“No need to stop for refueling,” Paul’s notes read.

How many other cars with 425 pound-feet of torque can you say that about?

Contrast this with the same drive taken with a BMW 335i sedan at the same time, similarly equipped with automatic transmission.  That car used 9 l/100 km (26 mpg) for a total of 72 l (19 gallons).  One refueling stop was required.  The 335d only used 48 l (12.6 gallons), delivering over 33% better fuel economy.

Since picking up the BMW 335d at the BMW Welt a little over six months ago, I continue to be amazed at how quiet the car can be, even at very high speeds.  Driving the car at 220 km/h (137 mph) for extended periods of time simply reinforced this observation.

Despite the 86 kg (191 pound) weight penalty compared to the 335i sedan, BMW maintained a front-to-rear weight distribution of 51-49.  Turn-in is excellent and the handling and control don’t seem to suffer at all from the additional weight.

The unique combination of sports-car acceleration with exemplary fuel economy was something we noted in our Three-Month Review and this sets the BMW 335d apart from the other diesel-powered autos available in the U.S. We expect, however, that the 335d will have some company within the next eight to ten months.  BMW of North America will soon import a 5er Series diesel and, if it’s the 535d, as many suspect, it will join the 335d in providing this unique type of Freude am Fahren.

Indeed, the 535d goes from 0-100 km (0-62 mph) in just 5.7 seconds (faster than the 335d, which travels the same distance in six seconds) and uses just 6.1 l/100 km (38.5 mpg) in the European combined test cycle (less fuel than the 335d, which uses 6.7 l/100 km (35 mpg) in the same test).

Comparing for a moment the two 335 3er Series, the 335i is definitely a bit quicker off the line: 0-60 mph is 5.6 seconds, while the 335d takes 6.0 seconds to travel the same distance.  The 335d, however, produces 425 pound-feet of torque between 1750 and 2250 rpm compared to the 335i’s 300 pound-feet between 1400 and 5000.  The 335d’s massive amount of torque is available for overtaking on demand and can propel the car to from 80 km/h (50 mph) to 130 km/h (80 mph) in what feels like a split second.  Click here to continue to Page 2.

The 335d does this by combining sports-car acceleration with exemplary fuel economy, and then adding in comfort and attention to detail.  Indeed, this very combination may be the forerunner of a new breed of luxury-performance sedans.

The 3er Series was first introduced in 1975 as the successor to the 2002, the car that first defined the sports sedan.  Since then, the BMW 3er Series has continued to define this genre and it is the car that other car makers try to emulate.

The 3er doesn’t attempt to pamper the driver and passengers; instead, it focuses on a driving experience that is unlike any other.  One can recognize a 3er Series driver: he’s the one who is grinning from ear to ear after every trip.  The 335d driver is grinning even more as he knows how much fuel he saving with every trip.

The 335d was launched in the U.S. in 2009 as a four-door sedan in conjunction with a mild redesign of that body style. As a result, the 3er Series sedan bears a much stronger familial resemblance to the new 5er and 7er Series sedans.  The front looks wider and sports new headlights and a bolder bumper/spoiler. More prominent longitudinal hood lines frame the hood’s power dome. New taillights and a more pronounced character line complete the look.

The 335d’s three-liter six-cylinder inline twin-turbo diesel engine with common-rail, high-pressure direct fuel injection with piezo injectors and two-stage turbo charging produces 265 hp and an incredible 425 pound-feet of torque. To put the car’s power into perspective, the M3 generates a mere 295 pound-feet of torque.  There’s so much torque that BMW had to use electronics to keep the rear tires from spinning out of control.

BMW designed the 335d’s turbocharger system to negate turbo lag by using one fast-and-small turbocharger for initial acceleration with a second, larger turbo that takes over as engine speed rises. As a result, there is no noticeable turbo lag.

The BMW 335d is also the most fuel-efficient cars BMW of North America has ever sold and can travel almost 40% farther on a tank of fuel than its gasoline-powered sibling.   I’ve gone several weeks without having to fill the tank and I could drive from New York to Washington, D.C. and back (round trip 750 km or 466 miles) without having to stop to refuel.

So after three months and several thousand kilometers (keep in mind that the car spent a month in transit getting from Munich to New York), how does it drive?  Suffice it to say that the 335d is the most sought-after car at The Diesel Driver and the driving experience combined with fuel economy is simply unparalleled. Click here to continue to page 2.

BMW's Advanced Diesel Engine

Six editors from Ward’s nominated a total of 34 engines available in regular production cars in the United States priced no more than $54,000.

The two diesel winners were BMW, for its 3.0-liter six-cylinder twin-turbocharged and direct-injected Advanced Diesel engine powering the 335d sedan, and Volkswagen, for its 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel engine powering the Jetta SportWagen TDI.

The BMW 335d is the fastest diesel-powered passenger car sold in the U.S., capable of zero-to-sixty in under six seconds.  It is also the most fuel efficient car BMW has ever sold in the U.S., capable of achieving 36 mpg (6.5 l/100 km) on the highway.  The Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI gets 40 mpg (5.8 l/100 km).

Engines employing hybrid-electric technology from Ford and Toyota were also named winners, as were engines from Audi, Chevrolet, General Motors, Hyundai, and Subaru.

The awards will be given during the North American International Auto Show next month in Detroit.

Inside the cabin, given an absence of engine noise, the only clue that we are driving a diesel is the tachometer’s 5000 rpm redline.  But put the six-speed manual transmission into gear, step on the accelerator and there’s no question you are driving a BMW.

Besides its diesel engine, the 123d has yet another fuel saving feature: Auto Start-Stop, a feature that shuts the engine off when you stop at a red light (or elsewhere).  When you push in the clutch, the engine springs back to life and you drive away.  The technology is very popular in Europe and we are already seeing it in the States in several hybrid models.

Our test car was the three-door Sports Hatch model but it’s also available with five doors as well as a coupe or cabrio.  It came equipped with BMW’s M suspension and the handling was pure BMW.   I’ve driven several petrol and diesel 1er Series BMWs in the past year and I’ve found them to be some of the best representations of Freude am Fahren available today.

THE DETAILS

The easiest thing about the Jetta is its price: $22,000 for a 40-plus-mpg non-hybrid.  It’s nicely equipped at that price, too, with comfortable, heated seats and high-quality materials in the cabin.

THE DETAILS

In the five days I had the car, I drove a total of 1126 kilometers (700 miles) including a roundtrip from Munich to Vienna, averaging 40 mpg (5.9 l/100 km).  On a clear stretch of Autobahn outside Munich, the car happily stayed at 240 km/h (150 mph), traffic permitting.  In Austria, I tried hard to stay below 150 km/h (93 mph) because the photo-radar on the Autobahnen are set for that speed but it was difficult not to accelerate to the car’s full potential; fortunately, the photo-radar units are also very visible during the daytime.

While the 535d won’t be offered in the U.S., BMW is now importing the 335d, which uses the same engine in the smaller 3er Series body.

THE DETAILS

The engine’s 332 pound-feet of torque (50% more than the gasoline version) made driving (and overtaking) a pleasure.  The Audi cabin is a pleasure as well, with comfortable seats, good controls, and great visibility.

While I didn’t get a chance to test the car’s top speed (153 mph, compared to the gasoline engine’s 155 mph), I did have plenty of opportunities to test the car on a variety of roads and its road manners were exemplary.

THE DETAILS

To me, it looks aggressive, somewhat avant garde, but unlike the previous generation E65/66 7er, all the pieces seem to fit together perfectly.

Invited to drive one of the first production cars, a 730d, I then had to plan a trip befitting what I had already started to call König Diesel (King Diesel).  I chose as my destination the city of Portorož in Istria (Slovenia).  At the turn of the last century, Portorož was one of the most important European seaside resorts and was frequented by royalty and the aristocracy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

I left Munich early the day after I arrived, looking forward to a 600 km drive that would take me south through Austria and then past Llubjana (the capital of Slovenia), then west towards Portorož and the Adriatic.  The car came equipped with winter tires and a warning label to not exceed 240 km/h.  Unfortunately, given traffic and speed limits in Germany, Austria, and Slovenia, I had less than one hour of time to actually drive at that speed.

Despite lots of snow in the days preceding my trip, the Autobahnen were clear and dry and the König clearly enjoyed the trip as did his driver.

As I entered Slovenia, I found its highway system to be excellent, as were the secondary roads that eventually led to my destination.  Indeed, the roads in Slovenia (I drove to Lipica and Grad Socerb one day, and to Trieste the next) had sufficient twists to keep us entertained.

LET ME INFOTAIN YOU

BMW has a history of firsts: the first automaker to offer satellite navigation systems in all vehicles, the first to offer built-in Bluetooth connectivity for mobile phones, the first to offer Apple iPod integration,

The 2009 7er continues this tradition with more luxury and more electronic advancements than any BMW before it, the better to keep me infotained.

The car’s interior is the first new BMW in years to sport a cockpit tilted towards the driver (although not as much tilt as my E21 320iS, but all tilt was welcome).  Despite a host of new and useful electronics, the interior keeps its Teutonic cool with few knobs and switches, vastly improved ergonomics, and materials of the highest quality, comparable to the Mercedes-Benz and Lexus flagships (both of which I recently drove).  In case one needed help, an online multi-media manual (with videos and slide shows) is just one iDrive click away.

Inside, a high-resolution (1280 x 480 pixels), 10.2” display that dominates the cockpit yet doesn’t wash out in sunlight greets the driver  New, more intuitive menu structures, improved menu navigation, and an ergonomic controller with shortcut buttons all contribute to greater Freude am Fahren.

During my drive, I found that the new fourth generation iDrive, formally called the Car Infotainment Computer (CIC), did indeed live up to this lofty title.

The new iDrive was simple to figure out. Entering a destination using the controller or voice command is fast and easy (and faster and easier when compared to earlier iDrive systems).  Once a destination is selected, the system displays a preview for several routes, including an “efficient” route that should use less fuel. The map can be full screen (previously not possible), and it can display two different map types in two different scales in split-screen mode.  Graphics are amazing (the mountains look almost real) and European models can surf any Web site on the Net.

You can also display far more information in the smaller Assist window than in earlier systems, something that takes a very useful feature and increases its utility (and something the competition hasn’t caught on to – the assist window remains unique to BMW and iDrive).

Inserting a CD or music DVD into the drive slot starts the process of copying the music to the car’s hard disk (the car asks permission before it starts to copy and the process of copying does not slow down other CIC processes). Separate from the iPhone/USB option in the center console, a USB port in the glove box facilitates transferring music to the CIC.

BMW uses elegant Black Panel technology in the climate-control area as well as the dashboard display.  With the engine switched off, the driver only sees the elegant chrome rings and the climate controls are dark.  Once the car is turned on, the numbers and needles glow from under the surface.  The effect is stunning.

A “magic” button on the MFL (Multifunktionslenkrad or steering wheel) controls radio and telephone functions, displaying information on the panel.  These functions are also controllable via the newly-enhanced iDrive controller,, but the magic button is far more convenient for simple functions.  The controller’s direct selection buttons provide one-button access to CD, radio, telephone and navigation, plus there’s a back button that works similar to a Web browser’s back button.  Unlike Audi’s MMI buttons, I didn’t have to look down to select one because each is shaped differently.  Voice command functionality has been enhanced and you can use the iDrive controller in conjunction with Voice Command (previously, turning the controller would stop Voice Command dead in its tracks.)

SAFETY FIRST

New safety features abound. Night Vision now offers Pedestrian Detection, which recognizes living objects up to 1600 feet in front of the car and displays an icon of a person on the display (no word if there are separate icons for deer or moose).  Sideview cameras mounted in the front fenders provide visibility forward of the front seat.  The Active Blind Spot Detection and Lane Change Warning system warn the driver of incursions into the car’s blind spot while Lane Departure Warning alerts the driver should the car wander.

A Europe-only option (for now) recognizes and displays speed limit signs in the Heads-up Display.  As the speed limits changed, the HUD kept me informed of the current limit.  Because speed limit signs in most of Europe are uniform, unlike in the U.S., this feature was easier to implement but, as a result, it probably won’t make it to the U.S.  It only took a second or two for the HUD to update once we passed a new sign (yes, we timed it).

You’re probably wondering how it drives and the answer is, brilliantly.  After 1500 km (930 miles) in weather conditions ranging from snow and ice to warm Adriatic sunshine, the verdict is clear: the new King of the Hill is the 2009 BMW 7er Series.  From the driver’s seat, the 7er drove like a much smaller car, perhaps somewhere between a 3er and a 5er.  The superb handling doesn’t adversely impact ride quality, which was soft over bumps but always completely under the driver’s control.  And the ride was smoother and more composed than any car in its class (including the Lexus and Mercedes I drove recently).

And I saved the best for last.  The 730d, despite its heft, managed an incredible 7.4 l/100 km (32 mpg) at an average speed of 113 km/h (70 mph).  As of now, BMW of North America only plans to bring in the gasoline-powered 750i (expect 21 mpg) to the U.S. but, with 70% of BMWs sold in Germany and other BMW diesels starting to arrive in the U.S., it’s only a matter of time until BMW adds this one to the roster.