Petrol or Diesel?

Sometime within the next year I will be looking to purchase an 8th gen accord. I had decided on the 2.2 diesel engine, until I read about the DPF which is now making me have doubts.

I only live a mile away from my work so the engine will be subjected to a lot of very short runs, plus the usual around town journeys. But, every two weeks or so, I will be travelling through to Edinburgh and back which is a 175 mile round trip. This is one of the reasons I was after a diesel in the first place. That and the attractive low road tax. Making the Edinburgh run now in a 2001 1.6 civic I'm getting about 44 MPG, I'm also hoping the diesel engine will beat that!

But as I mentioned, the DPF is worrying me a little. Will the fortnightly long runs keep the DPF in check or should I start to consider a petrol?

If the runs are consistent and you open it up a bit on the road, it should be fine. No major DPF related problems reported on the IDTEC from what I can see so far actually. Remember every manufacturers implementation of DPF is different.

Honda came to the diesel market late, watched everyone else get it wrong.. then get it almost right. Honda got it nearly bang on with the ICTDI really and the IDTEC just takes it a step further.

But as always with these questions, these shouldn't be paper decisions. When you're ready to buy one, go and test drive each variant and make up your own mind.

Thanks for your input. I have driven the 2.2 already and loved it. I was just a bit surprised to learn about DPF's as the dealer never mentioned it to me, and I haven't been paying much attention to the car market for a number of years now.