BMW 320d 2008 Review

Both cars in question are BMW 3 Series, and both cost around $60,000. One of them is arguably the best prestige car in this class.

The one that isn't — the 320i automatic — was Australia's best-selling luxury model last year, what with Mercedes-Benz's new C-Class entering the running only midway through the year.

Best-selling, sure, but actually abit of a snore.

Granted, it has the rear-wheel-drive and near-perfect weight distribution thing that BMW tends tomention from time to time.

But with a four-cylinder petrol engine that's lucky to shift this medium-sized sedan to 100km/h in less than 10 seconds, you needn't be a behavioural scientist to recognise that the main thing it has is a blue-and-white badge.

Unable, or perhaps too clueless, to aspire to a model packing one of the marque's almost equally trademark inline sixes, many new prestige punters settle for a 320i. So they're depressingly ubiquitous.

Yet so dull is the reality of ownership that a keen driver across the road from us biffed his for a Golf R32. Loads less dough, lots more go.

He reckons his mates went for Golf GTIs — an even better proposition in some respects.

For a few equally shrewd punters, however, the numerically identical but alphabetically differentiated 320d (as in “diesel”) has been a powerful antidote to entry-level underperformance.

As of this week, the 320d boasts the new common-rail-injected, two-litre turbo engine seen to eyebrow-raising effect last month in the 520d and X3d. It will soon go into the 120d (and may go some way towards redeeming that hideous apparition).

This unit is 20kg lighter than the one that shoved along the 320d we tested almost exactly 12 months ago, with 10 more power and torque points. It also happens to be about 10 per cent more frugal.

And that's nothing compared to the gulf that exists between the diesel and petrol siblings.

Indeed, the former beats the latter like a gong.

With 125kW, the “d” is appreciably better off in the power department than the 115kW “i”.

With 340Nm, most of which is to be had from a nudge above idle, the diesel simply towers over the 320i's less-than-a-Camry 200Nm.

In fact, aside from the Wagnerian 335i, no 3 Series torques anything like this assertively.

The diesel's off-the-mark response is almost alarming by comparison, with the sprint to 100km/h happening in a claimed 8.2seconds — just shy of two full ticks slicker than its automatic petrol sibling. If the latter isn't already suffering an acute inferiority complex, it gets utterly flattened by the diesel's mid-range punch.

Then there are the ever more important matters of economy and emissions. According to the claim for combined-cycle use, the 320d uses six litres of diesel per 100km, the 320i almost eight litres of often more expensive premium unleaded petrol.

As for what comes out the tailpipe, try 160g of CO2 emitted per kilometre, as opposed to 190.

Although you can get into a basic 320d for $56,700, the Executive model, which sells the numbers, runs to $61,500 — an entirely reasonable $3K over the equivalent 320i.

The Exec adds 16-inch alloys with standard run-flat tyres, fog lights and decent trim to a fairly bountiful standard equipment package that, safety-wise, includes ABS with automatic stability and traction control, cornering brake control andsix airbags.

One set of optional kit worth taking — as opposed to the M Sport gear, which really isn't — is the Innovations Package, with bi-xenon and adaptive headlights, light washers, USB/audio interface and satellite navigation (albeit controlled by i-Drive). That runs to another $2500.

Also standard are the reasons why keen drivers still aspire to the blue-and-white badge — except that, with this car, these factors are allied to sufficient torque to wipe off the V6 Lexus IS250, while retaining an economy/emissions rating that would challenge a hybrid.

There's no manual option, but theZF automatic marries happily withthe diesel, slurring through its six forward ratios (as opposed to the fivein the far heavier C-Class).

Unless the revs are absurdly low orredline-high, it responds readily toone's gear selections when the stick is slotted into sport mode.

Like the best BMWs, the 320d rewards you even when driven lazily. Urged along, it comes into its own, utterly adept at freeway speeds — where its engine is refined almost to inaudibility — and doing a passable imitation of a sports sedan in the passes of the Victorian Alps.

There, its agility and response saved your correspondent when a truckie travelling too fast downhill decided to help himself to most of my lane.

As ever, the steering is beautifully direct, imbued with real feel and meaningful weighting. Combined with such an adroit chassis and powertrain, this 3 Series has a dynamic edge to carve up the opposition.

That's the difference between “d” and “i”.

Snapshot

BMW 320d

PRICE: From $56,700

ENGINE: 2L/4-cylinder turbo diesel;125kW, 340Nm

TRANSMISSION: 6-speed automatic

ECONOMY: 6L/100km (tested)

PERFORMANCE: 0-100km/h in 7.2 secs