Why are people buying expensive diesels?

[ORD]

Ares said:

640i and 640d are both RWD. The 640d is still quicker. QED.

Proving what? BMW deliberately hamstrings its petrol cars because it prefers to sell diesels. All turbo petrols below the M3 are barely blown at all. The turbo is there for fuel efficiency. My wife's 320i has a specific out of well below 100bhp/litre.

[AB]

Just to add something that happened today.

I spent 2 hours on the A41 as part of a 6 hour journey from Portsmouth to home in my debadged 435d.

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I still averaged 44mpg despite not hanging around. His trip computer said 22.

I pulled away from him on the 'sleeper lanes' (as he called them) and I wasn't necessarily trying to.

I get 45p a mile and that's worth more to me than 'the sound'.

[Diderot]

Ares said:

Olivera said:

ZX10R NIN said:

Olivera said:

Yes you won't get that, you'll get better. The 340i makes more power which is far superior to extra torque. Heck 4 cylinder cars such as the A45 have more bhp.

340i 326bhp 330 lbft 0-60mph 4.8 seconds
335d 313bhp 465 lbft 0-60mph 4.7 seconds

They must be utterly sandbagging the 340i if it only makes 13bhp more than the diesel.

Anyway you are correct the 335d does have a faster 0-60mph time, but it's xdrive and the 340i isnt. 340i xdrive is available in the US and is faster still

640i and 640d are both RWD. The 640d is still quicker. QED.

And more to the point it makes for a much better GT.

I think the people slagging the X35d and X40d off have never driven one.

[ORD]

AB said:

Just to add something that happened today.

I spent 2 hours on the A41 as part of a 6 hour journey from Portsmouth to home in my debadged 435d.

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I still averaged 44mpg despite not hanging around. His trip computer said 22.

I pulled away from him on the 'sleeper lanes' (as he called them) and I wasn't necessarily trying to.

I get 45p a mile and that's worth more to me than 'the sound'.

What's a sleeper lane?

[jamieduff1981]

AB said:

Just to add something that happened today.

I spent 2 hours on the A41 as part of a 6 hour journey from Portsmouth to home in my debadged 435d.

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I still averaged 44mpg despite not hanging around. His trip computer said 22.

I pulled away from him on the 'sleeper lanes' (as he called them) and I wasn't necessarily trying to.

I get 45p a mile and that's worth more to me than 'the sound'.

How the heck is he getting 22mpg from a 4-banger BMW 3/4 series? My trip computer is showing 24mpg with a supercharged 5.0 V8 which is driven time-efficiently on B-roads at that, not even droning along motorways like your story happened on.

[ORD]

jamieduff1981 said:

AB said:

Just to add something that happened today.

I spent 2 hours on the A41 as part of a 6 hour journey from Portsmouth to home in my debadged 435d.

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I still averaged 44mpg despite not hanging around. His trip computer said 22.

I pulled away from him on the 'sleeper lanes' (as he called them) and I wasn't necessarily trying to.

I get 45p a mile and that's worth more to me than 'the sound'.

How the heck is he getting 22mpg from a 4-banger BMW 3/4 series? My trip computer is showing 24mpg with a supercharged 5.0 V8 which is driven time-efficiently on B-roads at that, not even droning along motorways like your story happened on.

Maybe he was in 1st gear all the time. Would also explain being out-dragged by a tractor in a frock.

[Betty Cumberdale]

AB said:

Just to add something that happened today.

I spent 2 hours on the A41 as part of a 6 hour journey from Portsmouth to home in my debadged 435d.

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I still averaged 44mpg despite not hanging around. His trip computer said 22.

I pulled away from him on the 'sleeper lanes' (as he called them) and I wasn't necessarily trying to.

I get 45p a mile and that's worth more to me than 'the sound'.

OMG.

[Betty Cumberdale]

Ares said:

640i and 640d are both RWD. The 640d is still quicker. QED.

No it isn't.

[twoblacklines]

I still drive a s-tronic a3 2.0 tdi.

Although I hate diesels I have to admit this has two things over my previous s-tronic 1.8t FSI a3.

1. It does about twice as much miles per tank which now cost the same to fill.
2. It has a huge dollop of torque right at the front of the powerband which makes pottering around easy and this seems to suit the s-tronic a lot better than the petrol did. The petrol was smoother but you had to rev it to get the same performance and when you CBA the diesel is better.

and points 3 - when both are remapped the diesel has much more torque, I am more a fan of torque than BHP at this point in life.

[anonymous-user]

AB said:

Just to add something that happened today.

I spent 2 hours on the A41 as part of a 6 hour journey from Portsmouth to home in my debadged 435d.

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I still averaged 44mpg despite not hanging around. His trip computer said 22.

I pulled away from him on the 'sleeper lanes' (as he called them) and I wasn't necessarily trying to.

I get 45p a mile and that's worth more to me than 'the sound'.

Hero.

[gizlaroc]

AB said:

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I think he was being unfair, they don't sound THAT bad!!

[AB]

gizlaroc said:

I think he was being unfair, they don't sound THAT bad!!

Haha.

Boring story, I know.

[matsoc]

AB said:

Just to add something that happened today.

I spent 2 hours on the A41 as part of a 6 hour journey from Portsmouth to home in my debadged 435d.

Plenty of overtaking opportunities which I took, culminating in a bloke in a 428i GC pulling into a services after me and asking 'what the fk is that'?

I still averaged 44mpg despite not hanging around. His trip computer said 22.

I pulled away from him on the 'sleeper lanes' (as he called them) and I wasn't necessarily trying to.

I get 45p a mile and that's worth more to me than 'the sound'.

Well, quite natural outcome I would say. I think that also die hard supporters of petrol wouldn't choose a 428 over a 435d for performances.
About the consumption it is another story, the diesel will always be a lot more frugal than petrol in al lot of real world operating conditions if driven in the same way, it doesn't mean much if the diesel engine is bigger and got more cylinders.
There is a lot of people claiming low consumption with petrol and I am not saying it is impossible, especially with the engines built during the last years, but personally I don't see the point of driving an expensive petrol engined car trying to achieve the best possible consumption.

A closed friend has owned a bought new E60 M5 for 3 years and he used it daily, it was its only car. I can understand his attention to consumptions as ae also travelled quite a lot on Autostrada because his wife and daughter lived in France while he kept working in Turin, so he had to cover this 400 miles roundtrip every weekend. But he constantly claimed he managed 11 km/liter which is rougly 30+ mpg, quite acceptable but quite unbelievable, at the time I owned a Z4 3.0 in which I never reached 20mpg. I travelled with him and even if the best I saw was 10 km/l so more like 28 mpg. I understood how he got that numbers he accelerated so slowly that you could count each kph of speed increase and I din't see more than 3k rpm over 200 miles. And even in 7th with the M5 you are not travelling at more than 80mph at 3k rpm. I mean, what's the point of owning a screaming 8k revs V10 if you actually do not rev it? He rightly enjoyed all the car performance and handling on some intriguing road and not in the motorway but overtaking slower than you could have done in a Panda was quite odd.

[jbsportstech]

yonex said:

Sorry, 180mph+ 535D



What's next, it has a better throttle response and sounds nicer?

Seriously. This is all beyond delusional.

Sounds real in the Mdonalds carpark and your 18!

[AlexC1981]

I recently changed my daily driver from diesel to petrol and I actually miss the sound of the diesel. Non-performance modern petrol cars are too quiet. The diesel roared by comparison

[ZX10R NIN]

jbsportstech said:

Sounds real in the Mdonalds carpark and your 18!

173mph for the Alpina D3 so a 535d with some serious work 180mph is do able.

[ORD]

ZX10R NIN said:

173mph for the Alpina D3 so a 535d with some serious work 180mph is do able.

Gearing would be fine for it, but the power probably isn't there. It would take a million years to get there, too.

[ZX10R NIN]

There are a number of companies showing 420bhp 535d's so I'd say 180mph is do able if a 345bhp D3 can hit 173mph I'd say a 420bhp 5 series should manage it.

I'd say this Merc wouldn't be hanging about whilst getting to around the 180mph mark.

https://youtu.be/YkkB2hm3fS0

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Saturday 3rd October 14:23

[ORD]

ZX10R NIN said:

There are a number of companies showing 420bhp 535d's so I'd say 180mph is do able if a 345bhp D3 can hit 173mph I'd say a 420bhp 5 series should manage it.

Yep. That's probably enough power, but the point remains that it's a purely theoretical figure because you would need minutes and very many miles of road to get to it.

[ZX10R NIN]

I agree but others were implying it was impossible, also would a 407bhp petrol 550i be any quicker to 180mph?

Both have auto boxes the diesel will counter the petrol's ability to rev with monster torque, even as the torque tails off the diesel will still be producing more torque.