What was the question again?
May 28, 2008
Somebody at BMW thinks the X6 is the answer. Trouble is, nobody can remember what the question was. While you're figuring that out, we'll take it for a drive
Subtle 'XDrive' badge fails to mention that this is a 4.4-litre 4x4. What cost sense?
Fashion is a brittle thing. Breathe too much mass-market attention on it and you'll find it evaporates faster than teenage logic - the super-fashionable always wanting to skip one step
ahead. But BMW doesn't really do fashion. Stylistically arrogant, yes. Controversial, yes. But you don't see BMW chasing a trend, or tacking an extra model line onto a re-spun platform architecture. So the whole soft-road-activity-not-a-4x4 crossover explosion seems to have caught up with BMW just as it prepared its own assault on this somewhat nebulous territory. Hence the new X6. Though it's fair to say that if Ford's Kuga is one end of the scale, the X6 is both some way above it, in terms of expense and engineering,and some distance left of field in its conception.
BMW is calling the four-seat, hatchback X6 a 'Sports Activity Coupe', the first of its kind, a technical tour de force. What I'm calling it, stood here in an aggressively damp South Carolina near BMW's Spartanburg plant, with jet-lag you could happily hallucinate from, is jaw-droppingly ugly. I actually swore when I saw it and not in the kind of surprised awe that BMW was hoping for.
ahead. But BMW doesn't really do fashion. Stylistically arrogant, yes. Controversial, yes. But you don't see BMW chasing a trend, or tacking an extra model line onto a re-spun platform architecture. So the whole soft-road-activity-not-a-4x4 crossover explosion seems to have caught up with BMW just as it prepared its own assault on this somewhat nebulous territory. Hence the new X6. Though it's fair to say that if Ford's Kuga is one end of the scale, the X6 is both some way above it, in terms of expense and engineering,and some distance left of field in its conception.BMW is calling the four-seat, hatchback X6 a 'Sports Activity Coupe', the first of its kind, a technical tour de force. What I'm calling it, stood here in an aggressively damp South Carolina near BMW's Spartanburg plant, with jet-lag you could happily hallucinate from, is jaw-droppingly ugly. I actually swore when I saw it and not in the kind of surprised awe that BMW was hoping for.
>'This "four-door coupe" boasts the attitude of an "X" series car. So basically, it's an X5 and a 6-Series Coupe'
Now BMW is no stranger to trying to beat its own sense of style into customers with
aesthetically challenging cars, but the X6 looks almost deliberately fugly [sic]. After about five minutes of looking at it, I struggled to find much visual redemption, and I generally like weird.
Just look at it. BMW is calling this a 'four-door coupe' that boasts the attitude of an 'X' series car. So, in very basic terms, the X6 is the half-breed offspring of an X5 SUV and a 6-Series Coupe.
What that particularly unhappy union brings is a car that tries to look like everything and nothing: on top, it's a confident four-door shape; underneath, it's a road-biased sports SUV with big bumpers and massive wheelarches both swallowing and miniaturising the larger-option 20-inch wheels (standard rims for the UK being humble 19s).
There just doesn't seem to be an angle where all the bits fit together - there's nothing wrong with any of the constituent parts, but they just don't seem to want to hang out together to make a pleasant whole. That's not to say there isn't drama - this is a car that can hold your attention for minutes at a time - but that time isn't spent in wonder and mental phone calls to the bank, but wondering why your eyes have started hurting and how to make the bad car go away.
aesthetically challenging cars, but the X6 looks almost deliberately fugly [sic]. After about five minutes of looking at it, I struggled to find much visual redemption, and I generally like weird.Just look at it. BMW is calling this a 'four-door coupe' that boasts the attitude of an 'X' series car. So, in very basic terms, the X6 is the half-breed offspring of an X5 SUV and a 6-Series Coupe.
What that particularly unhappy union brings is a car that tries to look like everything and nothing: on top, it's a confident four-door shape; underneath, it's a road-biased sports SUV with big bumpers and massive wheelarches both swallowing and miniaturising the larger-option 20-inch wheels (standard rims for the UK being humble 19s).
There just doesn't seem to be an angle where all the bits fit together - there's nothing wrong with any of the constituent parts, but they just don't seem to want to hang out together to make a pleasant whole. That's not to say there isn't drama - this is a car that can hold your attention for minutes at a time - but that time isn't spent in wonder and mental phone calls to the bank, but wondering why your eyes have started hurting and how to make the bad car go away.
Most cars have an angle, a stance where they look their best, where you can stop and stare for a few seconds and drink in the detail. But the X6
manages not to. Canvassing random American passers-by, they seemed a little underwhelmed, and that's a surprise for such an effusive nation when you're asking them to pass judgement on a car that's US-built.
"Is it a sports truck or what?" asks one mulletted conference attendee near our hotel entrance whose badge announced him to be 'Bryan with a Y'. "Not sure," I replied, "though it has got four-wheel drive and a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8, so the 'sport' bit is pretty accurate, and it's quite tall, so to the 'truck' bit, we can also reply in the affirmative."
"Uh-huh. A 4.4 V8, huh?" queried Bryan.
"Yup," I replied confidently.
"Why's it called an 5.0i, then?"
"I, er..."
Such is the reaction to the X6. Most people simply don't know what it is. Strangely for a new and obviously expensive BMW, they don't seem to care all that much. Happily though, once you duck yourself into a cockpit that you'll struggle to tell apart from the X5's (except that you cannot, to all intents and regular purposes, see out of the back window), it gets infinitely better.
As with all BMWs, the real strength of the X6 seems to be in the way it drives rather than the way it looks. And this thing redefines what a high-riding vehicle can do to embarrass, say, an M3 owner.
manages not to. Canvassing random American passers-by, they seemed a little underwhelmed, and that's a surprise for such an effusive nation when you're asking them to pass judgement on a car that's US-built."Is it a sports truck or what?" asks one mulletted conference attendee near our hotel entrance whose badge announced him to be 'Bryan with a Y'. "Not sure," I replied, "though it has got four-wheel drive and a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8, so the 'sport' bit is pretty accurate, and it's quite tall, so to the 'truck' bit, we can also reply in the affirmative."
"Uh-huh. A 4.4 V8, huh?" queried Bryan.
"Yup," I replied confidently.
"Why's it called an 5.0i, then?"
"I, er..."
Such is the reaction to the X6. Most people simply don't know what it is. Strangely for a new and obviously expensive BMW, they don't seem to care all that much. Happily though, once you duck yourself into a cockpit that you'll struggle to tell apart from the X5's (except that you cannot, to all intents and regular purposes, see out of the back window), it gets infinitely better.
As with all BMWs, the real strength of the X6 seems to be in the way it drives rather than the way it looks. And this thing redefines what a high-riding vehicle can do to embarrass, say, an M3 owner.
>'It combines both the 'command' driving position and seat-of-the-pants vitality of a fast saloon'
Now here in South Carolina, there are two types of road - the typical American grid system that involves lots of 90-degree traffic light turns and plenty of grumbles from the X6's gargantuan
335mm rear tyres, or the twisty, strangely cambered mountain roads of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Only problem is that right now on 1 April 2008, the lower-lying areas of Carolina are heaving under the assault of what looks and feels like a tropical rainstorm, leaving the mountains blanketed by fog the Bermuda Triangle would be proud of. If you've got to test a chunksome 4x4, there's probably no better place, even if it is a bit 'local'.
So we dawdle gently through Carolinian suburbs, marvelling at how the X6 seems to have managed the neat trick of combining both the 'command' (as BMW puts it) driving position and the seat-of-the-pants vitality of a fast saloon.
Soon we leave suburbia, and as the road climbs
up to a nature park called 'Ceasar's Head', ghostly trees flank a remarkably well-paved and traffic-free stretch of uphill tarmac. There's not much to see in this spooky Blair Witch Project scenery, so the car becomes the full and vital centre of attention, mainly because it's the only thing around here making any sort of noise. And what a noise it is.
335mm rear tyres, or the twisty, strangely cambered mountain roads of the Blue Ridge Mountains.Only problem is that right now on 1 April 2008, the lower-lying areas of Carolina are heaving under the assault of what looks and feels like a tropical rainstorm, leaving the mountains blanketed by fog the Bermuda Triangle would be proud of. If you've got to test a chunksome 4x4, there's probably no better place, even if it is a bit 'local'.
So we dawdle gently through Carolinian suburbs, marvelling at how the X6 seems to have managed the neat trick of combining both the 'command' (as BMW puts it) driving position and the seat-of-the-pants vitality of a fast saloon.
Soon we leave suburbia, and as the road climbs
up to a nature park called 'Ceasar's Head', ghostly trees flank a remarkably well-paved and traffic-free stretch of uphill tarmac. There's not much to see in this spooky Blair Witch Project scenery, so the car becomes the full and vital centre of attention, mainly because it's the only thing around here making any sort of noise. And what a noise it is.This X6 XDrive50i is fitted with BMW's new twin-turbo version of its 4.4-litre V8 chucking out 407bhp and 442lb ft, and with the turbos nestled inside the 'v' of the engine to keep it small. It sounds brilliant in this strangely muted scene, adding a bit of welcome contrast to all the cloying mist and ephemeral tree action. 
Here is a bright red X6 fiercely tearing the soundscape to shreds with a kind of bassy mechanical angst. And it's a good thing to drive too. Think 335i delivery with even more balls. OK, so there's a slight loss of throttle response over a normally aspirated motor, but what you lose in instant response, you get back with muscular clarity in the mid-range.
It helps that even though the going is wet and the road unforgiving, when the fog is close and the average speed relatively high, the X6 is equipped for such appalling conditions. Think X5 with running spikes and knobs on. Now the X5 is a pretty astonishing car, but the X6, in certain conditions, can make it look like a bit of a doddery old fella.
Turn in is fairly crisp, even with the optional speed-variable rack, but it's the stuff that happens after the initial drop into the corner that really impresses. For a start, there's very little body roll, thanks to the X5s swivel motors mounted on the anti-roll bars, just enough to not feel false, but nowhere near as much as your inner ear expects, given its lofty vantage point.
Here is a bright red X6 fiercely tearing the soundscape to shreds with a kind of bassy mechanical angst. And it's a good thing to drive too. Think 335i delivery with even more balls. OK, so there's a slight loss of throttle response over a normally aspirated motor, but what you lose in instant response, you get back with muscular clarity in the mid-range.
It helps that even though the going is wet and the road unforgiving, when the fog is close and the average speed relatively high, the X6 is equipped for such appalling conditions. Think X5 with running spikes and knobs on. Now the X5 is a pretty astonishing car, but the X6, in certain conditions, can make it look like a bit of a doddery old fella.
Turn in is fairly crisp, even with the optional speed-variable rack, but it's the stuff that happens after the initial drop into the corner that really impresses. For a start, there's very little body roll, thanks to the X5s swivel motors mounted on the anti-roll bars, just enough to not feel false, but nowhere near as much as your inner ear expects, given its lofty vantage point.
>'It might sound like an odd thing to say, but it feels like the old R34 Skyline GT-R with better suspension. Seriously'
The X6 tucks into a corner more like a sports car than many sports saloons, and certainly with enough grip for pretty much any set of conditions. I was pushing hard in the wet, lobbing the nearside wheels into standing water to see what would happen, braking in the wrong places and generally being ham-fisted, and the X6 just maintained an arrow-straight line.
Indeed, the only way to explore the new
intelligent xDrive four-wheel drive and Dynamic Performance Control systems was to get a bit medieval and flick the X6 into a wet, tight corner. And then you start to get a measure on just how much electronic clever they've woven into the very fabric of this car.
The xDrive doesn't feel like other 4WD systems, seeming a dab more neutral and loads more natural. DPC you can feel feeding power around the drivetrain to maintain both momentum and grip, always allowing for a smidge of understeer. This might sound like a really odd thing to say, but it feels like the old R34 Skyline GT-R with better suspension. Seriously. Stable seems like such a dull word for the quality of the experience, but stable means confident. Confident means quite appallingly fast in all weathers.
The X6, is therefore a totally mixed bag. It looks, to be blunt, extremely uncomfortable. Personally, I dislike it intensely. But it drives spectacularly well and is genuinely different in a sector that swims with the boringly practical. BMW will sell every last one of these cars it can make. So it's destined to be the most successful failure I've ever driven.
Indeed, the only way to explore the new
intelligent xDrive four-wheel drive and Dynamic Performance Control systems was to get a bit medieval and flick the X6 into a wet, tight corner. And then you start to get a measure on just how much electronic clever they've woven into the very fabric of this car.The xDrive doesn't feel like other 4WD systems, seeming a dab more neutral and loads more natural. DPC you can feel feeding power around the drivetrain to maintain both momentum and grip, always allowing for a smidge of understeer. This might sound like a really odd thing to say, but it feels like the old R34 Skyline GT-R with better suspension. Seriously. Stable seems like such a dull word for the quality of the experience, but stable means confident. Confident means quite appallingly fast in all weathers.
The X6, is therefore a totally mixed bag. It looks, to be blunt, extremely uncomfortable. Personally, I dislike it intensely. But it drives spectacularly well and is genuinely different in a sector that swims with the boringly practical. BMW will sell every last one of these cars it can make. So it's destined to be the most successful failure I've ever driven.
