Gadgetory

it's almost a cliche that you get a big bonus and go buy one of these that's right BMW 6-series in this case the 650i with the twin-turbo motor but I wouldn't have touched one with a ten-foot paycheck until they fix the styling and to my eyes they did that so let's get in and check the tech now the 6 Series has always been a nice place to sit and be a rich guy but I think even more so now they've recast the cabin and this is a signature BMW thing now this fixed very generous display that is mounted as if it was a pop-up but it's not and very high in fact the midline of that display is actually higher than the midline of your main gauges and that screen is going to display a lot of base tech as you can imagine in a car of this tier navigation is standard of course Bluetooth hands-free is standard even though BMW tends to nickel and dime you on certain tech one of the technologies I like the best though is in that nickel and dime category make sure you get the BMW apps option for a cheap 250 bucks allowing you to have Facebook Twitter streaming radio it's really cool it's iPhone only it goes in this dock see our BMW 328i video we just did for a complete tour of the connected stuff going on here and their apps integration without optioning you get am/fm HD radio optical CD slot right here no DVD playback as well as an aux jack now to go beyond that basic setup of inputs and get better sound you option premium sound it's about 1800 bucks it gets you logic 7 amplification and speakers 7.1 is the arrangement and you also then get USB plus iPod here in the console as well as satellite radio with a year of activation and if you want to go even further than that logic 7 audio upgrade go for that thing on the top but looks like some kind of a little gun port about to shoot yeah that's part of the Bang & Olufsen audio upgrade 3700 bucks all by itself part of an overall speaker array they say gives everyone in the car no matter where you're sitting equal sound dispersal now this cars also loaded up with a lot of driving assistance you're seeing a blind spot detection system and the lane departure warning you can defeat those obviously this car is going to let you know if someone's in your blind spot indicator right there in the mirror or it's going to vibrate the wheel if you're drifting okay now the real crowd-pleaser is I saved the best for last this is an optional technology here that puts a camera package to work if I press it now while I'm sitting here still I get kind of a fisheye cam it's two cameras but they're looking completely out left and right from the front of the vehicle then of course I've got the standard backup cam when I go in Reverse and check this out I can also get an around view cam that shows sort of a God view of the car the rear camera lives under a needlessly clever motorized trunk badge I bet that will be cheap to fix when it jams now normally luxo status cars like this or automatic transmission all the way but this one bases with a six-speed manual even with that big Harry v8 that's unusual you can option this 8-speed sport automatic with the paddles here on the wheel for no extra cost 650i on the backhand means a 4.4 liter v8 on the front end with direct injection and dual twin-scroll turbo that does four hundred horse and 450 foot-pounds of torque to get this two-ton coupe up to sixty in a tick under five seconds while delivering decent mpg of 15 23 or 22 if you get the automatic keeping the burden on this powertrain low as possible our aluminum hood and doors with plastic fenders and trunk lid and aluminum subframes front and rear that four thousand pound curb weight is actually something of a victory the kind of power this car delivers is not violent you could tune it that way if BMW chose to with those kind of numbers you certainly could but instead it comes on as this inexorable force that fits the character of the car really well I think they've got this 8-speed automatic really well program where I'm not sure I'd ever go for a manual on this car I think this is gonna make you very happy now the way these drive modes work I describe them like this comfort Plus is soft cushy ride at least by BMW standard it isn't very soft and cushy at all comfort is normal sports is what you would expect it'll tighten up the chassis transmission and accelerator behavior and Sport Plus takes it one more level it turns off track control and has all the sports settings this cars really enjoy to drive because it has so much power which tends to erase weight which it does have a fair amount of but most importantly perhaps is BMW has almost entirely dialed turbo lag out of this engine you never find it at least not discernable on top of the automatic there's a certain amount of vagary in an automatic gearbox and you can't detect any turbo lag least I can't beyond that bit of filtering the driver assistance package also includes self parking now BMW carefully couch's this feature in language that makes it clear they do believe purchasers of the ultimate driving machine do know how to drive and park okay 650i is not a cheap car of course eighty-four grand base with delivery here's what I'm not gonna auction to it to keep it well below a hundred cuz that comes up pretty fast on this car I'm gonna skip the driver assistance package I don't need the lane departure the blind spot to head-up display all that stuff skip it I'm also gonna blow off the bangle Olufsen sound at $3,700 I don't pay that for sound anywhere let alone the car I will spend 250 on the BMW app support so it's just premium sound for 1700 and apps for 250 bucks that's a must do if you're watching a video on this website you