But, honestly, I don't think this engine will change anything drastically. Moreover, I had a chance to drive an X6 with a three-liter engine (0-100 km/h in 6.7 seconds), and when I switched to the top version with 4.4 liters under the hood, which accelerates to 100 km/h in 5.4 seconds, I didn't feel anything particularly thrilling. Perhaps it's because the peak torque of the 'younger' unit is reached at 1300 rpm, while the 'older' one only at 1750?
In general, this is not the case when you switch from a Volvo XC90 with a 3.2 engine to a 4.4-liter version. I'm starting to doubt that you can feel anything at all in a BMW X6. Its aura seems to freeze any emotions. Such a car is probably convenient for dispersing a crowd—it will scare people more than a primitive water cannon of the riot police.
As for the interior—here, perhaps, everything has already been described, except that it's worth mentioning the combination of black matte plastic with brown lacquered wood. Designers would call it 'maple in black soil.' It looks, to put it mildly, unappetizing. But there are two truly great features in the X6: it is lower and wider than its sibling X5. I have always argued that a fast sports SUV is as unnatural as an armored newsstand or a children's warehouse of radioactive waste. However, a fast SUV in a coupe body is a completely different matter. A low center of gravity makes racing in it much more attractive. But at the same time, there is no reason to accelerate to 100 km/h in 5.4 seconds. Outside a race track, you simply can't find a place where you can enjoy it. Everyone understands this, but the rich and famous continue to buy meteor-like crossovers. Today, the X6 has even surpassed the X5 in sales.
The top engine in the X6 lineup produces 407 horsepower and 600 Nm of torque. It's a pity that with all this wealth, you can't experience the emotions that two-hundred-horsepower Seat Altea Freetrack, Subaru Forester, or Mazda CX-7 give. They are slower but much more fun. The Bavarian X6 is too serious to turn its characteristics into sparks of joy. Maybe yellow color and airbrushing with cartoon characters will save it?.. It would seem that the nineties have long passed into history, dissolved into anecdotes, but no—'gangsta' cars still roam the roads, even though quite decent people are behind the wheel. For them, a BMW is like an iron door with a safe lock, like a virtual grenade launcher.
But let's get back to the test. I don't like the heavy and thick steering wheel, although for such a car it might be quite appropriate. Obviously, the X6 handles well, but you have to pay for it with excessive feedback. The powerful engine makes you wait for both turbochargers to kick in. Personally, I prefer a naturally aspirated character, but, I repeat, the X6 is a very successful model on the market, and people simply don't think about such trifles.
The active rear differential, designed for sporty maneuvers, also helps the X6 off-road. Once I drove diagonally up a hill and, not calculating the wheelbase length, sat on the left sill. Any other equally heavy SUV would ask for another attempt, but this one, spinning clockwise around the fulcrum, calmly climbed to the top. We have already said more than once that the latest generation of X-Drive behaves quite decently off-road, and this was confirmed again. And the powerful engine is just right here—das ist fetisch, ja-ja.