Just read the article and the comments posted, well what can I say its a very good article and I do acknowledge the comments of those petrol v8/v10 sound tracks. But I can tell you by the experiance of owning a 535d 272bhp msport. This diedel car is amazing, I have owned her now for 4 years and I still love the experiance of driving her. One thing the BMW diesel engines have over most petrol is the scope to increase performance for little expence.

I have the blufin remap from superchips that increases bhp to 340 and give over 500 ft of torque, add the k&n airfilter and its pushing close to 350bhp, fuel enconomy is better, I get over 40 mpg to the gallon on a decent run. She excelerates 0 to 60 in 5.1 seconds and tops out at 174mph, and getting there doesnt take long. The power is relentless and smooth, and if the roads are wet the traction stability lights come on at over a 100mph as the power being delivered is so vast, thus it only being available in the auto as the manual gearbox would just get ripped to pieces.

I agree its not an M5, but your lucky to see 16mpg in one of these and if you look at the states for every day driving you cant get much better for your pound. I know ive mentioned the performance states here quite a bit, but mostly this drives so smooth and is the best day to day car ive owned, and remeber this isnt a super car and can carry 5 people in comfort. The other thing, she has done nearly 90,000 miles and hasnt missed a beat, and oil changes come around every 19,000 making it a lot cheaper than most petrols during your ownership.

Anyway, sorry for the large post – but I thought I would share my experiance with you as this is an amazing engine.

And this twin turbo diesel has a great engine note. As it approaches the redline of around 6k it seriously sounds like a rorty 4 cylinder petrol. It’s amazing fun to drive fast on twisty roads.

And I’m averaging under 6l/100km… (over 40MPG)

The torque might be too much, but did they really not have a more robust MT available? Does BMW make, procure (OTS) or outsource their transmissions?

If youse guys haven’t driven a 335d, lean on your CA and beg a drive. Other than a bit more vibration at idle, this will be hard to distinguish from a gas inline 6. Granted the thing shifts at 4200, but around town (or at cruising speed) it is as effective as a gas motor. And if it’s to be a highway car, this thing has extremely LONG legs (~ 580 mile range per tank).

A couple of caveats, diesels don’t employ throttles so there is no engine braking to speak of (and the BMW diesels don’t use ‘Jake Brakes’ ;-). Also, RPM is limited to the burn rate of the fuel. Diesel is slower to burn than modern gasoline; even the LeMans Audis max out around 5K RPM.

Just one question…I had the (may be incorrect) impression that they couldn’t use Aluminum in diesel engines because the diesel was corrosive to the aluminum, that’s why they used steel all these years. Is that impression incorrect, or has BMW made some developments with their alloys?