New 6 Series brings out the best of BMW

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

You don't buy a BMW 6 Series on a whim. Not least because you're going to be paying a six-figure sum by the time you get it out of the showroom and into your driveway, writes Brian Byrne.

But you do buy it because you want it. It is what I call a 'me' car. A car not considered because it is essential, efficient transportation, but because it pulls at some kind of strings in your psyche.

Whether those strings are connected to power, luxury, design aesthetics, or green conscience is what makes each car buyer an individual. Thing is, the 6 Series can pull at all of the above, the result being an irresistible crescendo of siren music.

I'll never own one, my average bank balance bottom line being the absolute arbiter even of automotive dreams. But I certainly have enjoyed my time with this particular dream.

The 6 Series Coupe probably matches a golden mean of car design, demonstrable by the number of heads it turns both from other drivers and those making more pedestrian progress through their business day. Low-slung, sleek, a curve to the rear of the 'glasshouse' that somebody, somewhere, may have worked out as an essential of visual beauty.

Of course, it has the standard BMW elements too. Long bonnet, kidney grille, elegant sculptings which each add their bit to an overall sense of strength which is part of the BMW soul.

Inside too is an evolution of the familiar BMW theme of strength in style and clarity of execution. A very large centre-dash screen manages the navigation, communication and entertainment. Controls on the steering wheel are relatively minimal compared to some we're getting from several carmakers these days, but it is a very functional piece of equipment.

I wasn't ever going to mention BMW's iDrive again, but actually they seem to have tamed it down to a much less complicated version of handling the information on the central screen.

Although this car is positioned right up with the 7 Series flagship from Munich in terms of power and luxury, it isn't so in size and space. This is a nominally 4-seat car, but the accommodation for two people in the back is definitely compromised by the height/legs length of those in front. Look, it's a 'me' car, for the driver's and a passenger's enjoyment. Not for a family.

The interior finish in the review car included some extra stuff, like the leather finish on the dashboard and instruments binnacle. Some of which I might give a miss to when ordering. There were also intriguing bits like the heated steering wheel (didn't really have the need for it), and the twin cameras mounted on the sides of the front bumpers which offer left/right street views when nosing out into a street of traffic.

But the abiding sense about sitting in the car was how well one felt as belonging there. BMW have two core competences—engineering excellence and the drive. And part of the drive is that the driver's space is designed so that he or she feels right in charge of the machine. Sitting into a 6 Series is like putting on a really confortable coat.

This generation of the car is the first one into which they have put a diesel option. And that added significantly to my enjoyment of this 640d. A version of the brand's 3.0 V6 diesel, this one has twin turbos and 313hp under that long bonnet. It also pulls a whopping 630Nm of torque. Dealing with that kind of output takes a seriously good transmission and the 8-speed autobox here is exactly that. The whole powertrain is butter-smooth, fast enough to a very sports-car 5.1 seconds to 100 km/h, and all that without a trace of raucosity. They could have built this one to define the word 'refined'.

If I have to find a crib, it relates more to our roads than anything else. The massive wheels and low-profile tyres are unforgiving on rough surfaces, and I winced a couple of time dropping one into unexpected potholes. On proper surfaces, the car is a dream.

There's no easy way to make the price sound any less than it is. At a starting price of some €95,000 plus charges, this is a car for the very few. My review car had extra specification and options bringing it to €113,000.

I made sure I enjoyed it. Because it'll never be mine.