I drove diesel vans, during my white van man days, and both fleets were extremely reliable (Citroen and FIAT for the main part). I spoke to my son-in-law last night, and they run their diesel vans (VW, Ford and Mercedes) for 250,000 miles with nothing other than routine servicing. He has no qualms about the BMW 2 litre diesel, since he works on diesel vehicles every day of his working life, seldom having to do anything to the engines.