BMW 650CI Reviews

And another few grand that you’ve just remembered you left in those ski pants you wore to St Moritz.  And, because you’re a bit bored and you’ve already got too many plasma screens, you feel like buying a BMW. Should be simple, right? Sadly not.These poor rich bastards are faced with a plethora of choices that must make it an almost painful process, the latest of which is the newly upgraded and tweaked 6 Series, a $212,000 executive coupe (or a $228,800 convertible) that leaves this scribbler utterly baffled (those prices are up $6000 on the model they replace, in case that worries you).Buyers in this rarefied air can, after all, scrape just a bit more money out of the change bowl on top of the fridge and buy an M5, for $231,500.The M5 is perhaps the most practical supercar on earth, because it has four doors, a boot and genuine seating for four adults, as well as a ground-wobbling, mind-boggling V10 engine under the bonnet which can send all of those four adults into paroxysms of delight, effortlessly. Alternatively, they could spend $157,700 and buy what is arguably an even better, or at least more purely enjoyable, BMW – the M3.Again, they can thrill their friends and themselves at the same time, because it’s a genuine car as well as a genuine sports car. And with the change they could buy a 1 Series for the wife, or another week’s skiing.So why would anyone choose the 6 Series? Well, after driving it, that’s a question I still can’t answer.In isolation, it’s a fine vehicle indeed, powered by a delicious, creamy 4.8-litre V8 that’s good for 270 cultured kilowatts and 490Nm.It can dash from a standing start to 100km/h in 5.2 seconds, which is down from 5.5 seconds on the model it replaces (5.6 seconds for the convertible, down from 5.8).It’s also quite phenomenal to drive, for a vehicle that looks, and feels, as hefty as James Packer.At 1650kg, it’s no lightweight, yet it changes direction and deals with difficult road surfaces with almost arrogant aplomb.Only when zig-zagging sharply are you aware of all that weight shifting from side to side, but the car is so damned clever, and so perfectly balanced, that it never feels like it’s going to get out of control.Push it, as hard as you dare, and it will merely stifle a yawn and take everything you throw at it, leaving you with very little sensation of severity in your cloistered cabin.It also has the kind of steering that BMW is justifiably famous for, with plenty of weight and just the right kind of feedback to keep you involved. And yet… it’s not that fast, or, to be fair, it just doesn’t feel that fast, because everything it does is slightly reserved.The engine probably could sound fabulous, like the V8 in the M3, but it seems like it’s been swaddled in sound-deadening materials.There’s also a constant sense that you are in a very big, very wide car – an impression intensified when you get out and look at its slightly disturbing shape.Impressive and regal from front and side-on, the 6 falls down rather badly at the back, where it looks either like a mastodon with a broken nose or someone with an awful hair lip.But it certainly has presence, and that seems to be what the 175 buyers who shell out for a 6 Series each year in Australia are after – something different, something that sets them apart from the BMW-buying herds.It’s fair to say this car is also more of a cruiser than a bruiser, so perhaps it’s aimed at slightly older motorists, who want class and quality and power, but not too much excitement, thanks very much.It’s certainly easy to see why they might enjoy the convertible, which is a boulevard stroller par excellence.The windscreen is just the right height that the wind lightly tousles your hair, like an affectionate uncle, rather than ruffling it and the heated seats are so good that we enjoyed top-down motoring, even on a 13-degree day.It’s also one of those new breed of convertibles that makes you wonder whether scuttle shake is just an old blokes’ tale.The changes to this 6 Series are quite difficult to see, unless you’re a complete trainspotter, but they include new “sportive” side skirts, new headlights and blinkers, new materials for the uber posh interior and – the admittedly very cool and Buck Rogers-looking – new gearknob. There’s a new gearbox of tricks attached to that, of course, which allows the vehicle to change cogs almost imperceptibly, and apparently faster than ever before.Push the sport button and the changes get even faster, and the gearbox won’t even touch sixth gear, just to keep you charging hard.The interior also gets the new iDrive “favourite” buttons, which aren’t, we’re told, and admission that iDrive is too difficult to use. Just as the “fairness test” wasn’t an admission that WorkChoices was too onerous.There are also plenty of groovy options, like Heads-Up Display, which works brilliantly, and night-vision, which doesn’t.For $1200 you can even have a “lane departure warning” system, which vibrates the steering wheel to wake you up if you dozily drift.This is effectively paying $1200 to admit to people that you’re a crap, inattentive driver. But if you are one, please do get the system, it might save the rest of us.Another $4500 will get you the Active Cruise Control system, which is a way of saying that you’re such a lazy, dozy driver, you’d prefer the car to do everything for you. It could be, in fact, the first nail in the death-of-driving coffin.Of course, if you option it up with all these things your 6 Series will now cost as much as an M5, which you should have bought in the first place. 

No one at BMW is waiting for the new year to get a start on diets, resolutions or new models.Next year will be huge for the German brand, which is finalising plans for a range of new diesel engines and will have new models including the M3 sedan, so it rushed its newest update through before Christmas.The latest 6-Series gets some subtle design changes and a new six-speed sports automatic transmission with paddles in place of a traditional gear lever.The result is a quicker 0-100km/h for both the 6-Series coupe and convertible, dropping the hardtop to 5.2 seconds and the open-air model to 5.6, without any changes to the car's 270kW V8 engine.On the design side, the 650i gets some minor tweaking.There are new sporty side skirts, a lower contour edge, newly designed light clusters and wider bars in the front spoiler, for more character without a loss of glamour.The biggest design change to the 6-Series is at the rear, which has a revised boot lid and is more concave underneath the rear spoiler.But the changes do not come cheap. The 2008-model 6-Series now starts at $212,000 for the coupe and $228,800 for the convertible.Hit the road and you instantly notice the 6-Series is a big, heavy car.But as the price suggests, it has all the performance you would expect from a two-door luxury sports car, with great control on winding roads, responsive and agile handling, and a strong feel through the steering.The new transmission, which is also available now as an option on the 5-Series, makes the drive even sharper, whether uphill or on long, straight roads.The 6-Series still has run-flat tyres, which can get a little noisy, but now drives on newly designed 18-inch light-alloy double-spoke wheels, with 19-inches available as an option.Other additions include soft-close electrically assisted doors, cruise control with brake function, as well as a USB/audio interface, which means you can now connect your iPod and control it with ease through i-Drive.The soft-top comes with what BMW calls SunReflective Technology on the leather seats and interior.A jet fighter-style head-up display remains standard on the 6-Series, with the speed reflected on to the windscreen in front of you, which is useful and not distracting.One significant safety improvement is the recently developed active headrests, which in rear-end collisions direct the head restraints to automatically move closer to the occupants.Fuel consumption is rated at 11.1 litres and 11.7 litres for 100km, but on a 280km run we averaged about 13 litres in the coupe and 15 litres in the convertible.Though the sportier M6 models miss out on the basic design changes and the new transmission, they get the new features, raising the price by $3000.So the M6 coupe is now $279,400 and the M6 convertible $299,000.The update also brings several new exterior and interior colour options to the entire 6-Series range.Despite the hefty price, you can still dip into the optional equipment list for the 6-Series and the choices now include a lane-change warning system, Stop&Go functioning on the cruise control, BMW Night Vision and a premium sound system.  INSIDE VIEWBMW 6 SERIESPRICES 650i Coupe $212,000, Convertible $228,800, M6 Coupe $279,400, Convertible $299,000ENGINE 4.8-litre V8OUTPUT 270kW/490NmTRANSMISSION six-speed automatic, rear-wheel-driveCONSUMPTION Coupe 11.1 litres/100km, convertible 11.7 litres/100km 

At least the inclemency allowed us to test the efficacy of the lid on BMW's updated 6 Series Convertible during a 250km autobahn and B-road ride through Bavaria last week. Maybe we should tour it through the worst drought zones when it arrives in Australia a few weeks before Christmas.At a time when the lids of many convertibles are hardening up in the form of folding metal or composite jobbies, the revised 6's top stays soft. Suffice to say it works in the grimness of a central European autumn and if you want something more substantial there's the considerably cheaper (but still prohibitively expensive) Coupe, which is to be relaunched alongside the ragtop.The 650i is a quintessential German grand tourer, as relentlessly effective consuming freeway kilometres as it is comfortable and compliant when cruising a country road.Really, the only time the softness of the top is apparent (and with us, it's always up) is with wind noise that comes with the sort of speeds that would get you summarily executed in Australia.To a (too) great an extent the 650i's resonant 270kW/490Nm V8 will be wasted on us. Oh, the joys of driving in Germany, where cars are cars and the people are taught to drive them ...Still, the revised line-up hardly lacks for readily appreciable additions that bring the big two-doors into line with the more recent iterations of the X5 and 5 Series.Tactile touches include sun-reflective leather upholstery and a new colour choice of saddle brown, chrome-grey gauges, reshaped and more powerful LED headlights, restyled boot, plus comfort access and soft-close doors.Technical tune-ups run to DSC with Active Cruise Control and Stop/Go function, driver's heads-up display, the less fraught version of i-Drive and a night-vision option.Best of all is the automatic sports transmission controlled with the X5/5 Series electronic gear selector that might have been modelled on a computer's joystick. While a six-speed manual is available via special order there can be few complaints about the rapidity of the auto's gearshifts and the seamlessness with which it transmits power to the rear wheels.Manual mode is engaged conventionally enough by slotting the gearstick to the left of Drive, though the most satisfactory method of changing for yourself is via the paddle shift which allows temporary manual over-ride.You can engine brake into sharp bends, accelerate out and allow the Drive mode to resume automatically.Touching off the sport mode button noticeably sharpens cog swaps and throttle response. Even when its power is not being tapped, the Bimmer feels potent, as though it wants to spring forth.In rapid deployment it just piles along, reaching 100km/h from standing in an improved time of 5.6 seconds, keeping overtaking exposures to a minimum.Relentless and poised on the wide, open tarmac, the 1800kg plus 650i is a blunter instrument on back roads. It's able, however, to keep a correct line longer than most would be willing to push it.The Active Steering that wouldn't be so welcome on a sports coupe is as perfectly suited to the 6 Series as the auto, underwritten by Cornering Brake Control.The stoppers are hydraulically controlled swing-calliper numbers with inner vented discs that scrub speed emphatically but with a feel and progression that suit them equally to low-speed urban and triple-figure open-road stopping.The 650i's everything expected from a big Bimmer, delivering satisfaction that increases incrementally with the steerer's ability, but accessible and rewarding even to the meek.Visually the optional 19-inch alloys shod in low-profile Pirelli runflats are a happy match. But Bavaria's roads ain't ours, so stick to the 18s.These shoes should serve you as soundly as the Bimmer's soft hat, come rain or shine. Though we can only guess about the latter... BMW 650i ConvertiblePrice: $228,800 (Coupe $212,000)Engine: 4.8L/V8, 270kW/490NmEconomy: 11.9L per 100km0-100km/h: 5.6 seconds 

BMW's new 650i Coupe is one significant car. It sits high on 18-inch wheels and with its striking exterior (in corporate silver of course) this machine ensures you are going to turn heads. With a pricetag of $204,000 you would certainly want to be noticed.It hardly seems fair to be testing this car around Sydney where it stops being legal, even on open motorways, at 110km/h. Its 250km/h top speed was made for German autobahns, however you can still enjoy the awesome power of this machine through its acceleration. It hits 100km/h in just 5.5 seconds.The new 650i model replaces the old 4.4-litre 645Ci. Its larger 4.8-litre V8 engine boasts 270kW of power at 6300rpm and 490Nm of torque at 3400rpm. That's an improvement in output of 10 per cent in both figures over the previous car.Administering the power is a six-speed Steptronic auto transmission. Features over the old model include revisions to the still-confusing iDrive controller that sits in the centre console for functions ranging from operating the gorgeous sound system to the 3D satellite-navigation mapping. BMW copped flak when the iDrive was launched a few years ago and subtle changes have improved it. Nonetheless, a serious read of the instruction manual and a decent hands-on practice session is needed to master it.Without any directions on the button itself (everything is displayed on the dashboard screen) you need to adopt some logical thinking. The screen also offers television viewing but not until you are stopped.Just like with in-home TV sets, reception varies widely across Sydney.However, the true technical gizmo that makes you marvel when you first drive this car is the Head-Up speed display, which is projected on to the windscreen ahead of the driver. It can be distracting at times, particularly in traffic, but generally it achieves its aim of keeping the driver's eyes focussed on the road and not on dashboard gauges. Inside, the 2+2 configuration clearly stamps the notion that this is a driver's car.There isn't a lot of storage space and while head and leg room in the rear is good for a coupe, it's not sensational. It does, however, provide all occupants with enough creature comforts and bells and whistles to remind them they are travelling in luxury.The driver has a wealth of functions to play with. These include the ability to alter the driving mode to suit road conditions with the quick press of a button.The steering, gearbox and accelerator respond faster for sportier driving and the headlight display is impressive.BMW's adaptive bi-xenon headlights beam around corners while the high-beam setting is active. It can judge traffic and lighting conditions to automatically turn high beam on and off. So, all in all, I'd love to have one in the driveway. It's just the small matter of $204,000 (which buys a two-bedroom unit in the outer-Sydney suburbs and whole houses in country NSW).BMW packs a range of standard features into the price including dynamic stability control and dynamic brake control. Safety features include parking distance control front and rear. This not only chimes loudly when you get close to anything, it also provides an on-screen display to see which bit of your super coupe is in danger.Extras include 19-inch wheels for $2200, a climate-control windscreen for $600, active cruise control for $4500 (cruise control accessed by a switch on the steering column is standard) and an even better sound system with 13 rather than the standard 11 speakers for $1760. For $470 you can even have a heated steering wheel.Now that's luxury.

27 May 2006/span> Luxury beyond the limits|http://search.carsguide.news.com.au/news/research/specifications/search-results.do?pageSize=&clearCompare=true&make=BMW&model=650Ci&year=2005 |http://search.carsguide.news.com.au/news/find-a-car/power-search/search-results.do?searchType=5&clearCompare=true&view=1&make=BMW&model=650Ci&priceFrom=&priceTo=