[Palmnuts]

So here it is, the first e90 post review of the new M6, and the only one you'll ever need.

If you've been following a variety of other threads, you'll be nicely up to date on how I got to BMW Oxford to pick up a new (OK, 1k-mile ex-demo) M6 last Saturday. But let it be known, when I arrived at the dealer I very nearly pulled out of the deal as I did not want this car!

I actually purchased it blind, and I mean totally blind because, other than a glance of a white M6 when I was in LA a few weeks ago, I've never seen one in real life. However, that fleeting glance smacked me right in the face because I'd been considering what to replace the SLS with for a few weeks and had narrowed the choice to.....erm......well, I didn't really know. A 991 maybe?

I was in a pickle, as trying to replace my dream car wasn't easy (even though it annoyed and occasionally disappointed me, as much as I wanted to really like it). The problem with SLS was that it was my dream car, and cost a fair bit too, so I expected perfection in every way. It delivered in many respects but I think my expectations of a low-volume and fairly focussed sports car didn't reflect reality or in many respects, the Jaguar XKR-S that I had previously. I know I'm a big-GT kinda person because I rate über-refined, tight and rattle free cars with a feeling of proper 'thrust'. So, when I noticed the M6 looked so good, and significantly more muscular compared to normal 6 series (mainly due to wider tracks, flared arches and massive arch-filling wheels), it brought back memories of how good my previous M6 was in most of the areas that I rate as important. It went straight to the top of my list.

Whilst on the beach, I researched every M6 for sale in the UK and noticed that pretty much none had sold since I last looked, which as well before I got the SLS. When I got home, it took me all of a couple of days to agree a deal (with my local dealer Sytner being their usual incompetent selves at closing me down on a deal, in total contrast to BMW Oxford and Coopers Croydon who both worked very hard to sell me their respective cars).

I plumped for the car at Oxford as it was nearly as cheap as the cheapest, but in the exact colour combo that I thought I wanted (remembering, I'd not seen one yet). After seeing the white one in LA, I would've actually liked a white M6 but, given my priority was to get the whitish/silver 'Silverstone' interior, that would never look right on a white car. I settled for a new colour called San Marino Blue, which pictures really do no justice to - it's very striking!


Collection and First Impressions

So, I'd pulled up at the dealer not really wanting the car I hadn't seen. A miserable me met the salesman and the poor bloke could feel the sale slipping away, which he acknowledged and was very reasonable about. He took me to the car and just left me to it to work out what I wanted to do.

I've got to say, when I first set eyes on it (rear 3/4 view...it's best angle IMO) I was very pleasantly surprised. Indeed, I thought that in its San Marino Blue it looked sharp....sharper than the SLS. It was huge too (and still is!) but I don't mind big cars so thats OK.

Beautifully proportioned, sleek and with 'stance'....the XKR-S was good at the rear, the SLS at the front but the M6 is the first car I've had where both front and rear wheels sit right out and level with the wheelarches, which exaggerates the width and muscularity of the car. It could sit a few mm lower, but pictures I've seen of lowered examples on H&R's are too low - BMW have got it just right with the new Competition Pack coming out in the summer (-10mm, but then ruined that car with crap wheels) but on the whole, it's probably one of the best looking cars I've had. And this is the general feedback I've had from people, with an overwhelmingly positive response that has surprised me as I still think it's relatively ordinary compared to the SLS

Theres lots of pictures below so you can judge for yourself on the looks



Interior

Lets get this out of the way first - it is simply the best finished car I've had to date. It has the £6.5k full leather option and as you'd expect, it's door to door leather and alcantara. Jeez, even the steering wheel airbag and spokes are covered in smooth nappa leather! Yes, the SLS and XKR's were similarly well finished but the Jag's leather wasn't quite a nice and there was still some plastic on show on the doors (OMG, how fussy is that being!) and Id documented how much the SLS tended to rattle so, all in all, the M6 best them for a combination for quality and materials.

The design is modern and interesting, with the lovely curved dash cocooning both passengers and swooping in all directions. The telematics screen is huge and very sharp and the modern iDrive is as good as remember it in my last M3 (although I'm sure the screen in that wasn't as high-def and, apart from the ability to do a split screen which is very useful, I'm not sure if it's better overall than the latest Comand in our E-class coupe). However, my favourite bit is the steering wheel, which is very much like an old-skool M-car wheel - a really small round boss with thin round spokes. I don't know how, but they really seem to have fitted an airbag into a boss no bigger than non-airbag steering wheels form the '80's! The rim is really small in diameter, as well as nice and thick and well padded in a typical BMW M way so it's a joy to look at and hold.

The seats are the standard 'sports' seats as opposed to the optional dynamic seats. With the somewhat integrated headrests, the sport seats actually look much more stylish than the upgrade seat; they're also comfortable with nice long supportive squabs but, they're not the most supportive especially laterally in the backrest which has no functionality to adjust the width of the bolsters. To be fair though, I am comparing it to the SLS seats which were about the best you could get in this respect, although they were a little short in the squab in comparison - it seems BMW giveth with one hand, and taketh with the other.

The head-up display is very effective - it's high definition and even shows detailed colour displays for sat nav and revs if you want it to. You never need to look away for directions when you've got a destination programmed!

The rear is bigger than the last M6 and huge compared to the XKR which couldn't fit an adult in the rear. I'm average height and can sit behind myself reasonably comfortably.

The standard stereo is unbranded but in sound and functionality is typical of the Harman Kardon systems (are BMW just not branding them anymore?) - it's pretty good if some way short of the Bowers and Wilkins in the Jaguars. At least it doesn't distort and the interior has better acoustics than the SLS which simply had too many speakers for such a tight cabin. Despite my chequered experience of B&O, I would have liked this option but none of the M6's had it spec'd....which is odd because you'd think that BMW would spec their launch demo cars to showcase the latest technology?

Whats not so good, simply because I am comparing it to almost perfection in the SLS, is the driving position. Firstly (and this isn't a bad thing), its the first car that I can't have the seat at it's lowest position - it goes so low that it feels unnatural! However, the pedals do feel a tad too close to the seat, or they're at a slightly too shallow an angle - either way, the base of them tend to push my legs a touch more upwards than I was used to in the SLS but I've largely got used to it in the last week.

On the whole though, it's a bloody nice place to shit and feels expensive and luxurious. Theres no rattles and it feels extremely tight over all surface. OK, the first day I got it there was a vibration from the drivers door lock pin which was so noticeable as the interior is so quiet (actually, it looked like a bit of poor design as it's just not held tight enough where it comes through the door trim) but it was nothing that a couple of mm of felt shoved in the gap didn't fix!



Performance

Its frankly ridiculous, if quite unremarkable at the same time.

Ridiculous because it is so fast, and the acceleration so relentless as it bangs through the gears, that I'd be surprised if anything else I've had would out-run it.....no small feat for a 1900kg car!

The gearchange really does show up the SLS's, even post the upgrade I had done, as in all 3 modes it is instant, no matter how many gear changes you select in one go. They key differences between the modes are very noticeable:

1. Is very smooth, yet still instant, but holds onto gears longer
2. Has a slightly perceptible gear change and kicks down more readily
3. Is very responsive and is programmed to give a kick on every gear change

I like them all, in different circumstances!

All in all, you wouldn't believe how quick this car gets up to speed and how quick the speedo moves round the dial. It revs really well, unbelievably so in comparison to other turbo cars I've driven. Unlike most boosted cars, it pulls hardest above 6k, right up to the 7.2k cut-off which is a great asset when combined with solid and relentless thrust from about 2k rpm upwards. Imagine an e92 M3 at 8k+ rpm, but with twice the feeling of thrust up to that point!

Economy wise, it's doing about 18mpg in the stop-start commute. It actually does have stop start too , which is so much more satisfying in this than in other cars I've had with it (mainly diesels) - the M6 gives a nice 'whump' when it restarts Unfortunately, that nice whump means it takes a split second longer to catch, so you have to remember that when pulling away! At a constant 80ish, it does as high as 33mpg and on my first tank, I averaged 24mpg. Has to be some kind of miracle from a car of this weight and performance??

So, why is it also unremarkable? Well, it's very refined so hides wind noise especially well and disguises speed as well as I remember my previous M6 (which if memory serves me right, was still the most refined high-speed car I've had to date). You just don't notice the speed pile on.

But, the throttle response also doesn't help - it has three settings ranging from Efficient to Sport Plus. The Efficient setting is designed to do not a lot unless you use a lot of throttle. As it defaults to this on every start-up, I'm sort of getting used to it but it means it doesn't 'feel' that quick initially. In Sport it's much better and in Sport Plus it's very responsive, without being hyper, so it's ability to feel fast is often more about having the throttle map in the right setting than anything else! In all settings, I don't think I've driven a car that gives you such a perceptible extra shove from the final few mm of throttle travel, so it's clearly mapped to utilise all of its pedal travel.

All in all, and following an overtake of 3-4 cars on a short stretch of road, I would describe the performance and very efficient - the thrust just shoots it down the road and the gearchange hammers home the next wave of performance very.....efficiently!

Anyway, no matter how good the performance is currently, I won't be able to resist a 650bhp+ remap (downpipes and remap I think seems to equal about 680bhp...enough for this huge lump to literally drive away from a 997 Turbo S if the videos on GT Board are anything to go by )


Sound

Deserves it's own section but not for the same reason as the SLS did! It's different, lets put it that way and my first experience of having a car with fake sound pumped through the speakers.

Firstly, as I said before, it is VERY refined so you'd probably hear bugger all without some help! And the reproduced sound never sounds like it's coming out of the speakers, which makes you think that it's all a lie and it;s not fake after all. But, when you open the window you notice two things....

1. that inside it sounds remarkably similar to the real sound you can hear outside and
2. that the sound really is fake as theres the slightest, minutest of delays, which gives away the fact that it has piped sound

Still, the likeness and accuracy is crazy and when I took one of the guys from work down to London in it during the week, the fact it was a fake sound simply blew his mind!

The actual sound isn't bad, but it's totally different to an AMG or my Jag's! It's quite a bassy 'high-tech' (futuristic?) sound rather than old-skool muscle car and as such, it has it's own (if less outwardly impressive or obvious) character.

Do I prefer it to the AMG's and Jag's? Probably not, but then it has a kind of novelty at present.


Headlights

My first experience of full LED headlights so deserve their own section.

I used them for the first time last night and WOW - the whiteness of light is quite a step ahead of even xenons, which you can see clearly when you pull up next to a car with xenons.

I was a little concerned given my experience with LED's in the home which tend to look bright, but have poor range so don't light down to the floor very well.

On the contrary, these have a very broad and long range, the main beam is sensational and the dynamic workings noticeable and helpful - the motorway setting in particular (which it morphs into at about 75mph, as long as you don't have the auto-high beam selected) is unbelievable what range it gives without a high beam! Apparently, they can even sense crests (and shorten the range) and dips (where they lengthen the range) to give the best view ahead!


Dynamics

This car has so many settings across gearbox, throttle map, suspension stiffness, steering weight, and DSC that I'm sure it works out to be about 240-odd combinations you can have!

I've already touched on throttle and gearbox but the steering settings are a bit weird and unnecessary. I simply leave it in comfort (the lightest) as even that setting can weight up when you're trying to push this weighty machine through a fast direction change. Sport is OK, with a heavy weight that is bearable but Sport Plus is frankly too heavy. The steering is pretty dead in feel and nowhere near as responsive as the SLS from the straight ahead, but that car was unusually responsive (almost go-kart like) off centre. It is still precise and able to be easily placed though.

The suspension has a helluva job to do though, especially as the car gains momentum so quickly. The three settings aren't as immediately obvious as they are in the M3 but once you lean on the chassis a bit, the stiffness of Sport Plus is welcome when driving fast on smooth roads and the compliance of Comfort needed on more challenging surfaces!

I drive a heavily undulating B-road to get to work everyday and it's a little bit unhinged how well the M6 copes - both the Jag and Merc felt tighter to the road initially but, once above 60mph, their stiffness would generate a lot of vertical body movement and in the case of the Merc, even the feeling of air between tyre and road surface. No such chance in the weighty M6, which remains pinned to the surface and, whilst it can still generate some big up and down body movements (amazingly, less so when left in Comfort setting) I was bamboozled to find it was doing a good 15-20mph more than I felt comfortable in either of the other two cars over the same stretch.

It rides very well too (other than speed bumps - it doesn't much like short sharp bumps) and whilst I would hardly call it dynamic, overall I'd say it's a VERY 'effective' and, I'll use that word again, efficient ground coverer. Some of the press have likened it to a 2WD Nissan GT-R, which with my limited experience of the GT-R I'd concur with (except the M6 rides so much nicer).



So, that's my mini review after my first week and, apart from losing the 'status' of the SLS , I am very happy with it. I wouldn't say I prefer it to the SLS or vice versa (or even compared to the XKR-S) as they're all just so different - each unique in their own way and with their own strengths. Discounting that fact that it looks more ordinary/traditional compared to the SLS or even the XKR-S, the overall ethos, ground covering ability and unreal build quality of the M6 means it's probably the ideal car for me and the best all-rounder to date....as you would expect considering it's the most modern and almost the most powerful (conceding just 3bhp to the SLS) car I've had.

As my girlfriend said when I was stood next to it deliberating on whether to do the deal or not (and she didn't want me to sell the SLS on the basis that she knew what it meant to me), for my stage in life, my needs and my expectations, it's the more suitable car for me.




























Stance!!

[flyfs6]

What a lovely car you've got there...and thank you for an excellent review. I like photo location too.

Although a San Marino is a very striking colour, I actually prefer its subtleness over White. The colour combination is also perfect.

The new M6 feels like a proper old school M car should but a lot more refined & luxurious than anything else I seen from them for a while.

[RichJ]

Very nice!

[Gibbo]

Andrew, understand your pain it's difficult when you have had a nice car and then slum it in a a banger for a while, especially when not fully your decision.

On the positive side I like the colour very similar to the old Avus Blue from the mid 90s which is a personal favourite of mine. Enjoy your new motor, great review, honest as always good and bad from a top bloke.

[phil200tdi]

Excellent write up!

Just a minor typo "nice place to shit" which you may like to correct!

I have to say the car is stunning and is certainly the best GT onsale today. Hope you grow to appreciate it as time goes by...

[zedman]

Lovely car that, exterior colour looks well nice. What did you do with the SLS then? Was it a px or did you do a separate sale?

I wish that car was a downgrade for me....!

[safety_james]

Superb read, thanks for writing it!! I saw one in the flesh the other day at work in a orange/red colour, and it wasn't half as nice as the blue you have!

[Snooky]

Love it Andrew!

The exterior colour is the same as my local dealers demo car and I think it is the best colour choice.

Great review as always and I wish you well with the M6!

[Mani59]

Fantastic! Looks great in San Marino Blue.

[briers]

Love it great write up as usual

Well done for going for a distinctive colour, I'm getting very fond of these lighter blues on quick cars and this one defiantly does the m styling justice.

However all things aside, that interior... Wow

No more needs to be said, its a massive step up from the old m6 interior, now a cabin that justifies the price tag.

Glad to hear no squeaks or rattles in this car. It's a miracle

[briers]

Looking back at it again, you can't be too upset saying goodbye to the SLS considering its replacement.

I think it looks and sounds in principle like a fantastic all round package. Surprising space, performance, looks and economy for its weight and power.

Like the lip spoiler in profile but not keen on the painted callipers.

[hmi1750]

Excellent write up as usual Andrew, thanks for making us feel part if it!

The colour is amazing, as is the spec!

Look forward to sitting behind you in this sometime, as with the old!

[Kerr]

Lovely car.

Seen an M6 in the showroom in Aberdeen and thought it was beautiful. All the new 6 series are and very rare.

[peterg1965]

Great write up as usual Andrew. It looks like familiar territory to me, however, the steering wheel looks chunkier and the seats appear to be a little more supportive than the standard M Sport. I have to say, the choice of colour is inspired, also the interior, it looks amazing. I am disappointed with my Carbon Black, it looks so drab when its dirty. The alloys look very purposeful, are they 21"?

I dont wish to enter into a "how long will this one last debate?", however, as nice as this car is, I don't even give it 6 months.......

[mowflow]

Mmmmmm. Same colour combo as the demo in one of my local dealerships. I walked up to it to have a sit in it and the bastards had locked the doors. Only car in the showroom that was locked. Presumably to stop dirty plebs like me from handling things they could never afford.


PS. Is that M badge on the front removable? I know the badge belongs on the car but... You know.

[zltm089]

Good write up!...Much better pics than the FB one I saw...

[scottc]

Andrew, I think that car is stunning and I have to admit I do prefer it to the SLS (which I didn't think I would)

The colour combo is perfect and the interior is another level, all that leather. I would suggest investing is a good leather conditioner (and a lot of it)

Personally I think it's one of the nicest cars you have owned, the Jag was stunning but I think this has the overall package.

I don't want to take anything away from your new car but Like Pete I do wonder how long it will last. I am not sure it's special enough for your taste but hey more than happy to be proved wrong . I have a feeling a 991 will be sitting on your drive in 6 months..

[jrah]

Always a great read, who needs Autocar with reviews like these!!!

Lovely colour combo too, I was expecting the exterior to be darker, however this colour really suits the car, and most importantly matches the colour of the brake callipers

[CHG]

Agree with Scott... I much prefer it to the SLS...

It's absolutely stunning...

[FRG]

Great read yet again. The car looks superb, brilliant combo with that interior. It looks huge in the square on front end shot. Very nice.

[E92westy]

As ever, a great read and an awesome car!
Thanks for taking the time.
Blue seems to be making a come back...

[MEGA]

Beautiful. I'll say it straight up: I prefer it to the SLS. It's definitely less in your face. It's generally a stunning car rather than the offensive 'fucking well take notice' factor that the SLS barked at all who saw it.

For the reasons you decided to 'change down' I think you've achieved exactly what you set out to do: and with it also picked up a real beauty here...

Dave