Serious talk now, there has been a disease spreading across the automotive world called the "oiseeugotanewmodelletmejuscopythatandstealursales' bug. Now this bug has been around since Karl Benz put out the first car. This has brought up some good rivalry [Ferrari vs Lamborghini] and at the same time some companies took it too far [Chevrolet Corvair] But since the end of the 90s this bug has hit hard, especially in Deutschland.
Ingolstadt vs Munich
The boys from Audi and BMW have been bitching back and forth, if you've been paying attention to their ads you'll just see its plain hilarious. But all this bitchin is just hiding the fact that they're really scared of the big dog Mercedes-Benz. To me I think Benz comes out with a new 'Class' every day in their offices but their accountants won't allow these ideas to leave the office floor. Of course some slip out, some good some bad, but always unique. Recently Benz added the CLS, GLK, GL and R Class' to their [domestic] line up. All are brand new models which create new segments [GLK is an exception]. Of all these models the one that caught the most stares was the CLS. The CLS was a mix between the stylish and sportiness of a coupe and the practicality of a sedan, it was genius! The CLS 55AMG models proved that all other modes of 4 door high speed transport was irrelevant. Immediately companies brought out the tracing paper. Audi's big/little brother VW launched the Passat CC to sorta test the waters of this new field. Did it work? Well Audi is now developing the CLS rivaling A7 to be out by this year. Now something went wrong in BMW, they thought "ok, lets be smart and not totally completely copy them, lets go one step up!" That brainstorm brought us the X6, the merger of the coupe and the SUV.
Problems of the X6.
Now I like the X5 [which the X6 is based on] it cant go off road but at least it looks presentable.... and its spacious too. Now BMW realized if they wanted to keep the coupe concept they needed to cut out some roofline, this killed the interior space significantly. Also the back looked like it was in an accident. As in imagine if a tree fell on the back of your X5 [of course no one who reads my blog owns an X5] then imagine removing the tree yet u still drive around with the damage round the back, the X6 sorta looks like that. So essentially it's an X5 with the parts that make an X5 good, taken out. But wait there's more! Because its a sporty coupe suv thing, the suspension is even more like a coupe's! [this sucks btw] which means that the same pebbles and grass your X5 struggled to get over, your X6 can't even look at them too tough. And wait there's even more!!! So what could make this vehicle even worse, it's more expensive than the X5. The only good thing about the X6, is the X6M, which is disturbingly fast, but the X5M is just as fast and cheaper.
In the books the X6 is the worst car of modern times yet the sad fact is that BMW has now created its own strain of "oiseeugotanewmodelletmejuscopythatandstealursales' Honda is first up to the plate with the Accord Crosstour and its luxurious brother the Acura ZDX. Now luckily these two have done it right by actually being seen as a more spacious car [ya these are mixes of car and SUV], unfortunately they still retain the X6's ugly gene's. BMW has since brought out the 5 Series GT [which really the ZDX was made to compete with] The 5 Series GT is better than the X6 in the practicality depart but even more ugly. So fortunately for BMW they have created a new class, the halfcoupehalfsuvwithahugeslopingroof, unfortunately for us this has opened Pandora's Box.
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