BMW Dropping The 3-Series Diesel In Favor Of Hybrid Variant?

Well, when their own base model 3 series betters their diesel, the 335d just isn't going to cut it anymore.

Diesels made a huge leap a couple year ago, but DI gas enignes and hybrids are leapfrogging them once again.

Well I and a large number of Americans do love diesel. However, our choices are still too limited. A Golf or Jetta with limited option selection (same with the Sportwagen),the A3, which is an improvment, the Passat which is a little nicer but getting bigger, or a BMW or Mercedes that you can't get out the door for under $55,000.

Give me a BMW 3 series with the 2.0 diesel for around $45k, the A4, or the Tiguan. They would all be priced around the same and get far better mileage than their gas counterparts. Since I can do the math, the cost per mile between comparable gas and diesel powered cars far favors diesel.

You can't compare this year's 328i with last year's 335d. Two completely different vehicles. I'll wager if they did the 335d in the new body it would top 40MPG EPA. The current one does it in real life already, and it's a heavier, less advanced chassis.

You may be the only person who is willing to pay 45,000 for a 2.0L diesel. Surely you realize that. And the 328i starts at $35000. With less expensive fuel, it's going to take a very long time to make up a $10,000 difference. And what a slug it would be.

I concede it is unfair to compare a new model to the last year of an existing model. My goodness, the nerve, who would ever do that??? <sarcasm> But the new 328i shows just how far the efficiency of gas engines has come. There is nothing that gives me reason to believe that a new 335d would be able to pick up more than a couple more mpgs tops. It could possibly also gain a tenth or 2 in speed. All that for a mere $10,000 price increase. The 335d is dead. Long live the 328i.

(Now should they decide to bring the 320d over, then we can revisit the issue. In the meantime, we're gonna have to see how they do with their tiptoeing foray into hybrids.)

The performance hit to hybrids will be unacceptable to an American BMW enthusiast - the U.S. buyer is not looking to save money or be environmentally sound when he's buying a BMW, he's looking for sport + ego. So if he's going to pay $45,000 for a car, it sure as heck better drive like one, otherwise he might as well just buy a Lexus hybrid and get it over with.

Thankful I live in Australia not America. BMW manufacture superb diesels. When will people realise that hybrids are merely half-ars** halfway houses for green driving and the immediate future for green driving is clean diesels with hydrogen cars as a long-term goal. What a shame, missing out on possibly the best non-M engine of the entire range (335d).