The £140k BMW X6 M is lighter than an M5 saloon, but that doesn't help...
An encounter with the heavier G90 BMW M5 highlights the X6’s shortcomings
I didn’t plan to undertake the 600-mile round trip from home to Anglesey twice in a month, but there I was perched in UXJ as it pummelled the M6 into submission for the second time in as many weeks, still asking myself what this car was designed to do.
Interior room isn’t its thing. Despite being a car that occupies so much space on the road, it offers very little of it on the inside. Neither is comfort something it has much interest in: the M-specific seats are as hard as the ride is unforgiving, the massage function akin to someone tapping you on your spine with a small hammer. And there are lots of minor things that irritate, including a speed limiter function that after a while gets bored of holding you at your chosen pace and deactivates, which can be inconvenient.
> BMW M5 review – it’s more powerful but is the extra weight a problem?
What it does have on its side is 553lb ft of torque, which means it barely scratches its own performance surface when asked to drain the 350 miles of range provided by its 80-litre fuel tank in one sitting. Leave everything in auto and it glides to the national speed limit requiring less than 2000rpm in every gear to do so.
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As with so many of its ilk, it’s when you wind the X6 M’s driving modes up to their maximum that you start to reap the rewards of the work put in by the team at M. Find a road with enough space and the M Comp demonstrates a level of dexterity and capability that up until that point you would have thought impossible. The setting changes are nothing revolutionary: heavier steering, firmer damping, sharper throttle responses and quicker shifts, although you’ll want to knock the dampers and steering back to reduce the jarring ride and add some comms through your hands. But when you do, the speed and adjustability the X6 embodies makes you question if you have got the car wrong and if it really is a suitable alternative to a supersaloon.
Which might have been my thinking were I not heading to north Wales to drive the M5 saloon and Touring, two cars that are even larger and heavier than the X6 M (the weight claims being 2435kg for the M5s versus 2370kg for the X6, although ours comes in at 2420kg on our scales). However, more advanced technologies such as rear-axle steering, more refined spring, damper, steering and geometry settings, and tyre pressures that allow the rubber to bite into the surface rather than skim across it, all combine to enable the M5s to deliver a far more cohesive, fluid and involving experience, making the rationale for the X6 M Competition fade further still...
| Total mileage | 10,452 |
| Mileage this month | 1534 |
| Costs this month | £0 |
| mpg this month | 19.2 |
This story was first featured in evo issue 327.
