BMW 6 series 650i 2007 Review

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 Convertible

Price: $228,800 (Coupe $212,000)

Engine: 4.8L/V8, 270kW/490Nm

Economy: 11.9L per 100km

0-100km/h: 5.6 seconds