I recall reading an April Fools’ Day posting last year on the German Motor Talk forums about the launch of a new BMW 516i with a 1.6-liter gasoline engine. While it seemed funny and absurd at the time, it appears that the joke has become a reality, at least in Greece, where BMW announced the release of a 1.6-liter turbocharged petrol unit for both the 5-Series and the X3 facelift.
It appears to be the same four-cylinder powerplant used in the 118i and 318i models delivering 170PS (168hp), with the 5-Series named the 520i (AT) and the X3 carrying the sDrive20i (AT) moniker – evidently, 516i wouldn’t have sat well with badge-driven buyers…
Strangely, BMW will continue to offer a 520i model and the sDrive20i and xDrive20i (all three without the “AT” designation) powered by a 2.0-liter inline-four turbo petrol producing 184PS (181hp).
The 1.6L unit is listed to emit higher CO2 emissions than the 2.0L engine in the same cars.
While you may be tempted to think that this could be some sort of a mistake, the models appear on BMW’s Greek website as well as a PDF sourced from BMW’s main press portal in Germany, dated March 3, 2014 and released on March 31.
The only reason we can think of why BMW would offer a smaller unit is Greece’s Byzantine tax system that penalizes higher displacement engines, in regards to both actual pricing and road use(r)-related costs.
We took a look at other BMW sites across Europe, including in Italy, Spain, France, the UK, the Netherlands and Romania, but we didn’t find any of the two models listed.
By John Halas
Hat tip to Drive!
PHOTO GALLERY
