Give up? Well think diesel. That's right, a diesel-powered 3-series coupe - the first time the words have ever appeared together on the same spec sheet, and as BMW admits, 'quite inconceivable until recently'.

But look at the irresistible logic. BMW's 3-litre straight-six diesel isn't only good, it's extraordinarily accomplished. In fact, even by new-generation diesel standards, it's one of the best. It's smooth mechanically, and refined aurally - certainly once it's actually moving, but increasingly so even when starting up and idling. Not so long ago half a dozen diesels setting off on a test route could sound like the start of a thousand-bomber raid. And the acceptable soundtrack is no longer purely rumble-deadening packaging. The 330Cd isn't only happy to let you hear it, it urges you to enjoy the experience with its positively growling and muscular soundtrack.

Like its predecessor, it is still nominally 3 litres, but with a fractionally larger capacity and a significantly more potent delivery. It has typically-diesel long-stroke dimensions, two cams, four valves per cylinder, and 'second generation' common-rail injection, giving higher injection pressure and better control (including the option to inject up to four smoothing fuel doses per working cycle). It has modified, two-stage intake geometry, revised combustion chamber shapes with lower compression ratio, and in all situations it has more efficient air and fuel flow and more efficient combustion. It has variable turbine geometry for its turbocharger, a more efficient intercooler, and the latest DDE5 Digital Diesel Electronics management - with ten times the computing power of the previous software, enhancing both output and refinement.

So the bottom line is that power is up by 11 per cent, from 184bhp to 204bhp at 4000rpm, and peak torque is up by five per cent, from 287lb ft to that headline 302lb ft - and remains constant from 1500 to 3000rpm. Which by any standards is a strong foundation for both flexibility and outright performance, especially when combined with a new six-speed manual gearbox.

All of which makes it perfectly logical to put the punchy diesel into the sporty shape of the coupe and enjoy the benefits of all that lazy grunt with the bonus of a Combined economy of 42.8mpg and a CO2 figure of 177g/km.

But you don't have to drive the 330Cd Coupe far to realise that this package isn't going to sell solely on economy and ecology because, not surprisingly, it goes a bit, too.
The bare figures are 'impressive for a diesel' - 150mph, 0-62mph in 7.2sec - but they're a poor yardstick of how the 330Cd feels on almost any kind of road. The quoted fourth-gear time from 50 to 75mph is more revealing, but only a bit more. It's 6.1 seconds, and as such is almost a second quicker than the 3-litre petrol-powered 330Ci coupί¿½. But what the numbers don't do justice to is the sheer, lazy relentlessness of the diesel's mid-range, mid-gear flexibility. On the fast uphill sweeps and hairpins of the road tester's dream road, from Marbella up to Ronda, the 330Cd's combination of huge torque and six properly-spaced gears gives driveability as mountainously impressive as the surrounding scenery. It doesn't quite match the high-revving aural satisfaction of the petrol sixes, but it's ludicrously easy to stroke along at unfeasible averages with no more than an occasional flick between second, third and fourth gears to keep it at an unflustered rolling boil and exploit a torque peak which spans close on half the effective rev range. Point and squirt was rarely a better description.

The 330Cd also benefits from the family updating of the 3-series range, including mild styling revisions (mostly around the face), and a scattering of new paint and trim colours and interior details. Big news on the options list are 'adaptive headlights', which turn in tune with the steering. They're controlled by speed, yaw and steering angle sensors and point in the direction the front wheels are headed. BMW claims they make objects 34 per cent more visible at night; they certainly seem very effective.

The coupe has a more aggressive chassis set-up than the equivalent saloon, with lower ride-height and firmer springs and dampers but, interestingly, a more than usually supple ride even on the optional 'sport' suspension and 18in wheel/tyre combo. It also has appropriately big brakes and all the usual electronic gubbins from ABS to CBC and DSC, but you'd be more surprised if it didn't.

Don't, though, get the impression that the 330Cd sounds the death knell for its nearest petrol cousins - it doesn't. Good as it is, it won't be for everybody, for exactly the same reasons why the bare numbers are such an inadequate yardstick. There's a big subjective difference between lazily quick and zippily quick, and you pays your money (how much is yet to be announced), you takes your choice - from early next year in the UK. Intriguing.