Hey thanks for your reply - I think you've hit the nail on the head here. The equivilant '50tdi' you have is the sweetspot no doubt! More power from the 3 litre but still goood mpg.
It's frustrating they've stopped making it - there's now too much of a gap between the 40tdi and the sq5. Perhaps they thought your model was eating into potential sq5 sales.
I've set my heart on a facelift model as do like the new front end, but totally torn between the 40tdi and the sq5. I'm leaning towards the 40 and thinking a tune would get it into that sweetspot power bracket.
Youve made me consider the pre facelift though now as you're right it represents incredible value for power and efficiency plus build quality.
I'm frustratingly in a similar position with current S3 (2017 model - facelift but before the opf filters) all the sound, pops an bangs etc, 310 bhp, and decent ish mpg at about 30 all things considered - hard to upgrade.