Gadgetory

BMWs x6 a coupe SUV crossover thing this category is not exactly taking the automotive world by storm nor is it a halo car cut that far up in their line so what is the point let's delve into that as we drive this 2013 x6 xdrive35i and check the tech the x6 is based on the x5 but with a four-door coupe UV body that hasn't worked for anyone else acura killed off their ZDX which was one of the few direct competitors but that doesn't mean that BMW sells a ton of these alright some numbers first BMW sold about 6,800 of these guys in calendar 2012 in the US that puts it down pretty much near the bottom with the z4 and the 6 Series Coupe two and a half percent or so of their US sales but that's part of the story they kind of don't want you to see one of these next to you at every stoplight because this vehicle is as much about exclusivity as practicality inside nothing too unfamiliar BMW has about the most consistent cabins I think of any car maker out there so you'll recognize just about everything including our wide ish though not the largest BMW display screen right there this is the iDrive system you've seen many times I'll make a couple of notes about it it's a little messy in terms of getting around all the media choices I haven't talked about this in a couple of years and they haven't fixed it either so I'm back on it under CD and multimedia you'll find your optical drive your music collection that's the internal hard drive that you're never going to use and then another submenu takes you to external devices where you find your iPod bluetooth streaming and the aux Jack's here in the console why are those on separate menus and all of its separate from radio which is just another audio choice to me I want to figure out there are more media choices under connected drive then down to BMW apps and then you can access web radio why isn't that with radio further fragmentation occurs this way the apps that are on my iPhone here in the console which are these web apps I'm showing you Facebook Twitter web radio those get their connection from the phone or in this case my ipod touch going through my droid hotspot that's a detail but many of the services under BMW online like Facebook Twitter Yelp but not the apps that are on the iPhone see what I'm talking about get their connection from the car it's not consistent to know when or when you don't have a connection for your online experiences as for that navigation system BMW is generally excellent I'm not a big fan of a little 3d SimCity thing but you may like that a lot you can take care of that view by changing to a different one but this ribbon on the Left still annoys me it's the other thing I want to see BMW do something better out this is a cryptic toolbar and I shouldn't need to dive into it select this thing just to zoom in and out that is an intuitive thing that should always be available on the knob in some way I won't even dignify this ancient rear seat entertainment rig other than to say 2005 called and it doesn't want its tech back okay xdrive35i on the butt tells you a lot about what's in the front three litre inline-six direct injection completely variable valve train in terms of timing and LIF it's a BMW thing called Valvetronic and twin power turbo means not two turbos in a six they do that with their v8 but a single two-stage turbo that's meant to spool up quickly at low rpms to reduce lag but also be optimized differently with a separate internal scroll for higher rpm efficiency as well the numbers 300 horsepower 300 foot pounds of torque easy to remember makes my job simpler you're going to get to 60 in about 6.3 seconds which is kind of impressive because this guy weighs almost 4,800 pounds before you even get in it this is a big boy in terms of weight and your mileage isn't bad its 1623 now let's compare this briefly to the same power plant in a 335 X Drive the sedan or coupe 3-series same power but you get significantly better mpg 1926 and a 1 second faster 0 to 60 sprint but that car weighs 1,000 pounds less than this one big difference same motor I can sum up driving the x6 real quickly for you I don't like it I don't know what it is about this combination of what is called BMWs n55 engine with this vehicle but I don't recall driving a BMW with this engine that is this laggy some of it feels like turbo lag which is kind of unusual for them and I also feel like the weight of the vehicle is perhaps too much for this engine regardless of what the numbers are on paper I'm in sport mode I've gone over here to manual mode I've run the gears manually on the paddles at no point am I getting what I would call responsive driving although I am getting powerful power output but that's not what I'm looking for the car just feels heavy all the time secondly the handling I find to be a porpoise II ride I'm getting nose and butt doing this and it feels tippy I know we've got a sporty vehicle here but I don't know it doesn't feel well planted to me like there's a lot of counts in the ride like right there so this is not my favorite BMW even though it has an M package an M Sport package and has a sporty look I found to be a chore to drive how this price this guy a 2013 x6 xdrive35i is going to run about sixty thousand seven delivered one of the biggest option packages you can grab is dynamic handling 4,300 bucks we've got it on this one but I wasn't all that impressed with the driving so I might skip it might not be much worse and you'd save 4,000 or more the package you do want is premium $3,300 that brings in almost all the CNET tech toys including navigation rear camera with top view the online services quad zone climate control and more and BMW apps 250 bucks don't be cheap you want that but it only works with your iPhone as of this date all n-word around the mid $68,000 range CNET style kind of pricey but also kind of a value because this car is exclusive it's very stylish and it's actually kind of efficient given its bulk its heft than its size does a lot for your ends