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It's the torque that gets you — 425 lb-ft at a fabulously low engine speed of 1,750 rpm.

Yes, the fuel consumption of the twin-turbo diesel producing all this power — did I mention the 265 horsepower at 4,220 rpm? — is very good at a combined 7.1 litres/100 km. A 0-100 km/h time of 6.3 seconds is nothing to sniff at, either.

This is a fast, fast diesel and it is, over all, about 30 per cent more fuel efficient than its gasoline counterpart, the 335i. A racy diesel, in other words.

But the torque — the twisting force that goes right to the wheels — makes a run over Italy's famed Timmelsjoch Pass a pleasant and at times thrilling ride. These are steep, unforgiving switchbacks in the Alps, with the high mountain pass linking Austria and Italy coming at an lung-taxing 2,509 metres or 8,232 feet.

The "secret passage," as it is sometimes called, is bathed in sunshine on this warmish fall day. With snow-capped peaks and granite fingers filling our eyes ahead and all around, we're driving BMW's upcoming 2009 335d and its power band is just perfect for the ride.

This new diesel BMW is not yet on sale in Canada, but it will be soon. Look for a price somewhere in the mid-$50,000s when it hits showrooms later this year — along with an X5 SUV diesel, the X5 xDrive 35d. The latter will likely list for something close to $75,000, though BMW Canada has yet to announce pricing.

Both will be relatively clean diesels thanks to an emissions system BMW calls BluePerformance. This technology, like Mercedes-Benz's AdBlue and Volkswagen's new TDI, allows diesel engines to meet 2009 emissions standards in all 50 U.S. states, as well as in Canada.

That does not mean they are perfectly clean, just clean enough. Government emissions ratings for the coming Bimmer diesels have not been published yet, but for some idea of what they might look like we have the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Take how the EPA rates the 2008 Mercedes E320 BlueTec diesel versus a gas-engine E350 as an example, though it's a bigger car. Using a 0-10 scoring system with "10" being best, the BlueTec scores a "3" for air pollution and a "7" for greenhouse gases. The gas E-class gets a "7" for air pollution and a "5" for greenhouse gas.

The diesel can boast combined city-highway fuel economy that is 27 per cent better, and that translates into hundreds of dollars less each year on fuel. But the point here is that while Mercedes, BMW and others have come a long way toward cleaning up diesels, they have a way to go.

For instance, the EPA reports that the '08 E320 BlueTec puts out about three times as much smog-forming pollution as its 2008 gas counterpart, but about 18 per cent less greenhouse gases.

Diesel technology keeps evolving, and fast, as regulatory demands become ever more stringent. But it makes sense for auto makers like BMW to devote their top engineers to the task. The market demands it.

In Europe, 71 per cent of all BMW-brand vehicles are diesel powered. In Germany, 62 per cent of all BMWs sold are diesels. In Great Britain, it is 68 per cent, Spain 82 per cent, Italy 90 per cent and France 91 per cent.

Diesels in North America are another story entirely; they enjoy about 4 per cent market share among passenger cars in Canada.

But diesel share is growing and will continue to grow even faster as a raft of new models from all sorts of auto makers roll into showrooms.

Fuel prices, of course, are driving demand. But without the new technology that allows diesels to meet North American emissions standards, demand would not matter. They would not be legal for our roads.

As for the technology itself, BMW's BluePerformance really has two key technologies at work: a no-maintenance filter for trapping particulate matter, which is periodically burned off to cleanse itself; and a urea additive (synthesized from an ammonia and carbon dioxide mixture) that is injected into the exhaust stream.

Once there, it is combined with another catalyst to virtually eliminate nitrogen oxides or NOx — which are regulated in Canada and the United States, but not in Europe.

Like Mercedes' AdBlue, BMW's BluePerformance system includes two tanks of urea totalling 20 litres. The smaller tank is heated because urea will freeze at colder temperatures. BMW officials say owners will need a urea refill only with every no-charge oil change at 20,000 km. With the oil change comes the free urea fill-up.

This latest diesel is nothing at all like the clattering oil burner BMW first sold back in 1983 when the company launched its first diesel. Since then, emissions overall have dropped by 99 per cent, while maximum horsepower has jumped 135 per cent, with torque up 170 per cent and fuel consumption down 20 per cent.

The particularly good news for drivers is that cleaning up diesel emissions has not undermined performance. Not only does the 335d have oodles of power and torque in the mountains, the same is true on the autobahn. The wide-open highways south of BMW headquarters in Munich are the perfect place to air things out, to explore this diesel's higher speeds.

So we did, hitting 220-230 km/h and barely noticing how fast we were going. Those are speeds that bring jail time in most parts of Canada. Obviously, this is not how to maximize fuel efficiency, but it is a way to get from A to B in a real hurry, and do something that would be completely illegal at home. How fun.

So the conclusion: this is an excellent engine. At 3.0 litres, with six cylinders, 24 valves, variable-geometry twin turbochargers, dual camshafts and all the rest, it is smooth, responsive and quiet.

What diesel sounds you hear are obviously different than BMW's refined gasoline engine — there is some muffled diesel clatter — but there is nothing obnoxious here.

BMW is the third major German auto maker to get into the diesel game in a serious way, along with Volkswagen and Mercedes. Next year, VW's luxury arm, Audi, joins the mix. Honda's Acura brand is also expected to launch a diesel in the next year and Nissan has said a diesel Maxima will come in 2010.

The Bavarians are launching theirs in a tweaked version of the 3-Series sedan. This makes perfect sense. The 3 accounts for about half of the auto maker's worldwide sales, so using the volume model to push ahead globally with diesels gives BMW the best chance to turn a profit here. (For the record, the X5 gets the same diesel engine.)

Diesel aside, BMW has given the 3-Series a mid-cycle upgrade — a freshening, as it is called in the car business. The kidney grilles are broader, there is a new bumper and front fascia, and the headlights are more distinctive. The hood now has two character lines intended to emphasize refinement, too.

At the other end, the deck lid, bumper, lower valence and tail lights have all been redone. Front and rear turn signals now use LED lighting, too. There are also larger, better-visibility side mirrors.

You'd need to be an expert to spot the differences from afar, but side-by-side the '08 and '09 cars definitely look different.

The cabin, of course, has also been treated to some changes. At the top of the list: iDrive, the controller system for managing most of the car's functions. The 3 is getting the same basic system in the new 7-Series.

It's an improvement over the last version, but the essential problem here remains. That is, the most basic functions are channelled through a silver controller with the display in the dashboard. A handful of new buttons (e.g., CD, radio, navigation and telephone) do make it easier to get right to things that matter.

And a "back" button allows you to retrace your last mistake, while an "option" button allows you to program half a dozen favourite functions into six dashboard selection buttons.

Here's the deal: All this is a case of subtraction by addition. That is, BMW believes that by adding more direct-response buttons to iDrive, it has simplified the whole thing. It has, but that just suggests how wrong iDrive has been from the outset.

Nonetheless, the car really is a delight to drive. Somehow, through practice, genius and hard work, BMW's engineers have managed to make a fast, responsive, agile small sedan both comfortable and sporty. It's an amazing balance, one envied by so many others in the industry. Steering, braking, cornering — all excellent.

Then there is the little matter of the turbo, or I should say turbos. To eliminate turbo lag, there is a small turbo designed for low engine speeds and it pretty much does away with turbo lag. As engine speeds rise, a second, larger turbo comes into play. Then when the rev count gets high, approaching the 5,000-rpm redline, only the big turbo is at work.

All this happens seamlessly; you cannot tell which is doing what and when. Really, the engineering here is first rate.

Of course, at this (expected) price, we all would expect nothing less.