Quote:
Originally Posted by tjts1
I would rather chew my own arm off. BMW brought a diesel to america. 2 in fact but they're the wrong ones.
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I agree. (Well, not the part about chewing one's own arm off, I didn't quite get that. But I agree with the bit about the 'wrong' diesel.) The problem was that they wanted to run a diesel in the X5. Because of the tortuously expensive process to certify diesel engines for sale in the USA (thanks, CARB!) BMW decided to only bring one engine, so it had to do double duty in both the 3-series and the X5.
The 4-cyl turbodiesel from the 123d coupe/hatchback sold in Europe seems to be tailor-made for America's fascination with 0-60 times, while still providing great fuel economy. But they couldn't re-purpose it for use in the X5, so they didn't bring it. Also, BMW USA is a bit gun-shy about 4-cylinder engines after their last one (the 318ti) didn't do so well in the marketplace.
As for the VW.... I was strongly considering a VW/Audi TDI for our next car, because I think they drive great and are very practical, but it seems that every time I screw up my courage and say that VW has really improved their reliability, they save me from myself with a story like this one:
VW DSG Transmission Problem Leads to Recall - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com