HIGH-mileage fleets running the latest diesel Peugeots and Citroens from 2004 can expect lower servicing bills thanks to advances in particulate trap (FAP) technology.

PSA Peugeot-Citroen has announced that the latest development in its technology, available from March 2004, will require no servicing throughout the lifetime of the car.

The first vehicles fitted with PSA's particulate filter were the Peugeot 607 three years ago and the Citroen C5 two years ago. The Peugeot 307 and 406 followed.

However, the particulate traps on these vehicles needed servicing at 50,000 miles – within the typical fleet life of a car. Since November 2002, the particulate traps have been upgraded to travel 75,000 miles without servicing, including all cars previously fitted with FAP and the new Peugeot 807 and Citroen C8.

But a new design available next year will remove the need for servicing the particulate filter. The announcement was made at a PSA briefing where it was confirmed that 500,000 cars fitted with FAPs had been sold since their introduction three years ago.