BMW Dropping Diesel in the U.S., With an Asterisk
If, like most American consumers, there’s a diesel-powered BMW on your Christmas wish list, you’d best tell your loved ones to hurry. The German automaker plans to drop that meager sliver of its U.S. product line for 2019, but there’s a chance the wishes of the oil-burning crowd will force the automaker to hang on to a single model.
During a media preview of the revamped 2019 X5 SUV, BMW spokesman Alex Schmuck told The Car Connection, “We are putting all our eggs in the PHEV basket.”
With the Environmental Protection Agency treating compression ignition vehicles like radioactive waste, it’s not a surprising move. From Volkswagen’s recent emissions scandal to General Motors’ dismal 1980s diesel experiment, Americans haven’t had the greatest experience dealing with this Eurocentric engine type (Cummins customers notwithstanding). Plug-in hybrids represent a stepping stone to the electric future the majority of automakers believe we’re barreling towards. And no one associates PHEVs with unsavory things like sooty exhaust and clattery engines.
Regardless of GM’s newfound bullishness on the fuel, diesel passenger cars are few, and the advent of electrification technology has made the engine type unnecessary from a MPG perspective — though maybe not from a development cost perspective (depending on automaker). A X5 PHEV due out in early 2020 should offer about 40 miles of electric range.
For the 2018 model year, BMW offered only the X5 35d, which no longer appears on the brand’s consumer website, and the 328d, which does. Now, what about that asterisk in the headline? Well, it seems Bimmer’s PR guy said too much, too soon.
In an email to The Car Connection, BMW wrote, “The final decision as to whether or not the BMW X5 diesel variant will come to the U.S. market has not been made. BMW of North America continues to monitor customer preferences and is prepared to adjust the product portfolio accordingly.”
[Images: BMW Group]
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A friend of mine has an X5 diesel, and loved it right until the transfer case cracked (never off-roaded, multiple thousands of dollars fix) and the low pressure transfer fuel pump died ($700 plus installation), and, and...
My wife has a 2011 335D and will not give it up. I told her I will buy her any new BMW she wants. She says nothing handles or goes like her 335D. I had her test drive the 5 series diesal but she didn't like the size. She says she will keep what she has until BMW offers something else, not likely from what I read. On the other hand her 335D could last a long time.