Test drive BMW X6 E71 2008 - 2009 SUV
Compartment plus cross
The Germans are constantly inventing new segments of the automobile market. So, in Stuttgart they invented a four-door compartment, and in Munich they came up with a cross-wrapping room. While the world is trying to form their opinion about the new class, and competitors think about how to answer, the wheels spent the day in the BMW X6 society. In the vocabulary of English -speaking there is a wonderful word: Awesome. In Britain, it means terrible, monstrous and, at the same time, inspiring respect; The Australians use it when they are overwhelmed with delight and they want to say amazingly or excellent.
The Americans say AWESOME only in an informal setting, referring to a joyful surprise, expressed synonymous to Russian cool!. Awesome comes to the mind of everyone who first sees the new BMW X6. Only his values \u200b\u200bare different.
While the audience selects words to express their opinion about the BMW new product, competitors come to their senses after the knockdown. The Bavarians alone remove the cream from the implementation of their own idea: coupe and crossover in one bottle. Cross-coup. BMW X6
ideologically fresh, unique for some time, but it is not a single detail from the BMW design style: a typically wide aus with large nostrils of air intakes, blackening the ribs; sidewalls with spectacular convex and concave planes; Except for the window sill, dynamically rising up. And at the head of the corner, widely protruding wheel arches, in which 20-inch wheels are planted. The main role is assigned to them, but this is not only about design. But all due to progress, if he were wrong: he confused all the cards, smashed the stereotypes to smithereens and mixed the unthinkable. Holding the daredevils, BMW engines always godlessly burned a liter behind a liter, exchanging a good appetite for a reckless mix of drive and speed.
Fast and economical BMW Oxymoron like a soaring rubber chicken or a rapidly drowned Pinocchio. Until recently, it was. You can imagine: BMW is larger than X5; capable of accelerating to hundreds per 5 s; To spend, on average, 12 liters per 100 km? .. So I could not. Now the same BMW X6 can be both fast and economical. It’s good that not yet!
The gamut of turbocharged engines X6 (the era of atmospheric Bavarians ended?!) The modified gasoline V8 with double
turbocharged (4.4 l, 407 p.). As a gasoline alternative to him, a line six -cylinder motor from the BMW 335i, also with two turbines, with a capacity of 306 liters. With. For the most leaned now, they can afford a large and fast bimmer: a diesel with a turbocharger (3.0 l, 235 hp) with an average consumption of diesel fuel about 8 liters per hundred. The test car we got, is equipped with the youngest of gasoline engines and an automatic checkpoint, which X6 is equipped with default. It is a little sorry that under the hood was not a top-end motor: after all, the current V8 is also the world's first eight-cylinder engine, which has turbochargers and catalytic neutralizers between the series of cylinders: right in the V-shaped space!
But the 3.0-liter gasoline engine is quite good, even if the BMW 335i (and, moreover, 135i!) It was much easier to disperse. The biturgist kicks a two-ton cross-coup and drags up to 100 km/h for 6.7 s! A powerful, steep and elastic motor instantly responds with a throttle to the slightest movement of the right leg, and at any engine speed
However, having sustained the entire north of the city (and its surroundings), saturating the blood with adrenaline and thoroughly with the back of the seat, I realized that it was good that there was not a top-end motor under the hood. Despite the efficiency with a calm ride, with a pedal in the floor Xdrive35i eats so much that in three to four hours a full tank will have to be re-pour over. In addition, on our roads, the speed at which the advantages of XDRIVE50i would not be allowed. Twisting the moment to the 20-inch rims of the wheels of the six is \u200b\u200bthe Dynamic Perfomance Control mechanism, which, using an electromagnetic coupling and differential systems, can distribute the moment between the axes and between the wheels. When we installed a car for photography, the left rear wheel broke off the ground. X6 made a half -turn to them, thought for a second and continued to move, starting with other wheels. So, will not get stuck.
But this is not the dignity of a system that is ideologically different from the ESP algorithm. If in other schemes the stabilization system slows down the hanged wheel, then here DPC, on the contrary, accelerates the opposite, which is in the best contact. The technique of passing turns on BMW has changed in favor of more active: now where other 4x4 speeds up, x6 passes with a drowned pedal.
The cross-coup salon is not much different from the X5. At least in front. The only characteristic difference is the soft stops for the knees on both sides of the central console, so that the driver and front passenger hold on to them when obstructing obstacles and when moving along an uneven highway. It is worth starting to turn back from the driver's seat, new and interesting details will open. For example, the right hand of the driver lying on the armrest will definitely fall into a folded monitor designed for the rear passengers. The rear sofa is removed for them. Instead, two chairs with developed lateral support and built -in headrests, separated from each other in the central console. Due to the characteristic falling profile, I suspected that the sitting behind would have to either be small or bend. I was right: it is comfortable here only to people tall below 180 cm.
And once again about a broken consciousness. In the 90s of the last century, a successful person needed a sportskup, an SUV and a large comfortable sedan. A little later the development of technology convinced manufacturers of jeeps and sportsmen to show more attention in
attitude to drivers. Now these cars are equipped with separate climate control, high-class multimedia systems with large color screens, phones and other prints of progress and the rapid spread of the premium segment ... Meanwhile, the representative sedan about four doors ceased to be part of the triptych, turning into an element of the business dress code of officials and mimicing for them. With the advent of the new class Sport Activity Coupe in the line of BMW, the need for the ownership of Sportsup and SUV was gone. Now one cross-wreck is enough.
Perhaps because the X6 is one of a kind, forums and guest books of different countries speak differently about him. Moreover, the reactions are diametrically opposite. Some choke on delight, others talk about problems in the staff of Bavarian designers, others do not believe that there is nothing terrible in this BMW, however: even a bad advertising of disputed design is also an advertisement. And how x6 behaves on the road on any type of it is good advertising.
Text: Alexander Korobchenko
Photo: Roman Ostanin
Source: Wheel magazine [September 2008]
