Thanks for the reply.

Concerning the diesel, I wouldn't be suprised if it counted for 95% of the X3 sales here in Europe.

My problem with the Diesel (having one now) is that BMW, like most of the other European car companies, is selling their Diesel engines with particule filters installed at the factory. While ecological it makes a lot of sense, in terms of maintenance, apparently you can run into a lot of problems if you do a lot of town driving like me. This is due to the need of the filter to clean itself of the particules using high temperatures. To get to these temperatures, you need to do at least 20m of driving at a speed above 90km/h (which I rarely do).

Apart from this small niggle, the perspective of driving everytime with a cold and therefore loud Diesel engine is putting me off (did I mention I own a Diesel already ?). But one Diesel is not another so before any buy decision, I'm deciding to test both the 3.0D and the 3.0si.