To make the BMW X6, the company turned to the mechanicals of its X5. The two models both roll from BMW’s Spartanburg plant in the United States and the oily parts of both are, if not quite identical, then at least separated at birth.
Ah yes, the X6’s appearance. Seldom has a car divided opinion as much as this one. And seldom has so much of that opinion been negative. But while the X6 does impose itself perhaps too abruptly for a lot of tastes, it has been adeptly converted from concept to production with little dilution, and it does have some striking angles.
It’s all about presence at the front. The four swaged lines down the bonnet and the large headlights (gas discharge as standard) are all meant to make the X6 look imposing. They do.
The frontal air intakes are split to make the X6 look even wider than it is. Not that they really need to. At 1983mm, it’s 50mm wider than an X5 — about as wide as cars can get before they won’t fit in car washes.
The kidney grilles are the largest ever seen on a BMW. We’re told (though we have our doubts) that they need to be this big to feed the engine with the requisite amount of air. There’s no denying they lend a certain visual impact, though. The revisions have exaggerated this impact further by increasing the the impression of width with the X6. This has been achieved with repositioned fogs, even wider kidney grilles and a new light arrangement.
