Comments on: BMW Clean Diesels Arrive, Powerful and Pricey

By: JeepFan

JeepFan — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:49:15 +0000

X5 sounds nice, but I’ll wait for the 4.2 Cummins diesel going into the new Cherokee Overland for 10K+ LESS!!!

By: veek

veek — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:53:37 +0000

Wow! I certainly agree with the postings. 23/36 and 19/26 are not very good figures!! If the American companies pulled something like that, people would be all over them about "greenwashing," "where's the improvement," "more gas-guzzling mentality," etc. but when BMW or Mercedes does it, the press goes wild with compliments.

It seems that imports have had a double standard for many years, but, hey, this is America. This is embarrassing.

By: Crut100

Crut100 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:49:24 +0000

Diesel is very expensive around here compared to gasoline (northern Indiana). It's just over $1 gallon more expensive - - $1.93 gallon for regular unleaded and $2.95 gallon for diesel. That's a 33%+ premium. For that kind of money I will opt for a higher mileage vehicle from another manufacturer. Trust me I'd love to buy another BMW but, unfortunately it seems the only way any of these car companies will react is if you stop buying. That's what I'm doing and here is my plea:

BMW PLEASE BUILD A 40MPG+ VEHICLE SO THAT I CAN BUY FROM YOU.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:16:42 +0000

There is a car that has cleaner tailpipe emissions than a Toyota Prius! You can go buy it now - it is the Honda Civic Hybrid. The Civic Hybrid gets an EPA air pollution score of 9 out of 10 whereas the Prius only gets 8 out of 10. So a Honda Civic Hybrid emits less smog forming air pollution than a Toyota Prius.

Smog pollution is the main reason I opted for a Honda Civic Hybrid over the previous generation Jetta Diesel. They both had excellent MPG, but with LSD just coming to the market and none of the new clean diesel technology going, it was just too bad for the air quality where I live.

I am glad to see BMW doing something better - things are looking up...

By: qqRockyBeans

qqRockyBeans — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:58:29 +0000

I agree with stellis:

Why does the higher-mpg diesel sedan (23/36) only get $900 credit
while the porker SUV (19/26) gets $1550?

WHY????? Shouldn't it be the OTHER WAY AROUND????
or was that just a typo??

Also note that the 335d's premium over the gas version is only $2500
compare that with the $5000 premium of the Civic Hybrid over the LX model

By: schanie

schanie — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:42:25 +0000

Compare this SUV to the two-mode hybrid Saturn Vue, which is $33k, and gets 28/31 mpg and 0-60 in 7.5 seconds.

By: TD

TD — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:31:15 +0000

23 and 19 mpg in the city is nothing to brag about.

By: Stellis

Stellis — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:23:09 +0000

Waitaminute…the 36mpg five seater gets a $900 credit, and the 26mpg five seater gets $1500? What am I missing here?

By: domboy

domboy — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:53:44 +0000

Um, last I check the price gap between Premium gasoline and diesel is pretty small (depending on one's location), and since this diesel is significantly more efficient than a comparable gasoline engine, you actually will come out ahead. The thing to lament is the lack of a manual transmission, especially in the 335d. They'd better rectify that soon. It's entirely possible to build a manual transmission to handle that torque, and it would also be more fuel efficient too! Otherwise, it's encouraging to see another diesel choice finally coming to the US. Kudos to BMW on that note.

CRut100, I do agree when you say they need to bring a 40mpg diesel, as they have plenty smaller more efficient diesels in Europe (of course). Hopefully this one will do well enough to encourage BMW's management to bring more diesel engine choices.

By: CRut100

CRut100 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:55:53 +0000

Nice but still not good enough. For the premium price of the vehicle and additional cost of diesel fuel this vehicle is just not worth it. BMW needs to step up and deliver over 40MPG on any diesel vehicle and all their vehicles need to deliver 30MPG plus. I’ve owned BMW 5-series for more than a decade straight but sold mine earlier this year and won’t buy another until they improve their MPG.