29 Mar 07
Apologies for the delay in this report on the 335d Touring, but had I written any earlier, it would have been almost identical to my last report. This would have given further vent to my frustration at my inability to use the full extent of its performance on the roads where I live, thanks to a five-month-long deluge of Welsh rain.
But the skies have been clear for the last few weeks and, at last, I've been able to enjoy the 335d at its very best. And the more I drive it, the more astonished by its capabilities I become.
As the miles pile on to its sequentially turbocharged 3-litre straight-six motor, there is no doubt at all that it is getting both quicker and more frugal. On cold mornings when the air is cool and dense, it feels relentlessly quick.
BMW will have signed off the engine at 286bhp in hot, thin air - the worst conditions for power generation - so no customer could ever complain that theirs was under-delivering. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to learn my engine is pushing out something north of 300bhp in the right conditions, making it the first diesel engine in production to produce more than 100bhp per litre.
Yet its fuel economy has risen from around 35mpg at the last report, to a fairly consistent 38mpg, as long as I don't spend much time snarled up in London. There are small shopping cars that won't do any better than that. It means a comfortable 500 miles on any tank and, despite its quasi-supercar performance, CO2 emissions that get it nowhere near the dreaded Band G for Vehicle Excise Duty.
