BMW 645Ci
High-priced spoilage |
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By Richard J. Newman
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NITS: The front cupholder apparatus involves a plastic arm that stows behind the armrest and has to be inserted into a slot in the front—something sure to get lost or broken. An Audi-style recessing cupholder would be much better.
G-FORCES: The 325-horsepower V-8 is so smooth and muscular that often you don't realize how fast you're going. The transmission and other components are equally stable. Cornering is so firm that your shoulders lean heavily into the door before you start to notice any roll in the chassis.
GIZMOLOGY: The dashboard is an artful, minimalist affair, with fewer than a dozen knobs or buttons in the central control area. This, at last, is the simplification promised by the iDrive system, the centralized electronic control module that debuted on the 7 series and then showed up on the 5 series. Most functions, including the radio, climate system, and navigation system, are controlled via a mouse-like knob near the armrest, with info displayed on a dash-mounted screen. Steering-wheel-mounted radio controls add a further bit of convenience. On the convertible, putting the roof down is a state-of-the art one-button effort, with no unlatching or manual stowing required.
KID MARKS: The two bucket seats in the rear are small for adults, but they fit kids quite nicely. Preteens might find their legs pressed against the seatbacks, though. Upscale conveniences like power-assisted seat lifters make navigating that small space a bit easier.
HOT OR NOT: Hot, thanks to a sharklike snout and an aggressive forward-leaning stance. But the fat rear haunches evoke an overdone faux-muscle car.
ENVIROMETER: Mileage ranges from 16 mpg city to 26 mpg highway. Scores on the EPA's air-pollution and greenhouse-gas scale are midrange. Details: www.epa.gov
CRASH COURSE: Has not been crash-tested by the government or by private testing organizations.
PRICE POINTS: Base price is $76,995. Price as tested: $82,495. (All prices include delivery fees.)
MORE INFO: www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/6
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Model year tested: 2004
If you're one of those devoted souls who has chosen a meaningful but humble avocation over a high-paying career, do not drive this car. You will instantly regret your decision.
As alluring as the trappings of wealth can be, most amount to little more than a bit of extra frosting. You don't really need them. I suppose the same is true of the new 645, reintroduced this year for the first time since 1989. You don't really need the effortless thrust of the 325-horsepower V-8 engine, borrowed from the much larger 7 series. You don't need the creaminess of the six-speed manual transmission, or the stellar handling, or the elegant simplicity of the interior, or the funky coolness of the running lights in the door well. But after cruising in the 6, you actually believe you do need all these things. It becomes a hardship to drive a lesser car.
That's a tribute to the holistic completeness of the 645. It's not just fast, or nimble, or stylish, or fun. It does many things well, and perhaps everything well. The engine and transmission and driving dynamics are so smooth that this is one of the rare cars in which I found myself accidentally redlining—unwittingly pushing the RPMs up to the cutoff point—because there was no whine or any other sign the engine was reaching a point of strain. Even the iDrive system, the controversial BMW computer that handles the dashboard controls, has been simplified and refined for the 645. And there's a nominal back seat, a smart improvement over the Z4 Roadster that provides better-than-laughable justification for calling this a family-friendly car. Overall, the package is so slick and pleasing that it starts to seem worth the 80 grand or so it will set you back. So what if your kids have to pay their own way through college?
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