I´ve been giving a lot of thought to the pricie points for various diesels (including BMW´s) - esp. compared to their petrol-powered equivalents - and this turned into a short essay which turned into a longer treatise.

Would love to hear everyone´s thoughts on this.

Link to Diesel Economics 101

Let me know what you think.

 

Good recap article. I have been hoping to see a diesel option wth the new 5er, but apparently this isn't going to happen in US.

 

Can't really comment on the article too much as I'm in the UK but over here the difference in price between the 530d and i was £400. That's probably about 600 bucks then factor in the car isn't really any slower in diesel form and worth at least £2k more on the used Market you have to be really keen on the petrol engine to buy one. I can't remember the exact figure but I think it around 90% of all 5s sold over here are diesels.

 

Nice article Jonathan! I like it!

It's only $600 difference b/w 530d and i in UK which makes sense according to Jonathan's article, and it cannot be the case in US due to more sound deadening, heat trap, particle cleaner, etc... which translate to higher cost.

In my opinion, diesel in US won't pick up at all unless the price difference is minimal like those in UK. I'd jump on diesel bandwagon (335d or 535d) if the price is $1000 difference. Chipping ECU and we can have both world: power/monster torque and fuel economy! I never think of a hybrid anyway since the price difference is too significant between i and activehybrid models.

Anyway, bring diesel to US and have good sound deadening to eliminate diesel knocking noise. That'd be sweet!

 

Good article, Jonathan, there are indeed two rather enormous elephants in the room as you suggest in the article. The first is that there's little to no financial benefit to the diesel (in the US) without the artificial influence of the $4500 eco-credit (which is misleadingly branded to imply that it is a green incentive, when it's really just trunk money thrown at the buyer by BMW) and the other is the relatively low cost of fuel in the US compared to other parts of the world.

I'm actually looking at an X5 35d for my wife, but the reasons we may get one have nothing to do with the economics (they are broadly a wash with the gasoline engine X5 30i) and everything to do with 425 lb/ft of torque. Now, if we were paying $9 per gallon like some parts of the world, all bets are off. If we were, we'd see diesels account for the same 60% to 70% of the market that they do in say much of western Europe. I don't think the average American consumer, by and large, has the first idea how good they have it in terms of the low gas prices and relatively low pricing on the cars themselves. They do, however, appreciate power and performance, and this where the diesels deliver. Tied into this is BMW's terrible, terrible efforts at marketing the diesel engines here in the US to date. I've rarely seen such a poor campaign. That also needs to improve - these engines really do deserve better.