What I am glad to report here is that BMW has gotten rid of all those Chris Bangle ‘Flame Surfacing’ design cue nonsense and crap from the current and outgoing generation of 6 series and have come up with a pretty handsome looking coupe devoid of character lines flowing here and there except where its supposed to be.
BMW has now banished that especially silly rear end of the outgoing 6 series. That model had a rear profile of a Porsche 911 silhouette with a flat boot tacked upon it if you viewed it from the side. If you viewed it from the rear, it just looks weird. And that is why Black was a favourite color for this current generation of 6 series. Black masks the lines well, so well that we won’t cringe when a 6 series passes us by.
This new 6 series concept car has the styling cue from the F01 7 series and the F10 5 series. It has a traditional long bonnet (a phallic symbol anyone?), large BMW nostrils and a slim looking passenger cabin. It reminds us of BMWs from the 1970s and 1980s in a way and while understated compared to the outgoing one, looks more balanced than before. It is a cleaner design, especially when viewed directly from the rear and it looks good when viewed from the rear three-quarter. The front is more of a traditional ‘big grille’ car. Opposing and ‘in your face’. Maybe the BMW nostrils are a little too big. But I will rest my final judgment until I see it in the flesh (when it becomes production ready or if I happen to get really lucky and I get to be in Paris to watch its unveiling at the upcoming Paris Motor Show).
The interior of the 6 series concept looks good. It seems to be dominated by the new display screen in the middle of the dashboard. It still is a driver oriented dashboard (with the asymmetrical center console trimming) and there is more use of aluminum and leather throughout the design. If this were the dashboard of future BMWs, it is a good sign as having sat in most of the current crop of newer BMWs, the material quality in them are lacking compared to an Audi or a Mercedes. Even on the F01 7 series compared to even a W212 E-class. It somehow feels like BMW spent its budget on the exterior, the engine and only left a penny or two for the interior designers to spend.
Anyway, no specs have been given as yet on engines and other details of this 6 series concept and the upcoming production versions of it. Some say that it will be wider and slightly lower than the outgoing model. It could be longer too. However, as for engines, expect the current crop of engines utilized in the 5 series and 7 series to appear in the 6 series. The range topping version would be a M6 powered by BMW’s 550bhp twin turbocharged 4.4liter V8.
BMW states that is expects to launch the production 6 series early 2011 in coupe form and a cabriolet by the end of 2011 or early 2012. This is just something to whet the tastes of the motoring public.
Paris Motor Show, BMW, 6 Series and 2 more...
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