Best "driver's" diesel?
Discussion
If fuel prices keep going up, I think that I will have to go back to diesel for my next car (but I will keep hold of the Impreza for as long as is feasible)! The benefits of diesel are clear. Fantastic fuel economy, low road tax (and company car tax), better residuals and in real life, lots of low down torque makes them very driveable. Certainly in terms of bread-and-butter cars, diesel is usually the best and most sensible option in anything bigger than a Polo. However, are there any diesels that you can buy with your heart as well as your head that can stack up to the best petrol-powered “driver’s” cars?
I had several Golf TDIs as company cars and they were fantastic (the mk5 2.0 GT TDI) in particular. Good to drive, pretty quick and very economical. However, I owned a Corrado VR6 as my own car at the same time and although the Golf was much more responsive at low revs, it ran out of puff above about 4000 revs which was just when the Corrado was hitting its sweet spot. Admittedly, I would probably be driving too fast at this point but even so, the Corrado was just more exciting to drive. I also had the opportunity to drive a mk5 Golf GTI when they came out and although the TDI was good, the GTI was something else. Diesel- like torque from low revs as well as top end power. So good effort with the TDI VW but 1-0 petrol in this instance. So are there any genuinely great “driver’s” diesels? I’m sure a big Jag/BMW/Merc diesel would be great but I’m not quite ready for that yet and I think better suited to motorways/fast A-roads than hustling down twisty B roads.
I can only think of 4 diesels that sound fairly interesting, although I have no experience of any of them. Are any of these any good or have I overlooked anything else?
1. Alfa Romeo 159 2.4 JTD Ti (the Alfa V6 has disappeared and I think this engine has now as
well. A 5-cylinder with over 200 bhp I think which sounds fairly interesting)
2. BMW 123d (over 100bhp per litre, fairly light, rear wheel drive)
3. Alpina D3 (I know that there are probably more powerful diesel-powered 3-Series but this one at least looks a bit different from all the others for those in the know anyway)!
4. Audi A5 3.0 TDI Coupe (I don’t know much about these but quite a good combination of car and engine I would have thought)
I had several Golf TDIs as company cars and they were fantastic (the mk5 2.0 GT TDI) in particular. Good to drive, pretty quick and very economical. However, I owned a Corrado VR6 as my own car at the same time and although the Golf was much more responsive at low revs, it ran out of puff above about 4000 revs which was just when the Corrado was hitting its sweet spot. Admittedly, I would probably be driving too fast at this point but even so, the Corrado was just more exciting to drive. I also had the opportunity to drive a mk5 Golf GTI when they came out and although the TDI was good, the GTI was something else. Diesel- like torque from low revs as well as top end power. So good effort with the TDI VW but 1-0 petrol in this instance. So are there any genuinely great “driver’s” diesels? I’m sure a big Jag/BMW/Merc diesel would be great but I’m not quite ready for that yet and I think better suited to motorways/fast A-roads than hustling down twisty B roads.
I can only think of 4 diesels that sound fairly interesting, although I have no experience of any of them. Are any of these any good or have I overlooked anything else?
1. Alfa Romeo 159 2.4 JTD Ti (the Alfa V6 has disappeared and I think this engine has now as
well. A 5-cylinder with over 200 bhp I think which sounds fairly interesting)
2. BMW 123d (over 100bhp per litre, fairly light, rear wheel drive)
3. Alpina D3 (I know that there are probably more powerful diesel-powered 3-Series but this one at least looks a bit different from all the others for those in the know anyway)!
4. Audi A5 3.0 TDI Coupe (I don’t know much about these but quite a good combination of car and engine I would have thought)
I have a 123d and I think it's great. The power delivery is very linear right up to the red line due to the set up of the turbos. It rides well, handled superbly and, no matter how hard I drive it, still returns 40mpg.
Plus with a simple remap they apparently go to 260bhp / 360 lb/ft.
The Alpina D3 is also excellent.
Plus with a simple remap they apparently go to 260bhp / 360 lb/ft.
The Alpina D3 is also excellent.
For me it has to be a BMW. Their diesel engines are generally nicer to drive than the competition, and their cars are obviously rear drive and nicely balanced. I know this is going to sound odd, but in some ways I prefer driving my 320d to my old Z4 Coupé, and certainly many so called sports cars that I've driven. The engine's obviously nowhere near as good, and neither is the grip, but I'm referring to the balance, control feel, chassis response and feedback.
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