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Try the 328i. I've had my F10 535d M Sport since Sep '10 and I never thought I'd find anything better than the sublime 3 litre dual turbo engine, until I drove the new 3 series.
I know it's not a 6cyl engine and for that reason I all but discounted any possibility of ownership, but my opinion changed very rapidly once I got behind the wheel. There are two very significant aspects you notice immediately - 1. there is absolutely no detectable turbo lag and 2. it is wonderfully free revving. On paper it's marginally slower than my 535d, but it feels quicker because of the engine sound, much better steering and the fact that it shifts gears at somewhere between 6 and 6.5k RPM.
I drove it very hard for a couple of hours on a mixture of fast dual carriageway, slow town crawling and very rapid twisting B roads and managed 37mpg, which I reckon would easily translate to 40+ in real world usage - as good as my 535d and 5 to 10p cheaper per litre cheaper for fuel.
I'm eagerly awaiting next year's launch of the coupé and, unless they come up with something pretty spectacular diesel wise, I'll be going for the 2 litre petrol car.
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