Hi Ben, I recently had the same dilemma - I also commute 300 miles a week, so a petrol would be a bit expensive to run. I too was very concerned about the DPF renewal issue, especially as most of the cars I was looking at were around the 70k mile mark... In the end I opted for a D5 S40, which is basically the same as the C30 under the body, and I have to say I'm delighted with it.
The economy is no where near as good as you'd get with a 1.6D Drive - probably half to be honest (!), but the lack of the DPF renewal means that I'm possibly £1k up to start off with, as that seems to be the going cost of replacing the DPF.
I guess another option would be to put LPG on a 2.0 petrol and get a reliable and cheap to run car, but that would require a £1500 investment up front, and it would occupy quite a bit of boot space - even if you fitted a torroidal tank.
As I said, I opted for a D5 in the end, but the D4 is said to be a superb engine, almost as powerful and more economical, so if you can find one of those, I'd jump at it.
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