The rule-breaker from BMW - the new X6
Crossover SUV or Sports Activity Vehicle - the X6 is difficult to categorise
Author: David Miles
Published: 20 May 2008
So 4x4 SUVs, or Sports Activity Vehicles, (SAVs) as BMW calls them, need to be tall, high roofed glass houses. Not anymore because BMW is just about to introduce their new X6 Sports Activity Coupe which goes on sale in the UK from 31 May.
Of the 1,600 X6 vehicles available to UK customers this year over 1,200 have already been sold. BMW UK expects to sell 2,600 of these vehicles next year in addition to around 7,000 X5 SAVs they sell annually.
The X6 takes BMW’s X5 SUV to a further and much more radical stage in its development. It takes the X5’s design, layout and technical attributes, but then adds coupe styling from the waistline up creating a five-door Sports Activity Coupe, a world first says BMW. The introduction of the BMW X6 is a logical next step in the process of anticipating customer demand they say.
The BMW X6 sets a new performance benchmark for 4x4 SUVs with the world debut of its unique Dynamic Performance Control rear differential and advanced stability systems to provide car-like driving and handling capabilities. The vehicle also includes other fuel and CO2 saving EfficientDynamics elements.
The new model range is BMW’s answer to the undoubted success achieved by the Range Rover Sport with its lower roofline over the glasshouse Range Rover. Perhaps the X6’s only other competitor is the Porsche Cayenne but BMW says the lack of a diesel engine option for the Cayenne is a major sales issue. The Audi Q7 and Mercedes-Benz ML can also be considered as competitor models.
BMW UK hopes that customers opting to buy the new X6 will mainly be conquest customers to the brand and not existing customers moving from their high selling X5 SUV.
Martin Sloan, BMW UK’s X-Series product manager said at the media launch of the X6, “There is very little point in BMW developing this unique vehicle if it is only going to draw customers away from our current X5 SUV models. We are looking for new customers.”
“With well over 50 per cent of existing X5 sales being seven-seat models and our order books are full until September, the four seats offered in the new X6 will not see many buyers making the change from X5 to X6. But there is likely to be some movement by existing customers to the X6 from other BMW model ranges.”
BMW UK thinks the customers who are being attracted to the X6 are buyers who want the command driving position an X product provides, but who also aspires to the sporting style of a coupe.
Early adopters looking for something unique in the market and people who must have the latest premium motoring are certainly candidates for X6 ownership. Also the BMW X5 or any other premium Sports Activity Vehicle or SUV owner whose family has left home but still desires a similar car, but one that doesn’t scream ‘family’.
At launch the X6 range will consist of three models but a fourth, the 50i, 4.4-litre, V8 turbocharged petrol, will become available from November this year. For the first time in BMW’s history a model range has been launched solely powered by turbocharged engines, two petrol and two diesels. Both diesel units 30d and 35d are sub 225g/km giving a VED Band F rating of £210. Both petrol engines35i and 50i are Band G with a VED cost of £400.
Prices for the new BMW X6 start at £41,965. A price for the top of the range X6 50i has yet to be announced but it is expected to be close to £50k.
Martin Sloan said at the UK media launch that 85 per cent of X6 sales would be diesel models and about 12 per cent of customers will order the top of the range 50i turbocharged petrol variant. So far the vast majority of advance order customers have chosen the 35d turbodiesel version which costs £44,145.
Comprehensive list of SUV reviews, pictures and stats
New AC Schnitzer BMW X6 Sports Activity Coupe rubs MT up wrong way, simply by existing. Tuners that gave us unneutered BMW M3s and M5s has grabbed X6 by dog’s bobbins. So, is the trick X6 the canine’s two things or a dinner?
The new BMW X6 crossover SUV is good to drive and a genuine premium product, but can any of that overcome the SAV's ludicrous styling? And is the time right for another 4x4?
All-new BMW X6 SUV coupe crossover with UK dealers by May 31.
Is it a coupe? Is it an SUV? Who knows. All we know is it´s called the BMW X6.
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