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The Norwegian BMW catalogue claims the torque curve to be almost identical between the two with max torque across an identical range. There must be a difference at the high end though. But to add to the story, the Swedish car magazine Teknikens Varld (a real car geek publication - they test it all and don't believe in the factory's test figures) tested the 184hp version last year and in their test bench they could not claim the 184hp version to actually deliver more hp than 163hp. The difference between the two is by the way purely software, no differences in other components as far as I have understood it.
To be honest I suspect our 163 hp versions of being a bit more capable than it seems. It would be interesting to know if anybody out there actually have tried both in sequence and can tell about a significant difference in response and feel. I tried both a few weeks apart and only for approx 30 mins and really couldn't tell myself but obviously the comparison should have been on the same day to be of any use in our discussion.
Interestingly enough my BMW sales rep also recommended me not to go for the 184hp even if I actually was able to twist my budget a bit and go for it. It may be due to how his sales quotas/bonus schemes are defined but an interesting observation anyway.
I have driven my 163hp 20d for a month now and haven't been in lack of power at highways or in city driving. But this is maybe due to our in general very boring speed limits.
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