RE: BMW's M diesels: the official details

[rich_b]

///M318i owners rejoice - your wonky stuck on badge might now convince a couple more people that you have a real M car!

That's a couple more than 0

[Riggers]

Breaking: The M550d will only be available with four-wheel drive. Which means no UK sales - because BMW's marketing department won't countenance the idea of a 4wd BMW saloon in the UK.

Full story coming the way of the PH homepage as I type...

[arkenphel]

varsas said:

After some thought, I am for these. After all the full fat M5 is still something different again, it's not like you get an M5 with a choice of petrol or diesel.

You do now.

[kambites]

I thought the reason for there being no 4x4 BMW saloons in the UK was that they couldn't be justify converting them to RHD, rather than marketing?

[Trommel]

Riggers said:

because BMW's marketing department won't countenance the idea of a 4wd BMW saloon in the UK

Yet they're happy to flog you one which plays fake engine through the radio. Some skewed principles there.

M550d xDrive Touring is surely the pick of the bunch.

[Riggers]

kambites said:

I thought the reason for there being no 4x4 BMW saloons in the UK was that they couldn't be justify converting them to RHD, rather than marketing?

Okay, well that too. I might have been busy being a bit annoyed to mention that bit Surely you could sell people 4wd BMW saloons in the UK? Or am I going mad?

[E38Ross]

Trommel said:

Riggers said:

because BMW's marketing department won't countenance the idea of a 4wd BMW saloon in the UK

Yet they're happy to flog you one which plays fake engine through the radio. Some skewed principles there.

M550d xDrive Touring is surely the pick of the bunch.

it boggles the mind, doesn't it.

[r7ehw]

looks like you have missed the vital thing here is that for the uk the m550 will be a left hooker only

[fishman]

Trommel said:

M550d xDrive Touring is surely the pick of the bunch.

Yes so right you are I am seriously drooling for one of those bad boys!

[Lost soul]

Would like to know what kind of MPG these will return

[jon-]

I'm going to be honest, impressive but I really couldn't care less.

At least 50% of performance fun, for me at least, comes from noise.

[Riggers]

Lost soul said:

Would like to know what kind of MPG these will return

Article said:

The diesel side of things, meanwhile, combines with BMW's now familiar Efficient Dynamics gubbins (stop-start, brake energy regeneration, etc) to provide impressive fuel economy figures. BMW claims 37.7mpg on the combined cycle for the X5, with the X6 managing 36.7mpg. The 5-series manages 44.7mpg in saloon form and 44.1mpg in estate shape.

HTH etc

[kayzee]

Not sure... I suppose you could always try reading the article though

[toppstuff]

Dear BMW.

Why oh why oh why oh why won't you offer 4WD MODELS FOR THE UK MARKET, dammit !!!

It has been years. Audi gets everything in this market in the UK. They are a choice of one.

Get your act together. Pull your finger out. It is'nt good enough.

TS

[theJT]

toppstuff said:

Dear BMW.

Why oh why oh why oh why won't you offer 4WD MODELS FOR THE UK MARKET, dammit !!!

It has been years. Audi gets everything in this market in the UK. They are a choice of one.

Get your act together. Pull your finger out. It is'nt good enough.

TS

THIS. I much prefer BMWs to Audis, but trying to get one up the hill I used to live on when it'd been snowing - or even in heavy rain - was pretty hairy. A 4 wheel drive BMW saloon would be pretty much my ideal car, especially with that sort of power/economy balance going on.

[JJMatrixx]

loudlashadjuster said:

381hp, 545lbs/ft, 165g/km CO2?

Deeply impressive.

I bet BMW have been itching to have something like this to sell into the user chooser market, but have had to wait until either a) their tech was up to it, or (more likely) b) they could figure a way to fiddle the EU emissions testing!

(Reposted since my original post seemed to end up in its own thread...)

Agreed, incredible. If I was in the market for a fast executive saloon, this would be it.

[Lost soul]

Riggers said:

Lost soul said:

Would like to know what kind of MPG these will return

Article said:

The diesel side of things, meanwhile, combines with BMW's now familiar Efficient Dynamics gubbins (stop-start, brake energy regeneration, etc) to provide impressive fuel economy figures. BMW claims 37.7mpg on the combined cycle for the X5, with the X6 managing 36.7mpg. The 5-series manages 44.7mpg in saloon form and 44.1mpg in estate shape.

HTH etc

44.7 for the 550 !!!

[StottyZr]

theJT said:

toppstuff said:

Dear BMW.

Why oh why oh why oh why won't you offer 4WD MODELS FOR THE UK MARKET, dammit !!!

It has been years. Audi gets everything in this market in the UK. They are a choice of one.

Get your act together. Pull your finger out. It is'nt good enough.

TS

THIS. I much prefer BMWs to Audis, but trying to get one up the hill I used to live on when it'd been snowing - or even in heavy rain - was pretty hairy. A 4 wheel drive BMW saloon would be pretty much my ideal car, especially with that sort of power/economy balance going on.

The only Audi's I'm interested in are the 4WD ones

[kambites]

I'll believe those figures when I see an owner actually get them under sensible driving conditions.

[r7ehw]

Well I'm moving to the states in May and to my horror they don't even offer a 5 series tourerover there. I thinking missing out on a 4 wheel drive 5 series is no big deal. My pick as many have stated above would be the 5 series tourer. Awesome.

Fingers crossed but it looks unlikely unless Riggers can advise otherwise.