BMW X6 XDrive 35i (2008) CAR review

Announcing the launch of the world’s first sports activity coupe is rather like announcing the world’s first six-decker sponge cake – probably quite tasty, but hardly a Jaffa cake moment, and way too tall to enjoy without getting yourself in a right mess.

So you don't think much of the BMW X6?

I wouldn’t say expectations of the X6 are low – it’s a BMW after all – but it’s genuinely hard to know how to approach a car that offers so little excuse for its existence. Usually you’re looking for a performance against expectation – will it handle as we hope, can it go off road, will the engine amaze, is the cabin the hoped-for revelation? But here the expectations boxes stand empty. So an open mind will have to do.

All very well, but you can’t ignore the X6’s looks, even if you’re being charitable. If you barrel-rolled an X5, or maybe jacked up a 6-series, you might expect a similarly resolved outcome – a kind of confident front end tailing off into an inexplicably flattened-off rear, the trajectory of which serves no purpose other than to look swoopy.  It’s a very uncomfortable look, like something on a catwalk that you know was designed by a genius, but which you secretly think looks rubbish. On the road it looks over-sized and disproportionate, and its body squats on its high haunches like the sort of nasty bugs that ran riot in The Mummy Returns. Oh dear.

Click 'Next' below to read more of our BMW X6 35i first drive