BMW is finally getting its head straight on diesel engine offerings for the US market. News has come in the last few weeks that the maker of the Ultimate Driving Machine will begin offering a four-cylinder turbo diesel for some models in the near future.
While BMW has introduced high powered six-cylinder diesels here in the past year they have fallen relatively flat in the market. It is no wonder as they really are purpose defeating animals, tuned to be high performance engines instead of high-efficiency engines. The cost? A lot. So hell if you are spending 50-60k on a 3-series, why bother with a diesel that gets barely better mileage.
Given the two issues facing them going forward which is the coming CAFÉ standards as well as a stagnant economy BMW will be looking to put a version of their European market 2.0 liter four-cylinder turbo diesel in the 3-Series as well as the upcoming X3 mini ute. They of course are striving to make sure the engine still cranks out the kind of power they think American buyers expect however, tuning the engine more toward performance.
“This engine needs to match the acoustic qualities of a six-cylinder, and it need to match the performance, as well as performing better in terms of fuel economy and emissions,” said Tom Baloga, vice president of engineering for BMW of North America . “Our four-cylinder diesel will be so good that people will readily accept it as a replacement for six-cylinders. The target is to produce enough horsepower to be comparable to our six-cylinder turbos.”
We will see what they come up with.
