Road Test: BMW 320d

While electric and hybrid vehicles garner most of the fanfare as the next-generation of eco-friendly transportation, clean diesels are making a noise of their own, if you excuse the pun. In South Africa, diesels have been seen as loud, dirty and smelly. But the latest iterations are getting better every year. It’s about time we took diesels far more seriously than we do.

For starters, technological advancements in fuel and engine platforms, improved fuel economy, biodiesel compatibility, and increased torque are just some of the reasons why diesel-powered vehicles are preferred in many parts of the world. BMW, of course, have been developing their EfficientDynamics (ED) philosophy for years. Until recently, they have not felt the need to shout about it. They just got on with the job of producing cars that pollute less, go quicker and sip less fuel.

For instance, in America, where people hate diesels, BMW 335d sedan sales were up 162 per cent and X5 xDrive35d were up 106 per cent last year alone. Nearly one in four X5s sold in the U.S. were diesel powered. Diesel? In America? One can only assume that ED has become a powerful sales weapon for BMW, despite it being under estimated by the firm at first.

What’s interesting is that ED does not employ a single ‘breakthrough technology’ like the hybrid-drive system found in a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight. No, it’s more of a constant series of small improvements having been made to the car, culminating in meaningful gains in economy, and performance. And quite frankly, it works better than any of tree hugging hybrid technologies that I’ve experienced so far.

Recently I was invited to the BMW factory in Rosslyn, Pretoria to try a freshly minted 320D ED. I frankly could barely detect the difference between it and the standard 320d despite the cosmetic changes to the bumpers and lights and, well, stuff. In comparison to the standard 320d, Combined fuel economy has improved to a claimed 4.7 L/100km. CO2 emissions have plummeted to 125 g/km, but there’s still a stout 135 kW and 380 Nm of torque ready to deploy from just 1 900 r/min. That, astonishingly, is around 50 per cent more torque than anything else in its CO2 bracket.

It achieves this in part by being able to selectively ‘switch-off’ the electric power steering, oil pump and air-con compressor. The upshot is that the 320d ED has fractionally more slippery body (a drag co-efficient of 0.26 instead of 0.27) and CO2 emissions that fall to super-mini levels. It’s remarkable for a car of this size.

The 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo-diesel has been reworked to persuade you to use a higher gear more often. It’s has a complex dual-mass flywheel with a pair of ‘Centrifugal Pendulum Absorbers’ to further damp out engine vibration – put simply, it irons out vibrations and noise at low revs. This enables you to tool around at 1 000 r/min; oblivious to the fact that you’re just 10 r/min away from stalling and looking like, well, a complete ‘tool’.

The standard stop-start, brake regeneration and electric power steering is fitted, along with lowered suspension, longer gear ratios and reduced friction in all the oily bits. A new, rotor-like alloy wheel design improves aerodynamics, while energy saving tyres reduce rolling resistance too.

Apparently, the new-generation common rail technology injects precisely measured doses of fuel into the combustion chamber under a pressure of 1 800 bar, if that’s of interest to you. What will stop your eyes from glazing over is that BMW 320d achieved 5.1 L/100km in a recent trip to deliver my books to the Franschhoek Motor Museum and back from Tokai, Cape Town (a bit heavy footed there Richard, I managed 4.7 L/100km – Ed.). Yet it’s responsive enough to propel the vehicle from 0 – 100 km/h in just 8.1 seconds, according to my stopwatch. Impressive stuff.

Don’t expect the Efficient Dynamics package to make any noticeable difference between the way it and the existing 320D drives though. It doesn’t. And that’s a good thing, because the 3 series is an accomplished car in almost every way. In fact, that’s quite a compliment to the car in that it has set a new standard for Audi and Mercedes to match. It’s still endowed with the same crisp (but heavy) steering, delicacy of movement and overall bullet-proof feel that makes a 3-series the default choice these days.

It could be said that the 3 series is starting to feel its age a little though. The windscreen is a little too close to the driver and the admittedly well-balanced chassis, is, dare I say it, a touch leaden in its responses. It feels harsh over the bumps at times and the major controls are quite heavy too – in particular the notchy gear-change. But it’s all relative. The 320D is rear wheel drive and has almost perfect 50:50 weight distribution, making the car better handling than front-drive rivals.

Minor gripes apart, I think the 320d EfficientDynamics is a stunning achievement. I’d buy it, particularly from the point of view of a company car buyer. There is absolutely nothing else that comes close to offering what the 320d ED offers in terms of its balance between performance and efficiency. Except for the next generation 3 series due mid next year, of course.

What we like…

• If saving the planet is your mission, you could do a lot worse than this car.
• Chuck ability and handling.
• Fuel economy and unburstable feel.

What we would like…

• Lighter gearbox.
• To try the new 3 series soon, please, BMW.

Richard Webb is the publisher of Blower, South Africa’s longest running car magazine and contributor to SACarFan.

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