German Car Zone

Hooked on horsepower and intrigued by its capabilities, we add an X6 to our long-term test fleet.

Current Mileage/Months in Fleet: 3502 miles/1 month
Average Fuel Economy/Range: 14 mpg/320 miles
Service: $0
Normal Wear: $0
Repair: $0
If you’re a showroom rookie looking for an appointment to Car and Driver’s long-term roster, here are some pointers: Be an important model for your parent company. It helps to win a comparo. If you aren’t important or eligible for any comparos, we’ll at least like you more if you’re fast. If all else fails, just intrigue us. We’re curious creatures.
A second full-size SUV likely wasn’t necessary for the brand that mints world-standard sports sedans, nor has BMW’s new X6 triumphed in any comparos, although that’s mostly because natural competitors are so few. But our first encounter proved very interesting, and we learned that the X6 is fast. Very fast. We figured that 40,000 miles of market research might help us to ascertain the X6’s purpose.
Critical Shortage of Twin-Turbo V-8s Relieved
Base X6s are fitted with the familiar and much-lauded twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six, an engine whose 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque have already made it many friends in the 1-, 3-, and 5-series BMWs. Lagging behind our Recommended Daily Allowance of turbocharged V-8, however, we ordered the biggest engine—a newly developed twin-huffed 4.4-liter bristling with 400 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of twist that adds $10,500 to the base price, bumping it to $63,825. The only available transmission on the X6 is a six-speed automatic; steering-wheel-mounted paddles are standard.
From there, our X6 added almost $17,000 in options. Highlights include the Premium package ($2000, includes a universal garage-door opener, an auto-dimming digital-compass rearview mirror, and auto-dimming side mirrors), the Premium Sound package ($2000, includes an iPod and a USB adapter, better speakers, and a six-DVD changer in the glove box), the Sport package ($3200 for adaptive-drive active roll control and variable damping), another $950 for 20-inch wheels and high-performance Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tires, rear-seat entertainment ($1700), and a head-up display ($1200). Sprinkle in bits such as running boards, a rearview camera (the most essential of all X6 options, given the sheetmetal incision it offers as a rear window, and a bargain at just $400), and automatic soft-close doors that shut themselves the last fraction of an inch (perfect for teenagers sneaking out of the house late at night) and—shazzam!—$80,270.
Not cheap, but if the X6 would be facing an uphill battle for our love, might as well make that hill as steep as possible, right? The only options we didn’t include were active steering, the rear climate-control package, and heated rear seats (if we put someone in the back seat, it’s because we like them less).
We took delivery of our X6 at the BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina, just days after the last bolt had been torqued, via the company’s factory delivery program. This was for a couple of reasons. First, the program is fun and includes a factory tour, some familiarization laps in a similar vehicle—lapping your own car with three miles on the odometer is not advised—and some just-for-fun off-roading in a fleet of X5s. Second, the performance center is far away, and we wanted to rack up the break-in miles ASAP. Plus, there are some entertaining roads between Ann Arbor and Spartanburg, some of them with names you have perhaps heard before: Tail of the Dragon, anyone?

More: Car And Driver

This is really one good looking vehicle.

M

Love that color combo.But i still prefer the X5 with huge wheels over the X6.It looks more proportioned to me.

For sure. I've got a black on red X6 5.0 sitting 10 feet away from me right now. What a sweet looking car... with 000001.6 miles on the odometer

Someone was saying they saw an X6 at a track event and supposedly it was holding its own against much lighter competition hehe

I just love mine:
http://www.germancarzone.com/attachm...d=122452681 8

It’s been 13,000 miles and we still don’t understand our BMW X6. But then again love doesn’t always make sense.


Current Mileage/Months in Fleet: 13,111 miles/5 months
Average Fuel Economy/Range: 15 mpg/338 miles
Service: $0
Normal Wear: $5
Repair: $0

Love is an inexplicable phenomenon. After all, love can make people quit stable jobs and move across the country. It can drive some to crime. Love can also force folks to commit simple evils like feigning interest in tripe like the film 27 Dresses or talking in syrupy baby talk. Right now, love has the Car and Driver crew fawning over a pointless, $80,000 truck.

The X6’s size and weight still have us wanting to dismiss it as a senseless—yet stylish—SUV, but its behavior and enthusiastic manners have us amazed. As one editor put it, “This is such a stupid concept executed so well. It’s staggering how well the X6 goes down the road.” Another called the X6 “further proof that BMW is the master of chassis tuning and dynamics.”

One Cushy Snowmobile, One Curious Warning

The X6’s standard front tires measure 275/40-20, but the rears are 315/35-20, a size in which it’s impossible to find winter tires. That is a common problem with the big-wheeled members of our long-term fleet, and the solution here was to fit 275/40-20 (just within the approved range to fit the fat rear rims) Pirelli Scorpion ice and snow rubber at all four corners. Combined with BMW’s fantastic xDrive all-wheel-drive system, the new footwear has turned even this winter’s worst snowstorms into almost non-events.

We can’t call the X6 unstoppable in every sense, though. With just over 11,000 miles on the clock, a warning appeared in the vehicle information screen saying, “4x4 system and DSC have malfunctioned. Limited driving stability. Drive moderately.” Oddly, the warning disappeared, resurfaced once a few days later, and hasn’t been seen since.

Battery Included, but It Was the Wrong One

Unfortunately, that’s not the only problem we’ve had with our X6. Shortly before xDrive decided to voice its displeasure, a staffer got in the car one evening to find that it had reset its clocks, and the message “increased battery discharge” appeared in the IP. Later, the check-engine light came on. We took the X6 to the dealer, who cleared the codes, ran a series of tests, and kept it overnight for observation. The big Bimmer still remembered the date and time the next morning, so it was released back into our custody. Sure enough, it forgot the date and time that evening and the CEL was back on the following morning. One staffer suggested that “maybe the memory problems have something to do with the X6’s identity crisis.”

Turns out he was wrong. On the second visit, the dealer discovered that our X6 came from the factory with the incorrect battery, and the battery installed in South Carolina lacked the grunt. It turns out that BMWs have a “battery guard” feature that sends the electrical system into crisis mode when discharge reaches a certain level; it ensures that the vehicle can still perform vital functions like engine ignition—but not time-keeping. The dealer swapped our battery for the right one for no charge.

We’ll Forgive a Lot for 400 hp and Sports-Sedan Reflexes

Our largest ergonomic complaint so far concerns the screen for the rear-seat entertainment system, which is mounted to the rear edge of the center console. When folded flat for stowage, it lays forward onto the center console, preventing it from opening, and basically turning into a hard and uneven nuisance for the driver and front passenger. Up or down, it is ideally placed for bumping funny bones. As one driver noted, “It couldn’t be in a worse position unless it were protruding forward out of the driver’s seatback. Mount it in the headrest. Drop it from the ceiling. Make it rise from the floor on a pedestal dripping a fog of dry-ice steam. Just don’t put it somewhere where it can’t not be in the way.”

Most of the time we’re behind the wheel of the X6, though, we’re too busy enjoying ourselves to care about the DVD screen. The battery snafu was annoying, but we can excuse it since ours was one of the very first X6s off the assembly line. The xDrive system warning was frightening, but the problem seems—we hope—to have healed itself since we cut down on the amount of donuts we do on the way home.

Service for the first 50,000 miles is free, making our only out-of-pocket expenses thus far the winter tires, which ran $980, and a $5 quart of oil. Well, that and a couple of bucks for a gallon of premium every 15 miles. So our big, red BMW is still a pricey sled, but we’re finding we care less about understanding it than the enjoyment to be had driving it. Besides, the X6 will never ask us to watch Sex and the City, which might be worth $80,270 by itself.

C&D 2008 BMW X6 xDrive50i - Long-Term Road Test - UPDATE


Still can't get over how handsome the X6 is.


M