BMW 328d (2014)

The BMW 328d is the king of the hill when considering sporty, agile diesel powered cars with great mpg, as this luxury sedan checks in with EPA-estimated ratings of 8.8 L/100 km (32 mpg) city, 6,2 L/100 km (45 mpg) highway and 7,6 L/100 km (37 mpg) combined. On top of that, there are also xDrive (all wheel drive) and wagon models available with this thrifty diesel engine. The 328d xDrive Sedan and 328d Sport Wagon received a 8 L/100 km (35 mpg) combined ratings, giving you usefulness and great fuel economy in one package.

The 328d is no slouch in performance either, as its 2.0 L, turbo diesel engine pumps out 180 HP @ 4000 rpm and 379 NM (280 lb-ft) of torque @ 1750 - 2750 rpm. The clean-diesel engine mates to an 8 speed STEPTRONIC transmission that allows the base sedan to hit 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 7.4 seconds and top out at 210 km/h (130 mph). With the xDrive system, this sprint time falls to 7.3 seconds. The 328d’s weakness is its base price, as it starts out at $38900 (U.S. price).

Compared to it's main rival, the Mercedes-Benz C220 CDI (W205), there are a few differences:
the C220 CDI is having a bigger, 2143 cm3 (130 cui) engine which is producing 170 HP @ 3000 - 4200 rpm and 400 NM (295 lb-ft) of torque @ 1400 - 2800 rpm, so you can see, the Merc is having a totally different power band; 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) from standstill takes 8.1 seconds, which was achieved by a standard 6 speed manual gearbox and real wheel drive. (I found a video, in which a W205 C220 CDI with 7G-Tronic transmission is pushed to the limit and it reached 0-100 km/h in 8.0 seconds + a top speed of 232 km/h: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaezgd8J6M4).

My opinion is that we are having two great cars, but with different characteristics: the BMW is the sportier one, they squesed more performance out of a tinier engine just to make it more fun to drive (to be BMW like, even if it's a 2 L diesel) by contrast with Mercedes-Benz which concentrated more on relaxed driving by adding more torque to the engine instead of horsepower and for this reason it become another enjoyable long distance cruiser.