BMW XM review: A bold statement, or just a bold face?
There is no better place than luxury haven Dubai to see how BMW’s most expensive, most powerful car performs
SUN-SCORCHED Dubai has every conceivable luxury, from artificial ski slopes to a man-made archipelago shaped like a desert palm and crowded with houses owned by A-listers and David Beckham.
It has the world’s tallest building, the largest indoor mall, the biggest indoor theme park, the list of superlatives goes on. If you can’t have fun here, you must be the sort who couldn’t have fun if you fell into a barrel of Cristal.
So what better place to drive a BMW XM, a car that has everything, too? It comes with a snarling big V8 engine with two turbochargers and a powerful electric motor, the whole lot nestled behind what must be the world’s biggest grille.
At around S$1.01 million with Certificate Of Entitlement, it’s the most expensive BMW new money can buy. It’s certainly the heftiest, squashing the scales under its 2.7-tonne bulk. Thankfully, with 653 horsepower, it’s also the most powerful.
For some reason, the XM is also a plug-in hybrid, meaning it can tiptoe along on pure electric power for a claimed 85 km. I can’t see why anyone would bother (unless it was to sneak home in the dead of the night, reeking of Cristal), because creeping silently is the last thing this car is about.
Instead, you can tell from its squinty-eyed glower that the XM is meant to go like a thing possessed, more so when dressed in Carbon Black Metallic paint with gold accents.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Friday, 2 pm
Lifestyle
Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.
Oddly enough, because it’s a hybrid the XM starts up with a whirr instead of a roar, but there’s no keeping it quiet for long. Tread heavily on the accelerator and the V8 fires up like someone set off a grenade, and then it launches the big BMW up the road with violence.
The electric motor adds a slug of ready torque, and it’s all so seductively thuggish that before long you’re looking for trouble, trying to find a Ferrari driver to annoy.
That’s the sort of influence that gets you in trouble with the law (ask me how I know), so I thought it might be better to leave the supercar-infested roads of Dubai and take the XM 90 minutes north to Jebel Jais, the rocky mountain that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shares with Oman.
The BMW might look like something that feasts on human blood, but I figured it would have its thirst just as readily slaked by the tantalising hairpins that take traffic to the UAE’s highest peak.
Sure enough, the XM sprang up the mountain with frightening ease, electricity and petrol working in tandem to give its legs a double kick. Its active suspension has a system that defies the car’s weight around corners too, by cancelling out body roll to enhance its composure.
The thing leans hard on its tyres, though, so much so that owning an XM and driving it as intended is bound to earn you the equivalent of PPS Solitaire at wherever you buy your car’s shoes. It’s ultimately a big car that harnesses big power and big grip from big tyres to conjure up big speeds.
Whether you find that satisfying is up to you, but there is always the back of the XM to tempt you. It’s tremendously roomy and the seats form a sort of wraparound lounge chair, besides being set well back behind the windows to keep your face safe from prying eyes.
Meanwhile, the ceiling has a gorgeously textured surface, made extra eye-catching when lit by 100 LEDs, and you can have the dashboard covered in vintage leather, which has an aged pattern unique to every car.
Does it all add up to a car that feels special? At this price point it would have to, because for seven figures you might as well consider stretching to a Bentley Bentayga, which would serve up a more pillowy brand of comfort.
But no other car is quite as in-your-face as the XM, not merely because of the robot bulldog styling. Driving it seems to lift the shoulders somewhat, as if the swaggering attitude, hard-edged bulk and rumbling engine all have a positive effect on the human spirit.
If Dubai can lean on the Burj Khalifa to telegraph its confidence, you can count on driving an XM to put some pep in your step.
BMW XM Engine 4,395 cc, V8, twin-turbo Power 489 hp from 5,400 to 7,200 rpm Torque 650 Nm from 1,600 to 5,000 rpm Gearbox 8-speed automatic Electric Motor 197 hp, 280 Nm Battery Lithium-ion, 25.7 kWh System Power / Torque 653 hp / 800 Nm Top Speed 250 kmh (limited) 0-100kmh 4.3 seconds Fuel Consumption 1.6 L/100 km Electricity Consumption 29.5 kWh/100 km Charging Time / Type 7.4kW AC / 4.25 hours Electric Range 85 km Agent Eurokars Auto or Performance Motors Limited Price S$1,010,888 with COE Available Now
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
