First Drive: 2012 BMW 650i Cabriolet

 

Los Cabos, Mexico – When is 6 more than 7?

Despite BMW’s official position that the 7 Series sedan is the flagship of its car line-up, there’s little doubt the freshly minted third-generation 6 Series perches one rung higher on the automaker’s aspirational ladder.

Makes sense: it’s big, beautiful, very swift, has two doors and, as I discovered on the bleached southern reaches of the Baja peninsula, flows down the road like liquid mercury. This is grand touring at its finest.

With the Cabriolet version first off the boat (a coupe shows up in the Fall), BMW chose to hold this lid-flipper’s media debut in Los Cabos. This place pretty much describes the 2012 650i Cabriolet’s ideal habitat: sunny climes, smooth roads, golf courses galore and a gathering of high-style folks with more than a few pesos to rub together.

 

The 2012 650i Cabriolet hits our showrooms within weeks, carrying a price of $106,800. My well-equipped tester, sporting many must-have niceties like 20-inch wheels and a host of interior, dynamic and techno upgrades (essential stuff for the well-heeled GT crowd), rang in at $129,000.

Looking at this new smoothed-over 6, one realizes the last vestiges of Chris Bangle’s design tenure at BMW have been pretty much erased. To say Bangle’s second-generation 6 Series caused a kerfuffle when it hit the world stage in 2003 is an understatement.

While this 2012 model is immediately identifiable as a 6 Series, it walks a more conservative path. Gone are the drooping headlights with eyebrow turn signals and the weird rump that looked as though the poor thing had been backed into a guardrail.

It is longer, wider and lower, and features a large elegant twin-kidney grill and character lines that flow over the hood and down its flanks. More mature and better resolved, the 2012 BMW 6 Series no longer seeks controversy.

 

A first for BMW are the 6’s available full LED headlights.

In the interest of reduced weight, less complexity and more luggage room, the new 650i Cabriolet sticks with a fabric top. Like the old model, the “flying buttress” wings of the roof maintain the car’s coupe profile and the vertical backlight retracts independently of the roof. The top goes down in 19 seconds, rises in 24 seconds and will perform its mechanical ballet at speeds up to 40 km/h.

The trunk will accommodate the all-important two sets of golf clubs.

The 6’s swoopy interior is all new, and yes, it will serve up just about everything you’d want in a luxury grand tourer if

you’re willing to pony up for the package upgrades.

Materials and workmanship are beyond reproach, the optional ventilated 20-way front seats with sun-reflective surfaces were supremely comfy and the centre console, which is angled seven degrees towards the driver, is topped with a giant 10.2-inch screen. This displays navigation (standard) in 3-D, plus all other iDrive functions.

My tester was fitted with the clear 3-D head up display that let me know exactly how much faster than the posted speed limits we were going. Nobody here seems to observe these limits, or use signal lights for that matter. And stop signs are put up merely for decoration.

 

 

Ah, but beware the infamous Mexican speed bumps. Hit one of these “sleeping policemen” at speed and you’ll end up sailing into the nearest cantina sans undercarriage.

Despite this 650i’s larger footprint, back seat accommodation falls into the “occasional” category. With two six-footers sitting comfortably in front, the rear perches a

re reduced to nicely upholstered parcel shelves.

So it’s a 2+2 grand tourer, pure and simple. If you’re serious about carrying four adults in drop-top comfort, best look to the $77,500 Mercedes-Benz E550 Cab, the Maserati GranTurismo Cabriolet at $169,900, or the (ahem) Chrysler 200 Convertible, at $29,995.

I’d say the 650i Cabriolet’s nearest competitor is the $114,000 Jaguar XKR Convertible.

Built on the BMW 5/7 Series platform, the 2012 650i wafts its privileged passengers down the road courtesy of a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 that makes 400 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 450 lb.-ft. of torque from 1,750 to 4,500 rpm. Power gets to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic supplied by German specialists ZF. (A no-cost six-speed manual transmission is available only in North America.)

This is an exceptionally smooth drivetrain, and there is always a great wallop of turbo torque only an ankle-flex away. The tranny shifts imperceptibly and responds to flicks of the paddle shifters as quickly as most twin-clutch boxes.

The blown bent-eight makes a suitably muted howl when caned, and on upshifts, you hear delicious “woofs” coming from the tailpipes. This engine isn’t as visceral as the previous naturally-aspirated V8, nor is it much of a revver, running out of poof around 6,000 rpm, but it surely does push this portly GT down the road with little effort.

With all the windows up, wind management in the cabin is quite good. With the multi-layer canvas lid in place, I doubt few buyers will wish for more isolation. This convertible’s structure is very solid, showing nary a hint of cowl shake.

Marking a first for the 6 Series, xDrive all-wheel-drive will be available in the Fall.

As with other BMWs, the available Dynamic Handling Package ($3,900) brings adaptive dampers, four-wheel steering and Dynamic Drive. A rocker switch on the console calls up four dynamic presets (Comfort, Normal, Sport and Sport+). These tailor the functioning of the adaptive dampers, throttle and transmission mapping, steering effort and stability control. As would be expected, the 650i is sharpest in Sport+, and over the sinuous mountain roads of our test route, our big red GT was swift and sure-footed.

If you fool yourself into thinking the 650i is a sports car, however, you’ll find yourself up against lazy turn-in, less than tactile steering and 2,056 kg (about 4,500 pounds) working against you.

So don’t drive it like that; you’re not supposed to. This car likes open roads and grand sweepers – and passing the proletariat in great gushes of turbo thrust.

The new 2012 BMW 650i Cabriolet is a supremely capable grand tourer in the purest sense, and will surely appeal to a wider (read: more conservative) audience than the outgoing model.

Of course, if it’s just a little too ‘Palm Springs’ and not enough ‘Nurburgring’ for you, there will be an M version of both coupe and cabriolet, packing a rumoured 570-hp/530 lb.-ft. version of this engine.

You’ll be wanting to tie those golf clubs down, then.

 

Source: Autos