negotiable as the 1.6 even when i was prepared to travel.

 

It seems strange that a 1.4 (which was cheaper at point of sale) was on average £1.5K more second hand on alike for like basis.

Encouraging that you are having no problems.

It is a real dilemma - I can't say I don't like the diesel economy and if I went diesel again could even go for the 2.0 for some serious grunt.

But my regular commute is just 5 or 6 miles steady driving and while I do 16 000+ miles per year and some longer runs, occasionally this is not every week.

Then you hear that more recent DPF installations are less temperamental and just when you are thinking it's OK you hear of someone's wallet busting DPF disaster, coupled with the fact that I have never been 'lucky' with cars. 

Encouraging that you are having no problems.

It is a real dilemma - I can't say I don't like the diesel economy and if I went diesel again could even go for the 2.0 for some serious grunt.

But my regular commute is just 5 or 6 miles steady driving and while I do 16 000+ miles per year and some longer runs, occasionally this is not every week.

Then you hear that more recent DPF installations are less temperamental and just when you are thinking it's OK you hear of someone's wallet busting DPF disaster, coupled with the fact that I have never been 'lucky' with cars. 

 

I always drove petrols then flipped to diesel in around 2003 (started doing 30K miles a year).

Since then i always drove diesel until my previous car.

I switched to petrol for that as my mileage drastically dropped and i was wary of DPF and, ironically, it was the first utter PITA problem child car i've ever had (Nissan).

Which is how i ended up in an Octavia.

 

My daily commute to the office is under 10 miles.

Sometimes it's a straight shot and other times it's rush hour and a crawl (i start at different times of the day).

The car does get run out every w/e, which probably helps a lot, but i don't do anywhere near the 16K you'll be getting to.

 

The only real wild card is how cold it will get up where you are vs here.

I imagine that might have an impact with regards to very short journeys in winter (but i couldn't say for sure).

 

If i could have got a good deal on a 1.4 it was the car i'd have chosen but the 1.6 has turned out to be a nice consolation prize.

 

The only real wild card is how cold it will get up where you are vs here.

 

No not really that cold - Even this far North when you are close to the moderating effect of the sea you don't get the extremes of temperature you get inland and at higher altitude. What we do get is gales, gales and more gales.

 

Admittedly car is garaged, which helps, but did not have to scrape car windows once this winter past.