[clivem2]

And diesels account for a lot of NOX pollution we have at unsafe levels in some cities....

My last car used the 35i engine so I know that's a brilliant engine but my next X3 will be a 35D which has excellent throttle response (quite a lot better than my 30D). The 35i has a very broad and flat torque plateau whereas the 35D torque peak is narrow but it's huge in comparison and with an 8 speed auto box the narrowness of the 35D torque curve doesn't matter. Actually with an auto box it would be preferable if the 35i had torque curve with a higher peak and if it's narrower that would be an ok tradeoff.

Smaller petrol engines (ie up to 2 litres) have come on so much in terms of their efficiency that it could be diesels show the greatest benefit when they focused on performance in engiens such as 30D and 35D (or 40D).