Mat Watson and the carwow team are timing their BMW crossover shenanigans perfectly because a new alternative is coming soon- the BMW i5 Touring M60 xDrive all-electric station wagon. It will be cleaner, nimbler, and a lot better looking.
The Bavarians are under a lot of fire recently because they are cranking it up to eleven in terms of designs – some say they've gone rogue, and that's a good thing; others say they're just a little crazy. It all depends on the perspective and your personal POV. Some like the new styling excess, others not so much.
Well, my take on the matter is that BMW is curious to see what happens when they throw away design conventions. For example, I like the Minecraft-like styling of the little M2. I also got used to the nostrils on the 4 Series and M3 plus M4, but I always avoid looking at the X7 LCI, all-new 7 Series and i7, or the BMW XM because they give me headaches from trying to shrug their design from my mind and soul.
Anyway, I had to resist the temptation to scream and run away like a maniac at the sight of a purple BMW X7 LCI (life cycle impulse, or their fancy way of saying facelift) because it was going to face off with a fellow X7 without the refresh procedure. To spice things up, Mat brought a fellow socialite to drive the X7 LCI, which is an M60i xDrive with a V8 under the hood and 530 ponies.
Meanwhile, Watson is driving a pre-facelift X7 M50d with a turbocharged diesel and just six cylinders plus 400 smaller ponies. The advantage of the diesel X7 is related to the torque rating, but it's quite marginal. On the other hand, the massive X7 M60i is a lot heavier than its counterpart. Well, that didn't help it much because even with a slow start, the gasoline X7 won fair and square all digs.
In fact, Mat used a trick because he doesn't like to lose and loaded his adversary's X7 with seven people on board – but even another 541 kgs didn't make too much of a difference. The same happened with the roll races – the gasoline X7 obliterates its adversary because there's no replacement for displacement, of course. The only race Mat won is the one related to the breaking test, by the way.
In the end, I wouldn't take any of these two homes. Instead, that's a different story regarding the timing of this race – BMW M just released a new teaser related to the impending release of the 2024 i5 Touring M60 xDrive on social media. That's a station wagon that will be nimbler, more practical, and more sustainable than the ugly X7 LCI or the dirty X7 with a diesel mill.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News