When I purchased my chevy diesel I was actually looking at the older c/k body style to avoid the dpf. I actually looked at a leftover dodge mega cab with the 5.9 cummins first. If it wasn't for the dealer playing games and trying to work out a deal on an already sold truck I would probably have bought it.
I got every excuse when working with them on why they couldn't look over my trade in. The reason was the truck was sold since they were pretty sure I wasn't just kicking times. I will never buy from Rothrock in allentown, Pa again.
I checked quite a few message boards prior to my purchase and ended up with a LMM duramax with the DPF, once the powertrain warranty is up, 100,000 miles, I might consider a dpf removal but that will probably only happen after the system fails, till them I'm happy with it on and I still have a warranty.
For the life of me I really can't understand why people want more power out of these engines, they run like scorched apes regardless of brand. Towing is a dream today and when pulling hills I can sometimes understand how people say I forgot that I was towing something. If it wasn't for the harder ride I could understand it. Unless people are towing for a living it seems that the only thing more power is going to give them is a shorter period till the rear tires become slicks when running empty. When my truck was a few weeks old I had a load of 2b stone on a trailer. Shortly after pulling out of the quarry, maybe 50 yards, my rmp's shot up, at first I thought I had tranny problems till I hit the next strip of water running across the road, maybe another 50 yards up. It was both of my rear tires breaking loose while towing.