People with 4.8, please suggest
 

I would like to get an honest opinion from folks who are driving 4.8. Do you wish that you should have gone for a diesel (of course assuming that diesel was available when you bought your 4.8) ?

I am confused in the middle. I know diesel can save me lot of money, but then i do not want to save a few thousand dollars and not fully like the car.

I have test driven 35d a few times and I have been really impressed with its performance and drive. Things I do not like about diesel:
- Wheel options (without spending 6k extra)
- Exterior is not complete body color
- I like the carbon black, which is not available with 35d. This is not the deal breaker though

4.8 has better handling & look with the M-Sport package.

Please help!

Exterior on 35d and 4.8 are identical on the stock models in terms of complete body color.

If you are a "spirited driver" and alone in the car most of the time, you should go with 4.8. If you dont care about that 0.5sec delay from the get-go, go with the Diesel.

However, there are incentives right now on the 4.8 (lower MF and $2500 holiday credit) which somewhat bridges the price gap between these 2 models. Of course you will also save a bundle of money on diesel vs gas, which you need to figure out for yourself.

No. Love my 4.8. As someone mentioned, if you're a "spirited" driver (as I am), stick with the 4.8.

Good luck.

I really wanted the M Sport Package, so that's why I went with the 48i over the 35d. The gas mileage was less of a concern to me.

I'm amazed that you cannot get the 35d with m-sport package in the US.....you can in many other countries! That is BMW USA deciding not to sell it that way for marketing reasons. Suspect it is to do with defending 4.8 sales.

+1 4.8

I do love my 4.8i. But if I were in the market again. I'd definitely go with the 35d.

Things that I'm not fond about the 4.8i:
- unpredictable throttle. It's very hard to control the car for smooth acceleration sometimes. I find that it's usually when the weight of the car changes (adding or removing more passengers) when the car will lunge forward at stop lights (not all the time. But enough to irritate my passengers). Driving without the "sports" button depressed helps, but still happens occasionally. I've never drove another car that had this problem (except a 2005 Mercedes E320).
- Fuel economy. If it were the closer to stated the 14/19, I'd be a little happier. But it's not close to it at all. Though I knew that going in (from all the other forum posts). I thought maybe everyone was driving aggressively and that things might be different for me. It's not. Plus, going to fuel up all the time is annoying.

You can simply paint the bumper to get to complete body painted look (as others have).

For the wheels, you don't have to spend 6k to upgrade. I'm sure you can find some used 214's for less than 4K (with new tires).

Very little difference in daily driving. You should weight the amount of time spent in "spirited" driving and the sound of the V8 vs the $10k premium (assuming you get the $4,500 eco credit) you'll pay for the 4.8i vs the 3.5d for a comparably equipped build. Or do what i did and get a 4.8i and then let your significant other drive it for a while and they will want to trade whatever they are currently driving for an X5 and then you can get the 3.5d for them and have both.
Or hunt for a loaded CPO '09 with <10k miles and get a $75-80k 4.8i for $53-56k. That way you get your 4.8i and it will cost less than either the new 4.8i or 3.5d and have a longer warranty. Took me forever to find it, but I bought my CPO '08 4.8i last summer from a BMW dealer in NJ with 10k miles on it with a sticker of $78k which I paid $55k for including new oem 20" RFT tires all around. This was my first used BMW since I normally cannot find the specs that I want and so end up ordering a new one, but I was able to find something very close this time and to save $20k+ for a 9 month old CPO car driven by a BMW rep with 10k miles on it was worth it to me.

If it was just a choice between engines, I'd easily get the diesel. But since you can't get the 4.8 sport look in the diesel (without going to a lot of post-delivery hassle and expense), it does give one pause to consider the 4.8i. It's not just the wheels - fender flares, exhaust tips, etc. Also, for some reason, you can't get active steering with the diesel engine. I like having active steering.

I second what mtech says about the 4.8i - it's not a very smooth delivery of power, very balky at times. My mileage isn't all that bad, but it's nowhere near the diesel mileage.

Great question. If you are concerned AT ALL about fuel economy, then this is a no-brainer. Seriously, the 4.8 is TERRIBLE on gas, the worst vehicle I've ever owned in that respect. But it sure is fun to drive (and maybe that's why my mileage is so terrible). I didn't buy it thinking it was a gas guzzler, but I wasn't expecting it to be as bad as it is. Oh well.

I wanted the M Sport package, so I didn't really have a choice. If BMW USA offered the 35d with the M Sport, I think I'd probably go that direction.

I don't think you can go wrong either way. If you're considering a diesel, test drive the Q7 TDi too.