I'm in the market for a new car and am seriously considering an XE.

My question relates to which engine is good?

My main driving is 60 to 70% traffic. My current average overall speed now in my ford is only 39km/hr, so not a lot of highway stuff.

I test drove the 25t and thought that it was ok for my needs. Power was adequate but the handling and suspension was amazing. Mind you anything I drive is going to be slow as I'm coming out of a 270 kW turbo six cylinder now.

My question relates to the 20d, the dealer salesman said that due to my driving style the diesel would not suit as the "box filter" would get blocked and the engine would need highway driving to organically clear it.

Is this true?

The other car I'm considering is the Lexus IS350 FSport.

 

Box filter? Organically clearing? Ummmm you need to find a new salesman. This guy is taking you for a ride and talking out of his ***. Not the type of person you want to do business with. There is nothing wrong with a diesel in traffic. It doesn't care one way or another. And there is no such thing as organically clearing a filter. He literally made that up. There is nothing "alive" (organic) in the engine.

Also, all filters from the manufacture are fitted inside of a box. The air box. Gas or diesel, it doesn't matter. Like I said, if I were you, I wouldn't talk to that guy again. Something isn't right.

 

Quote from random website of diesels in traffic. So does this apply to the XE's?


Very new diesel cars (ie – built within the last 4-5 years) come fitted with a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). This device collects the black soot particles you see belching from older diesel engines, especially when the engine is cold. The DPF stores this soot until the filter unit reaches a certain temperature and then proceeds to burn off the soot. It still ends up in the atmosphere, but as much finer, invisible particles rather than ugly black smoke, and is less of a health hazard.

This is good, right? Well, yes, but… To get the filter trap hot enough to burn off the soot, the engine needs to have been running for at least 15-20 minutes and it then takes another 10-15 minutes to burn the soot and clean the filter. When DPFs were first launched into the car world, most people didn’t realise this – including the dealers who sold the cars – and so customers were unaware they even had such a device. If the driver does not regularly (ie – about once a week to once a fortnight) go for a drive of at least half an hour, the filter trap clogs up. In addition to not filtering the diesel soot properly, continued or repeated clogging will eventually destroy the filter, requiring a very expensive replacement.

 

Oh he is talking about the DPF filter? That is not what I got from the phrase box filter. I've never had a diesel with DPF so I can't really speak to it. But there is still no such thing as organically clearing a filter. Not sure what he meant by that.

 

I've had 4 diesels going back 10 years with DPFs fitted. They do function exactly as above and they do get full unless you drive with exhaust gases that hav been hot enough for about 20 minutes to burn the crap off.

It's usually called doing a regen and is accompanied by a satisfying (unless you're the guy behind) plume of black smoke whilst its in progress. It is only with early DPFs that you had to be bright enough to work out that you haven't seen a plume of smoke for a while and it would be as well to go for a burn up. My first DPF diesel, a Renault, got so clogged up I took a big hit on trading the car in rather than wait any longer for the dealership to sort it out.

Time has moved on, the XE has an orange warning light to tell you that a regen has not occurred in mormal driving and is overdue, and a red light to tell you that the DPF is too clogged for normal driving to clear it and dealership intervention is required to sort it out. Before either of those two, a fuller than usual DPF is one of the reasons why remote start comes back as an error - the other most frequent is slightly low battery.

Unless you are in the habit of ignoring orange or red warning lights or can't find the time to take a quick 20-25 minute thrash up the motorway, you will never have a problem.

I have had my XE 180D for six months and 5,000 miles, my most usual trip is the half mile to the local supermarket, bakers, pub and curry house (I lead a simple life), and I haven't seen either an orange or red light yet.