swajames

535i. No question. The twin turbo diesel is a great engine, but it doesn't have anything like the rev range of the 535i twin turbo gasoline powerplant and it's torque advantage isn't enough to overcome the rpm and power deficit. The 535d will win on the in-gear times on paper. In the real world, however, the cars are driven differently and with kickdown or a downshift (to make best use of the massively greater rev band) the 535i will still win out. More the point, the 535i engine is just as easily tunable and both HP and torque can be significantly increased.

sdg1871

Correct. Just as the 335i is faster than the 335d (which is sold in the states but, the last time I checked, was not selling well).

Phantom Mark

6.3 seconds..........

Seems that 535i is quite a ride then

Definately will give one a look if I have to sell mine and move to the US

Oh and im gladly standing corrected

swajames

Only partially - you were probably right for 6 the cylinder petrol models that don't have the turbo (in the US that would be the older 530i, current 528i). Take the 535i out of the equation and you'd really need to go up to the V8 models before you get a normally aspirated gas engine car that was consistently quicker than a 535d or mildly tuned 530d. They're great cars. That said, BMW has done an appalling job marketing the new diesels in the US. The launch here has been very poorly handled. Other than a dealer demo, I've actually yet to see one on the road in Northern California...

Phantom Mark

TBH tho mate I would probably not be driving a Diesel if we had the same fuel prices as you have in the US..............thats why europe went nutts turning to Diesel cars in the 90's, of course regular gas sales suffered and the government wanted their tax so they hiked the price of Diesel to make back the loss, now Diesel is more expensive than petrol in the UK, you cant win.

sdg1871

Same here. I have yet to see a 335d on the road in the New York City area. Such a shame. That ride, with over 400 lbs-ft of torque, does 0-60 in less than 6 seconds while returning terrific MPG.

swajames

That's right. They're nothing like the diesels of old, and that's really the message BMW needed to get out into the marketplace. They went for messaging that was totally focused on economy - and with gas getting back to the low $2 range (at that point) it fell on deaf ears. What they needed to do was flip it 180 degrees and position the diesels as a high performance car with the extra fuel economy being a (very welcome) side benefit. Frankly, at current gas prices there's no compelling economic incentive to get a diesel here in the US - but the performance and torque speak loud and clear to their target market.

sdg1871

Yes. I think they should do an ad showing the car doing a burnout with the traction control off. A visual of the smoking tires with some sort of performance-oriented message.

Phantom Mark

They should just use the top gear peice they did on the 535d, that would sell it in the bucket loads