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alexmish · #10 08-02-2012, 10:20 PM

I drove both 2008 4.8 for 35K miles, and now 32K on 2011 3.5d. I love D's fuel economy and range, and while I agree that diesel is not as easily available, I've never had a problem finding filling station (I start looking for one when 1/4 of tank, to be on safe side). On highways most stations have diesel, since they need to tend to trucks and buses. In cities, experience could be different (I suggest you survey your area and see how far is closest station).

From reliability point of view, I'd say all bimmers are more or less the same, so it is a crap shoot. While diesel engine itself has lesser number of parts, there are other emission "accessories" bolted on top of it, so perhaps total number of parts is about the same with a gaser, give or take (and think of reliability is something reverse-proportional to number of parts, simpler design typically lasts longer).

In general diesel core engines are built "tougher", as compression ratio is much higher, so they need to withstand some extra abuse. But then D engines are used in buses and 18-wheelers, and I presume they last forever there if maintained.

In my 2 years/32K on 35d, I only had minor issues with emission component (EGR valve), which didnt get me stranded (just a CEL). On 2008, on the other hand, I had problems with battery discharge (I think it was more or less fixed on 2010+ models), and driver's door latching mechanism - door would not latch in very low temps. As you can see, problems werent related to engine type at all...

Quite frankly, I visit this bboard a lot, see many complaints about "problem here and problem there", but no trends correlated to type of engine. It is usually other things around it that break!

Hope this helps.

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