The London Times recently carried out a test pitting the BMW 520d up against the Toyota Prius in gas mileage. The Beamer, which features regenerative breaking and a conventional diesel engine, beat out the Prius by 1.8 mpg over the 460 mile trip from London to Geneva even though they added a little 100 mile city jaunt through traffic to make things a little closer.

To be fair, the Prius' strengths don't lie in highway mileage but it is still somewhat of a victory for people who want to cl**tch to their conventional fuel-burning powermachines.