A friend of mine has a BMW 335d M-Sport Touring and has had terrible troubles with his DPF over years, despite doing decent mileage.
He's even had it taken out and "baked" to clear it. But it would inevitably clog up again.
In the end, touch wood, the solution was to go for several long drives with a technician as a passenger and his diagnostic tools plugged in.
The techy would reset the DPF warnings regularly (frequently) until it was hot enough and could be persuaded to regenerate.
At first it only did it partly, but repeatedly resetting they managed over a couple of hours to get the whole thing cleared out and the levels reading suitably low.
My friend has now bought himself a cheap diagnostic tool which enables him to monitor the DPF levels and trigger a regeneration. He does this well below the level that the BMW system would try to force one, which is usually too late.
It means he has to monitor the levels pretty much daily and occasionally has to go for a "blast" down the motorway to clear it. Not really a hardship in a car that can do 0-60 in well under 5 seconds. 
He was going to sell it in frustration, but now it's "under control" will probably keep it.
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2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions and extended leather. Ski hatch retrofit. Aftermarket reversing camera. DVB-T and XCarlink now removed as redundant.
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation".  (Even rarer than a D2 S8!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one! 
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. Agate Grey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, Tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course.  (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon. Added Auto-dim mirror, Leather seats, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!
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