BMW 6-Series Coupe Review

The soundproofing, the adaptive suspension and powertrain, the smooth lines of the interior, the ton of electronics that seem to be borrowed from a fighter jet, they’re all there to make you feel relaxed and they work in perfect harmony.

Use the Comfort or the Normal modes of the adaptive drive and this big coupe becomes a limo. You have to choose the optional comfort seats for the experience to be complete, and maybe the Harman Kardon sound system if you want to cry tears of joy on your favorite songs.
The aforementioned huge amount of electronics manages to help you without ruining the experience by becoming too complicated. Even the latest generation of the iDrive is friendlier, the optional panoramic view cameras are easy to use and everything just seems to make sense.

The black back sheep of this chapter? The question is also an answer. The rear individual seats are nice in isolation, but placed in an area with difficult access and torturing leg room don’t manage to cater to the transportation needs of adults - you can only use them inside the city, if the front ones are brought closer to the dashboard.

Back to the details that allow this car to be driven with ease, such as ground clearance, which allows you to make fun of supercar owners and the sound of the engine under partial load, which is refined enough to make you feel you’ve reached the right status in life.

When you take a look at large BMWs there says, it’s like playing with LEGO. This is because the Germans use multiple version of the same platform for all their big cars. The L6 architecture debuted on the F01 7-Series, was then adapted for the F10 5-Series, can even be found under the elegant lines of the Rolls-Royce Ghost and now comes to support the new 6-Series.

Thus, we have an aluminum double wishbone setup for the front axle and an Integral-V multi-link layout for the rear one. Our test car was fitted with adaptive dampers and active roll-bars, a feature that does wonders for the vehicle’s GT character, offering it a beauty&beast suspension.

Under the aluminum bonnet, we find a petrol 4.4-liter V8 unit that’s made of the same material and relies on twin-turbocharging (each cylinder bank has its own turbo), direct injection, Double Vanos and Valvetronic (variable distribution) to deliver 407 hp between 5,500 and 6,400 rpm and a peak torque of 600 Nm (442 lb-ft), which are there for you on an incredibly large rev range (from 1,750 rpm up to 4,500 rpm).

Despite offering significantly more muscle than the 367 hp & 490 Nm (367 lb-ft) naturally-aspirated 4.8-liter V8 unit it replaces, the new powerplant is also a bit more frugal, with an official average cycle efficiency of 10.5 liters per 100 km/ 22.4 mpg (this is the rating for the rear-wheel-drive model), compared to 11.7 l/100 km (20.1 mpg).

This works with a ZF eight-speed automatic gearbox, capable of both pillow smooth and neck-biting shifts, depending on the mode of the adaptive drive control (comfort, normal, sport and sport+) and the amount of throttle applied. The power is sent to all four wheels using BMW’s latest xDrive system, a technical masterpiece which you’ll read in action in the “Open Road” chapter.

Out test car had many faces and “mobile gadget” was one of them. No aspect in the vehicle was left to human operation alone. However, this isn’t one of those over-engineered or user unfriendly one, managing to keep a good balance from this point of view.

We’ll start with our favorite toy, the Adaptive Drive, which allows you to control both the powertrain and the adaptive suspension and active anti-roll bars. While in a BMW 1-Series such as system is just useful, in a car with 407 hp, this system is a real game changer, as it can truly convince you that you’ve bought two cars for the price of one.

Another optional feature that we really enjoyed was the panoramic view camera system, which made tight space parking a MINI-like job. Of course, the dimensions of the car still force you too look for a proper space, but once you’ve done that it’s all a child’s play.

The heated and ventilated front seats are there to support you whatever you’re after, the full-LED headlights bring you one step closer to being a feline when the sun sets and the head-up display is one of the most useful features you’ve ever seen.

The passenger can enjoy the BMW Apps and Internet to play, or, if she or he wants to help you, can switch to the Professional Navigation System. By the way, the iDrive is now friendlier than its predecessors, which means that all the vehicle’s functions are one fingertip away.

The creme de la creme in terms of non-driving features was clearly the Bang & Olufsen sound system, which manages to bring music deeper inside of you than a pair of headphones.

Unlike the F10 5-Series it shares its platform with (actually, the architecture was first introduced on the F01 7-Series), the F13 6-Series never got to meet Euro NCAP’s official barriers. Thus, we’ll turn to the Program’s test result for the 5er in order to talk about passive safety.

The 5-Series is one of the safest cars tested by Euro NCAP, with its five-star rating hiding a 95 percent score for adult occupant protection, 83 percent for child occupant protection, 78 percent for pedestrian protection and a score of 100 for the safety assist.

Test driving thew 650i xDrive offered us one of the most reassuring feelings we’ve ever had while behind the wheel. No matter how hard you push this car, in the dry or in the wet, the level of grip is phenomenal.

And when it does start to let go (a point that can be found very, very far away from the legal speed limits) it does this in a very predictable way. But we'll talk more on this topic in the "Open Road" chapter.

Even when you ask the electronics to unleash the car and start harassing the throttle and the wheel. the vehicle refuses to bring any mystery into its dynamics - you know exactly what the car is going to do next while powersliding.

Grand Tourers have always been actors that had to play roles of supercars and luxury sedans, and the 650i xDrive takes this into the technological era. This vehicle is one of the main reasons man created long strings of 1s and 0s.

The best word to describe this car is “complete”. Take it by the wheel and it will take over many types of asphalt, protecting you or sending you towards the Autobahn’s speed limit, depending on this. And, for its power, it’s one of the safest cars to drive: it’s xDrive four-wheel-drive system manages to give you the sweetest physics lesson you’ve ever received.

However, this car is a magna cum laude graduate that has a little dark secret: it’s missed one class, the one that teaches you how to please focused drivers. The twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 is ready to support you, with the slight exception of low-rev moments when the lag is a little bit too present, when you’re in a Need for Speed mode, and so is the rest of the car, but you just don’t feel any of this.

Like we said, drive this car in any way than using 100 percent of the throttle and you’ll be staggered by the complex nature of its abilities. It’s fast, very fast, and extremely comfortable, hiding all these assets inside a package that imposes respect.

At EUR130,000 ($169,000 at the current exchange rates), out of which over EUR30,000 ($39,000) of the weight comes from the optional extras, which, by the way, you need in order to have a complete experience, this is no friend of your financial adviser, but for the money you get a lot of value.

This really is a “for better or for worse” kind of car that you’ll live happily ever after with, with you two shining all the time, if you can give up certain extreme practices you learned in high school.