I've always been very accepting of DMFs. I've always been of the opinion that they are there for a reason and if looked after they should last a while and give plenty of notice before you replace them.
Mine started quietly rattling very intermittently at the beginning of January and it never got any worse.
I wasn't too bothered that it had failed as my car not only has nearly 150k on the clock but it's done a fair few hill climbs and at 122k had its torque increased from 320nm to 400nm.

Unfortunatley today the clutch went from an intermittent knock and vibration to being a serious fault yesterday.
Was shopping in Swansea yesterday morning. Came out of a Tesco car park and up to a set of lights. Dipped the clutch and there was a huge screech, a few rattles and now it sounds like this...



It's getting changed on Friday but I have 400miles to do before then.
Wish me luck!

 

oh dear, i changed my bora to a single mass flywheel when clutch needed doing, almost wish i'd stuck with the dmf as it has a rattle at 1500-2000rpm which your always at in a diesel. symptom of a smf conversion, otherwise been spot on.
fair play on the dmf though, they get a bad rep, but to be honest it's no worse than injector failure in terms of cost.

 

I feel your pain dude. Just had mine done on my mondeo. Bloody cars.