BMW X6: A car with dominating looks
12 Aug 2009 6:49 AM by
Car India
in
Single review,
BMW,
It was a typical May afternoon. The sun shining in all its summer glory , mirages shimmering on every undulation in the road surface and dried leaves piling up on either side of the open , deserted state highway. i saw this puny little 800cc car , joyfully cruising at snail’s pace in the right lane. I eased off the accelerator to avoid tailgating him. The minute I flashed a passing signal at him , he immediately swerved into the slow lane , clearly intimidated by the view of the massive X6 in his rear view mirror , barreling down towards him on a narrow state highway.
The X6 does look brutal. Not because it was designed to look aggressive , but because of its disproportionate size. It has familial cues from more than One model in the BMW lineup. The front hints towards the 3 Series coupe while the receding coupe roofline resembles that of the 6 Series. The body surfacing borrows lines from the Gina concept and it has an ample use of creases throughout various panels. The front is intimidating , but the kidney grille adds a dash of BMW dignity to it. It was the side profile that I failed to come to terms with at first look , though I believe , the looks have started to grow on me. Though it may boil to personal preferences , but for me , the entire exercise of blending a 4X4 SUV and a sports car doesn’t seem to have had a very good looking outcome. My colleagues though seem to think the other way!
Get inside the X6 and it all feels much more familiar than the exteriors. The dashboard is borrowed form the X5 with its dark wood inserts and the dash top iDrive screen. The steering , gear-knob and switches are similar to other BMWs on offer in India. The front seats are sporty yet comfortable. 
Every time you start the car , the driver’s seat will readjust to take the shape of your back. Should you need them , the front seats also come with extensions to support your thighs and calf muscles. Ironically , BMW engineers decided to put two individual bucket seats in the back too! They , however , are uncomfortable. The high floor and low slung seats will barely settle your buttocks and back while the thighs will never touch the leather. The rear seats share a single LCD display which can play DVDs should you decide to hand over this beast to a chauffeur. If you decide to drive it yourself , then slot in the key , press the large round button that reads Start/Stop and voila! There is absolutely no V8 soundtrack filtering into the cabin! What you can hear is the crisp audio that can be controlled via the iDrive. There is more. The multifunction joystick lets you adjust the climate control , temperature control for the seats , settings for the lights , HUD and pretty much everything that is interactive in the car. The height adjustable suspension has been omitted for India.
During our test though , I didn’t really find a need to adjust the height of the suspension. In fact , the car’s underbody was absolutely scratch less during my brief off-road stint in the X6 in spite of a ground clearance that’s almost 20mm lesser than the X5. Then is the much talked about xDrive badge which is BMW speak for an all-wheel drive system. Unlike other all-wheel drive rivals , this tech incorporates the Dynamic Performance Control (DPC) which distributes optimum torque not only to the front and rear axles but also the individual rear wheels. To do so , the DPC employs an electronic twin clutch mated to a planetary gearset. Simply put , this entire setup will accelerate the outer wheel while cornering , instead of reducing power on the inner wheel like in the case of a conventional ESP. This gives the X6 some of the best high speed dynamics I have come across so far. Contributing to this effect are those rotund tyres. 315-30/R20! As my colleague Mihir pointed 
out , that’s almost similar to what you would get on the rear wheels of the Porsche 911 GT2! Yes , these are run-flats too , but irrespective of what everyone repeatedly tells you , they are bloody good. In fact these tyres , coupled with the excellent suspension setup , makes the X6 one of the best performance cars for tackling the Indian road conditions without breaking a sweat.
Speaking of performance , this BMW mutant does deliver. It employs the same 4.4-litre bi-turbo mill from the 7 Series , although burdened with the extra weight of 200 kilos over the BMW limo , the X6’s 0-100km/h dash is slower. 200km/h comes up soon enough and if you encounter some pesky hatchbacks doing RC car speeds in the fast lane , the large cross drilled rotors will bring this car to a standstill within the blink of an eye. But all this performance hoopla comes at a cost – and no I ain’t talking about the high sticker price. The X6 will feel sick if you feed her 91 octane fuel. This motor demands high octane fuel only , which may not be expensive by this car’s standards , but it certainly isn’t available as easily as the regulation fuel. The car’s fuel efficiency of 3.5 kilometers to a litre in the City and barely 7.5kmpl on the highway makes me inch even closer to the diesel powerplants.
The X6 is a machine that thinks it’s a SUV with a sports coupe’s soul. Or is it the other way around? Either way , at Rs 82.9 lakh (ex-showroom) , you get the best of both the worlds - the versatility and ego boost of a SUV and performance genes of a coupe. And if you can live with a relatively lesser performing oil burner , you end up saving a cool Rs 17 lakh as well. The dominating looks , orgasmic exhaust note and sports car shaming abilities make the BMW X6 a very unique vehicle in the Indian market.
More photos:
Content courtesy: 
The X6 does look brutal. Not because it was designed to look aggressive , but because of its disproportionate size. It has familial cues from more than One model in the BMW lineup. The front hints towards the 3 Series coupe while the receding coupe roofline resembles that of the 6 Series. The body surfacing borrows lines from the Gina concept and it has an ample use of creases throughout various panels. The front is intimidating , but the kidney grille adds a dash of BMW dignity to it. It was the side profile that I failed to come to terms with at first look , though I believe , the looks have started to grow on me. Though it may boil to personal preferences , but for me , the entire exercise of blending a 4X4 SUV and a sports car doesn’t seem to have had a very good looking outcome. My colleagues though seem to think the other way!
Get inside the X6 and it all feels much more familiar than the exteriors. The dashboard is borrowed form the X5 with its dark wood inserts and the dash top iDrive screen. The steering , gear-knob and switches are similar to other BMWs on offer in India. The front seats are sporty yet comfortable.
Every time you start the car , the driver’s seat will readjust to take the shape of your back. Should you need them , the front seats also come with extensions to support your thighs and calf muscles. Ironically , BMW engineers decided to put two individual bucket seats in the back too! They , however , are uncomfortable. The high floor and low slung seats will barely settle your buttocks and back while the thighs will never touch the leather. The rear seats share a single LCD display which can play DVDs should you decide to hand over this beast to a chauffeur. If you decide to drive it yourself , then slot in the key , press the large round button that reads Start/Stop and voila! There is absolutely no V8 soundtrack filtering into the cabin! What you can hear is the crisp audio that can be controlled via the iDrive. There is more. The multifunction joystick lets you adjust the climate control , temperature control for the seats , settings for the lights , HUD and pretty much everything that is interactive in the car. The height adjustable suspension has been omitted for India.
During our test though , I didn’t really find a need to adjust the height of the suspension. In fact , the car’s underbody was absolutely scratch less during my brief off-road stint in the X6 in spite of a ground clearance that’s almost 20mm lesser than the X5. Then is the much talked about xDrive badge which is BMW speak for an all-wheel drive system. Unlike other all-wheel drive rivals , this tech incorporates the Dynamic Performance Control (DPC) which distributes optimum torque not only to the front and rear axles but also the individual rear wheels. To do so , the DPC employs an electronic twin clutch mated to a planetary gearset. Simply put , this entire setup will accelerate the outer wheel while cornering , instead of reducing power on the inner wheel like in the case of a conventional ESP. This gives the X6 some of the best high speed dynamics I have come across so far. Contributing to this effect are those rotund tyres. 315-30/R20! As my colleague Mihir pointed
out , that’s almost similar to what you would get on the rear wheels of the Porsche 911 GT2! Yes , these are run-flats too , but irrespective of what everyone repeatedly tells you , they are bloody good. In fact these tyres , coupled with the excellent suspension setup , makes the X6 one of the best performance cars for tackling the Indian road conditions without breaking a sweat.
Speaking of performance , this BMW mutant does deliver. It employs the same 4.4-litre bi-turbo mill from the 7 Series , although burdened with the extra weight of 200 kilos over the BMW limo , the X6’s 0-100km/h dash is slower. 200km/h comes up soon enough and if you encounter some pesky hatchbacks doing RC car speeds in the fast lane , the large cross drilled rotors will bring this car to a standstill within the blink of an eye. But all this performance hoopla comes at a cost – and no I ain’t talking about the high sticker price. The X6 will feel sick if you feed her 91 octane fuel. This motor demands high octane fuel only , which may not be expensive by this car’s standards , but it certainly isn’t available as easily as the regulation fuel. The car’s fuel efficiency of 3.5 kilometers to a litre in the City and barely 7.5kmpl on the highway makes me inch even closer to the diesel powerplants.
The X6 is a machine that thinks it’s a SUV with a sports coupe’s soul. Or is it the other way around? Either way , at Rs 82.9 lakh (ex-showroom) , you get the best of both the worlds - the versatility and ego boost of a SUV and performance genes of a coupe. And if you can live with a relatively lesser performing oil burner , you end up saving a cool Rs 17 lakh as well. The dominating looks , orgasmic exhaust note and sports car shaming abilities make the BMW X6 a very unique vehicle in the Indian market.
More photos:
Content courtesy: