Unfortunately BMW isn't yet selling any diesels in North America. Supposed to start soon—and at that point the X5 would be interesting.

Also: the ML 320 CDI gets much better mileage than the factory numbers. It's so notorious, that this is one of the first thing the dealers here will tell you when you are looking at one of these cars.

dd74: Re the B class: Do you mean the A class? The B class is a horridly cheap little car. All plastic, rough engine, handles like a truck and ugly as sin. I don't know why these sell as well as they do. Now the A class on the other hand is a very nice compact car.

They must all be in Canada. The diesel ML is getting to be as common as a Camry up here.

[QUOTE=Dottore;4093770]run-flat tires, which are not widely available and stupidly expensive to replace. /QUOTE]

Tell me about it.
I have an '06 Honda Odyssey Touring with Michelin PAX run-flats. No spare. Only 1 tire made for replacement due to the special wheels. $1,200.00 a set for a mini-van.

I'm sure the tires for the MB are even more.

i remember reading an article about a 3 series bmw diesel that got something like 45mpg and did 0-60 nearly as good as the gas model. will we be getting such a car???

Dottore: this one. It's the B-series. All the road tests suggest it's everything the A-series was not in a reliable, well engineered Mercedes. So you don't like them? http://i.treehugger.com/files/mercedes-b-class-01.jpg
http://www.direct-vehicle-leasing.ne...0b%20class.jpg

Guess what? All of them are in Canada. That, or Germany. We had to sign and get notarized, in affidavit stating we would not sell ours outside the U.S. borders, or otherwise face a trade-imposed fine of up to $20,000. You see, Canadians and Germans come to the U.S. to buy high-priced cars. Why? Because of the crappy U.S. dollar. Why pay $60,000 Euro for a car when you can pay $60,000 U.S. in the U.S. which is really $30,000 in Euros.

I took my car in for service on a Friday and they kept it for the weekend and gave me a new B series as a loner. It was incredibly cheap and nasty. I didn't like it at all. Drove it for two days couldn't wait to get rid of it.

That's my only experience with these cars, so it's anecdotal, and maybe the car I had was the exception. But a truly rough and crappy engine, and very shoddy finish.

I told my guy at the dealership what I thought, and he agreed. Said he was embarrassed to be selling them. That's about all I know.

The A's on the other hand, I have often rented in Europe, and always enjoyed. Nice small car, very well made, and fast in the diesel version.

I thought Mercedes stop making the A series. I've seen the tiny Audi in Italy. That's also a sweet little daily driver car.

millage better then factory numbers

no offense, but that sounds too good to be true
and you know what they say about that

the numbers i posted, are not from a factory website, and the ones used to base road tax on in Belgium... I've never seen any car do better then those numbers, in fact, you gotta drive like a robot to get near those numbers, trust me, i do mostly highway, and i can barely get within +0.5L/100km of the posted highway millage, or +1L combined average for the car i drive, and only when i drive like i don't know where the loud pedal is located


first thing dealers usually say , is usually the first lie of many

well first i thought my trip computer was out. then i brought a calculator on a trip to california and confirmed that the trip computer was in fact correct, and that I was averaging 7 liters per 100 km. that's lower than factory numbers. then i started talking to some other owners and chatting on benzworld.org, and it does seem that everyone is aware of this phenomenon.

so there you go. too good to be true, but true all the same.

and i don't drive like a robot.

Stijn - I can attest to Dottore's claims. I too get much better than the 18/25 M-B claims for the ML320 - (that's in our ridiculous miles/gallon English system of measurement). We get more like 25 in the city, and about 35-40 on the highway.

Yes, this was a Car and Driver article, which is here:

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/car_shopping/green_machines/2006_bmw_330d_road_test

The first sentence is pretty funny in regard to the concern about $3 a gallon gasoline. :D

my bmw 118d,
expected to arrive in sept

is supposed to do

city 5.4 L/100km 43.5 Miles/Gallon
hw 4.0 59
average 4.5 52

Aren't the new BMW diesels supposed to be here for 2009?

If it weren't for their horrible reputation for reliability, the VW Toureq (sp?) diesel would be a good bet. V10 turbodiesel, if I recall correctly it made 500 lb*ft of torque.