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BMW and Porsche "why" cars
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The rear end of BMW's new X6 M. This is also the difference between it and the X5 M.
Ever happen upon a product that made no sense, but somehow stirred your emotions anyway? You scratch your head in confusion, and say to yourself “but I like it”. Could it be that automobile manufacturers have begun to know us better than we know ourselves? Spooky, isn't it? Well, they did have some practice...remember the Pontiac Aztec and the Scion Xb? The former worked out well, while the latter might be aesthetically preferred only to a Survivor's naked run on the beach.
The following two examples are freshly available in the Phoenix area this week.
BMW X6 M
Seriously. A truncated, 555 bhp X5? I'm a bit speechless really. The shape works, yes. It's a very athletic look. Not svelte, but rather muscular. The big wheels balance the whole design, kind of like the 20” wheel option on the Infiniti FX series. A back to back test drive in the equally powerful BMW X5 M punctuated the similarities. I don't have enough room to go into them, so I'll just mention the obvious differences. Well, really, its kind of just one difference. The rear end. Yes, instead of the typical rear lift gate on the X5, the X6 has a big hatch. Basically a hatch-back SUV. The rear floor space is larger than the X5, and it has a nifty storage area underneath the floor (good for hiding your Barney's purchases). The rest of the car is X5 all the way. Front end, interior, suspension, engines, etc. Drive one though, and find out just how fuzzy 555 bhp can make your rational senses.
Porsche Panamera
Changes at Porsche are often accepted only after a rather lengthy period of dissent. The 944's front engine design was blasphemy. The 914 wasn't really a Porsche. The reversible Boxster. Then the Cayenne nearly caused a worldwide chorus of “a Porsche SUV”? Well, Porsche has done it again. I mean really done it. It's been described as a 911 with two extra doors and a bulbous hatch. Blasphemy. I'm now expecting someone to add a Miami pink carport to Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. It's kind of like Maserati's Quattroporte, but with a hatch. Porsche calls it the Panamera. It's an intriguing car, the obvious sins aside. Reports are that the interior is stunning. The turbo version reaches 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. That hatch though. Rumor has it that the original test version was a bit more sleek. In a test drive, a tall Porsche executive complained about the lack of rear seat headroom, and voila, the hatch we have today. So, that leaves one question. Do we need a four door, hatchback 911?
The automobile companies certainly have become forward thinking. Almost psychic. With so many options available to us, the buying public, the reality can't be that they know we'll buy the car for lack of competition. We're well beyond Henry Ford's era of any color so long as its black. The Scion Xb really proved its appeal. Given their track records (BMW's 318ti notwithstanding), I'd bet that the X6 M and the Panamera will likewise be considered successful, even if the target market and sales numbers are somewhat small. Regardless, it is nice to see cutting edge designs hitting the sales floors.
Stay tuned, because its not over. The little hyped BMW 5 series Gran Tourismo is about to hit the dealers.
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