All Entries Tagged With: "BMW X6"

2009 BMW X6 & Gillette’s Castle

GILLETTE’S CASTLE is an oddly fanciful tribute from one man to his own creative labors.

William Gillette was a thespian of the first order; a star of stage, if not quite screen. His career waned just at the dawn of the new medium. Mr. Gillette’s claim to fame – no, not razors – was in defining the role of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

We can credit the Victorian image of the deerstalker cap and curled pipe and the famous “Elementary” line to Mr. Gillette’s interpretation of Sir Arthur’s famous sleuth. The role made Mr. Gillette, who was already “set” from handsome inheritance, millions.

So, in a fit of fantasy to which Walt Disney himself would likely have subscribed, Mr. Gillette built himself his own, eccentrically designed “castle” on the pinnacle of a round hill overlooking the Connecticut River in East Haddam, Conn.
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Completed in 1919 before prudish state laws would’ve prevented such high profile residential construction, the cost amounted to $1 million (roughly equivalent to $9.8 million*). He said that his inspiration was the ancient fortresses that dot the British landscape.

When the actor died, he left his castle to the Constitution State and the property became a state park.

Gillette Castle’s a fitting backdrop for the 2009 BMW X6 xDrive 50i (say that five times fast). The Bavarian crossover marks a controversial new direction for the marque. The castle marks an important location, even if visually the stony monument seems an out-of-place cartoon against the bucolic New English landscape.

The X6 is a new, and not universally appreciated, genre for BMW that claims to broaden the definition of what we’ve come to expect from a true coupe. But like Gillette’s Castle, the car seems to have as many supporters as detractors.

On the Chester-East Haddam car ferry, for instance, curiosity got the better of some other passengers who asked appreciative questions about the car. That said, the Honda Element’s driver, didn’t seem all that amused.

The X6 isn’t for everyone.

From a sales perspective, the X6 inhabits a small niche in BMW’s broader line up. Just 494 models were sold in October, up 38% from 10/08’s numbers. By contrast, the older, less expensive and more utilitarian X5 found four times as many buyers.

Still, I can’t help but feel that the X6, with all its eccentricity, is the more apt interpretation of the SUV von BMW.

The Bimmer’s more toy than truck. More play than work. It’s a cliche. A caricature, to be sure. But caricatures can be fun.

Like Gillette’s Castle, it’s useful that this crossover doesn’t quite “fit”.  Useful in the sense that those who disdain the X6 as every BMW shouldn’t be – once my position. And useful to those who see variety as the spice of life.

Tap the link for the ADLX review on the 2009 BMW X6 xDrive 50i >>>

BMW’s Strange Casting: X6 Promo

By Gunnar Heinrich | YouTube

MAYBE it’s just me, but BMW’s been casting some pretty shady looking characters for its promotional videos. Consider this gentleman – who looks like a B-level Bond villain who James has to despatch on his way through to the top boss.

He doesn’t seem all that formidable, but we can be sure that he’s crafty, deceptive, ruthlessly evil, and smug. That last characteristic seem endemic in German car advertising.

In this company video for the X6, our mystery man is given a truly sinister cast. In this screengrab, for example, there’s a ghoulish way he’s putting those golf clubs into the trunk. He performs this simple action with such physical menace that it seems like he’s packing a small corpse.

Now we all understand that product videos are meant to draw emotional reaction from us. Sometimes they even provoke. And, in some measure, they’re meant to reflect the typical buyer – or at least the typical buyer’s mentality.

But if this is the case, does the typical X6 buyer see himself as either a smug middle manager or worse, a heartless international fiend?

Doubtful.

BMW Unleashes M Powered X5 and X6

By Gunnar Heinrich

BOTH powerful and powerful ugly, BMW has announced its plan to scratch the itch that never was – a 555 hp / 500 lb-ft torqued crossover – or “Sports Activity Coupe” to use BMW speak – and unleash the X6 M onto the  world this week at NYIAS. Also on the cards is an M tuned variant of that most “active” of soccer mom ‘utes – the X5. Armed with pulse-tuned exhaust manifolds, now she really will be the first to the game.

BMW Off To A "Restrained Start", UK Subsidiaries Save The Day

M.Y. 2008 M3 Sedan Can’t Arrive Too Soon.

Paraphrasing (crudely) the seminal 80’s flick Wall Street: the rich may be bitching, but the super-rich ain’t.

All but the truly inflation proof are subject to the uneasy prospect of slowing markets this world round. And that maxim is coming home to the Roundel whose North American sales spun a little too long off the line – losing share to last year’s performance by 4.1%.

BMW’s press release admitted that the marque started the year with “a restrained start.”

That having been said, more of the very well-off took delivery of new Rolls-Royces than e’er before. Rolls sales were up a prosperous 64% (translating to 41 units) thanks to the new convertible.

Cheap ‘n cheerful (in this company at least) MINIs also faired well by jumping 13.3% over January last year.

This all means that for once, it was the British subsidiaries’ performance that drove share performance – not the hyper-efficient Teutons. Score two for Albion.

Still, BMW’s right to spin a positive sales outlook for the near future.

“In 2008, the BMW Group will once again maintain its top position as the world’s leading manufacturer of premium vehicles. We have once again taken on a great deal and are aiming to set new sales records for all three brands,” promised marketing man Stefan Krause.

With the impending intro of the oh-so hot 1-Series, the so/so M3 sedan, and the sure-to-be-at-every-soccer-match X6, he may just be right. Though, the BMW’s intake will be whatever the market will bear.

And there are only so many of the super-rich to go around.

Links >>> BMW Group, Edmunds

The Germans Have Us Cornered

The Germans Appear To Have Cornered The Blogosphere

BMW X6

Image: BMW via CAR
Strangely appealing for all the right reasons.

Calling the BMW X6 “one of 2008’s most intriguing cars,” as Phil McNamara over at CAR has done, provides easy reason for an automotive traditionalist like me to ready my verbal capacity for launching the rotten tomatoes of editorial scorn.

It was not that long ago when the very idea of BMW bringing an SUV to market was considered by many to be as heretical as Lamborghini selling a minivan. And this corporate desire to fill every possible niche void has done plenty of harm to a certain other carmaker’s reputation.

But there’s just one thing: I kind of like the X6.

I appreciate the premise behind this, BMW’s latest effort to fill every conceivable void, because I know where and how it can be used to good effect. Better yet, it was my time in a Lexus RX300 that provides me with this understanding perspective.

Lexus’ coup.

Back in 1999, three friends and I spent days traversing the winding roads that snake through the Rockies in Alberta and British Columbia in Lexus’ then-new car platformed SUV. At first, I loathed the car – an overweight Lexus Camry that felt minivan-ish- especially since this RX was the replacement to the owner’s previous car – one spectacular 1994 BMW 740i.

Talk about heresy.

In previous summers, the great 7 carved the roads that led from Vancouver to Whistler for us; cosseting and thrilling us, in equal measure. I can still smell the leather…

But when it came time to drive the BMW sedan off the fresh asphalt of Route 99 and onto one-lane wide dirt roads that would lead us to the base points of various hiking trails, it seemed sacrilegious to subject so fine a car to such rough ‘n tumble use.

That’s where the Lexus made all the sense in the world. Here was an SUV that gave us the commanding view of the road – great for long highway trips – but enveloped us in a car-like cabin of buttery smooth luxury.

What’s better, you didn’t mind taking the RX on to those muddy lanes or packing the hiking gear in the luggage compartment. If it snowed (which it could and did in June), the RX’s all wheel drive would keep us on track.

But for all the benefits that that model Lexus and its replacement the RX350 offer drivers and passengers, these are not driver’s cars. The RX330 powers itself briskly, put not seriously up to speed and feels as much the (really comfortable) minivan as its predecessor.

Translation: dead steering feel and a mushy suspension that tortures those high profiled tyres into howling around the bends. The first RX even had a rear suspension that was actually pretty crude; thumping away over the mildest of road disturbances. The RX350’s isn’t much better.

Which all brings us neatly back to the BMW X6.

It’s an SUV that isn’t shaped in the traditional two-box format and was spared distasteful flaming exuberances. CAR claims the X6 will perform better than a Porsche Cayenne.

Which means that if the latter proves true, then what we’ve got is a sporting all-rounder that would pick up where the deficiencies of the (otherwise good) RX leaves us wanting. And maybe, just maybe, signal a return of some of that winning sparkle that blessed the old 7.

That would be one intriguing car worth buying.

[Source: CAR]