But I thought it was all about horsepower per liter???

Wow, that's almost as bad as the Excursion and Hummer's. I like how they say the hybrid system will boost mileage by 25% instead of the actual mpg rating. If you're starting with 15 mpg 25% doesn't add a whole lot. So we can hope that the hybrid gets 20 mpg, lets throw a party! The thing really doesn't look that good either.

I wish BMW would go back to the early 2000's styling, IMO they've gone down hill in the looks department since then.

The l/100k will be a lot better. But then again, that's cause it'll be a diesel in countries who know how to use the metric system.

LOL @ fools expecting good fuel economy out of a heavy vehicle, i.e. SUVs.

Garbage fuel economy out of a garbage vehicle. I love BMW's but I hate the X6.

This isn't an SUV it's an SAV. Stupid...

Hummers get like 9 mpg, so this isn't the same...

If you think about it, 15 mpg in a 400hp SUV is pretty good. The s2000 only gets 21mpg combined.

They are making a Hybrid, as mentined in the article, so don't everyone go on a ridiculous BMW hate spree.

"They are making a Hybrid, as mentined in the article, so don't everyone go on a ridiculous BMW hate spree."

You mean the same thing Lexus did with a couple of its models and it only gets 1-2mpg better mileage?

Or, you could just buy the Xdrive 35d diesel version. A lot better MPG!!!! This will be the big X6 seller here in Europe!

- Oystein -

@CCL:

If you don't think Heavy Vehicle's can get good gas mileage, look up the Dodge Sprinter. Sure it isn't pretty but it'll carry more stuff and get almost 30mpg as well.

Also the H2 gets 13 hwy but the H3 is rated at 13/18 mpg exactly the same numbers as the BMW, so yes it is the same it just looks a bit better.

Also comparing an S2000 with this to show a combined MPG isn't exaclty fair as the S2000 isn't meant to be a sipper of gas. With an 11:1 compression ratio i'm sure they're running that engine a little rich to keep it from blowing up on hot days. Sure it has a 4 banger but it's a highly tuned engine meant to wring out every last drop of power, not to get good mileage.

@ Gary:

H3's are garbage vehicles, this x6 will outperform your average sports car.

Dodge Sprinters, at least the one you're mentioning, are diesels, which emissions regulations disallow here in the US. So, the comparison is null. I wish we got the 35d here, stupid government...

I know, I like s2000 too. Just being unfair like your Sprinter comparison. : o )

@ John:

What kind of mileage improvements do you expect out of hybrid systems. The Prius gets good mileage for other reasons than it's hybrid drivetrain. I'm willing to be a version with a standard engine would get 40+mpg.

Also, Lexus made the hybrid's their top performance models, which I don't understand either. The BMW system is the same as the Chevy system. (they were codeveloped) So it'll get 25% better mileage than a 6 cylinder otherwise would. It won't be a top performance model (I hope) since the x6 5.0 already is the high performance top of the food chain.

The shift gear really is stupid. What is this, a GTR/PS3 wannabe? Not classy at all. So busy, it looks French to me: this should be in a Citroen, not on a BMW, but what do I know? I didn't like it.

The current FX 35 (280hp) gets 17/23 mpg. I expect the 2009 FX 35/37 to at least reach the 300/330 hp and match the current mileage. Will see about that.

All in all, another ugly BMW. Who cares?

@Cheap Car Lover:

Toyota had a small car with the same basic engine as the Prius - the Echo. We've had 2; the first one would give 40-42 on the highway, the second, around 38.

This article makes me feel better about the 11/15 I get out of my V10 Excursion with 320 hp and 425 lb. ft. of torque.

The gearshifter is stupid, it's electronic. If the car has no power you can't change the gears. I think it's dumb but supposedly it's done for some engineering reason, they couldn't situate things how they wanted to in the trans without giving it a stupid electronic gearshifter.

BMW is making their cars too complicated.

Wow, 13 city is almost Hummer-bad. And I tend to read in real-world tests that larger vehicles and trucks tend not to live up to their EPA estimates. I drove a friends' H2 a few years back and let's just say it didn't get the 11mpg that the EPA pimped. It was about 7.5 real-world city driving. Bugger only got 350km to a 110L fill. Needless to say, rather disappointing.

I would expect a lot more from BMW. You'd think an "advanced" turbo-6 could do at least low-20's mpg.

I don't know what H2s you guys were driving, but the one I have for the company get's 11, 10.8 if you want to be exact. This is also in tow-haul mode about 2/3rds of the time. This makes the engine rev to at least 3k before shifting. So for a 6000 lbs vechile reving at 2800 doing 70 mph with a 5000+ lbs trailer in tow behind is pretty good if you ask me. Now if it was diesel, I would be a happy camper. BTW, it's still better then the box trucks on a good day by 1 mpg, on a bad day 5 mpg.

"The gearshifter is stupid, it's electronic. If the car has no power you can't change the gears. I think it's dumb but supposedly it's done for some engineering reason, they couldn't situate things how they wanted to in the trans without giving it a stupid electronic gearshifter.

BMW is making their cars too complicated."

What do you think the gear shifter is in almost every car today? When you move the shifter, it isn't doing anything mechanical, its simply telling the transmission what you want it to do and lets the transmission decided if its a good idea. The only exception is when you put it in park, it usually has some mechanical method of locking the transmission. And if the car has no power, why would you bother shifting the gears, its not going to get you anywhere? Automatics don't allow you to bump them forward with the starter if your stuck with a dead engine and you cant push start an automatic. Those are the only 2 reasons i can think where you need to shift a car that has no power.

if, for some reason, you want a car that will still shift with no power, get a manual.

I have a manual and I love it. Ever heard of shift lock over-ride, I guess it's for tow-truckers?

The supra had the first ECT in the 80's ( I think) I realize it's not new...

About the Dodge Sprinter:

Other than diesel, its also really low displacement. It takes what, 20 seconds to 60?

But you see, I actually think that that is a GOOD THING. Lets say you take a 200 mile trip where the speed limit is 70. Honestly, how much faster will the car that got to 70 in 7 seconds than the car that took 20 seconds? In reality, maybe a whole two minutes? If I had the will to do so, I could actually come up with the numbers but it really won't be that great of difference.

Yes passing power is useful but honestly, you can't back off the guy in front of you a little and take some more time to accelerate? If he is going seriously slow you won't have much trouble passing him anyway as you come up on him faster.

And city vehicles, I fail to see why most city cars have transmissions the way they do. Why not stick to really low gearing for optimal launching, then just have one or two really high gears for the rare highway trip? Smooth? No, but then again if you maintain consistent speed and don't drive like a moron, you won't be shifting much anyway. Whenever I drive my car on long trips I only take it out of sixth whenever I stop for gas or to piss.

Wow! Mileage as attractive as the car. Great job, BMW.

For the record, I have never owned a car that was an automatic, so by no means am I knocking the manual transmission, though I did learn to drive in an automatic, and drove that car for the first 2 years I drove, so I do have some driving experienced with an automatic. And the car I learned to drive in did have a shift lock override, so I do know what that does too.

The shift lock override is used to get a car out of park manually(e.g. engine is off, foot is not on the brake), which is one of the few uses where I noted that an automatic has a physical connection to the engine. Basically what I'm saying is that if the park setting is the only point where 99% of all modern automatic transmissions have a physical connection from the gear selector to the transmission(and even then the park setting is actually engaging the output shaft of the transmission and not the transmission itself) why are you harping on BMW for using a gear selector that just doesn't look like its connected to anything? Besides, removing the physical connection to the parking pawl probably saves a few pounds of weight, which is always a good thing. A small solenoid to engage the pin and some wires is probably a bunch lighter than a series of levers and pivot points.

As an aside, BMW hasn't had a shift lock override for quite some time in any of their cars.

And yeah, that gas mileage is horrid. I hope they can do something close to what they had with that X5 hybrid they were showing off a few months back up their sleeves. But at least it drives well, at least according to the guys over at C&D.

@ e36jeff

(1) Only click the button labeled 'post' once.

(2) Are you really re-living your first days driving a car?