[Tushar]

Continuing the expansion of its M range, BMW India has formally launched the X5 M and X6 M performance SUVs. The X5 M has been priced at Rs. 1.55 crore, while the X6 M is yours for the princely sum of Rs. 1.60 crore (both prices all India ex-showroom). Both models will be sold in India as direct imports.

Powering the SUVs is the same M TwinPower turbocharged V8 petrol engine that displaces 4,395 cc and produces 567 BHP @ 6,000 - 6,500 rpm and 750 Nm of torque @ 2,200 - 2,500 rpm. Transmitting power to all four wheels through the xDrive four wheel drive system is an 8-speed M specific steptronic transmission (with paddle shifters).

Metallic colour options include carbon black, silverstone, black sapphire, melbourne red, mineral white, long beach blue, donington grey and you also get a non-metallic alpine white color. Safety tech includes eight airbags, Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) including Dynamic Traction Control (DTC), Cornering Brake Control (CBC), Hill Descent Control (HDC), Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Active Protection with Alertness Assistant, side-impact protection, an electronic vehicle immobilizer and crash sensors.





Additional details can be found in the spec / feature sheets below:

X5 M.pdf

X6 M.pdf

[Mtv]

More pointless offerings by BMW.

They should first bring us cars that we actually want, like an option for a manual transmission across their range, a locally-produced 120d, M235i, and even the newly launched M2.

What's the point of a fast and tightly sprung SUV when it is lumpy around corners and can't even go off-road?

[hybridpetrol]

These are niche offerings suited only to a few HNIs. They will import these cars to cater to these people.
The "mass market" luxury cars, that are produced locally will help the luxury car manufacturers to sell more copies of their cars. These are the ones that are feature rich, but comes with displacement below 3.0L, and can comfortably cruise along within the city and on the highways.
These expensive, high torque cars, though cannot be put to any proper use in Indian roads, can become a show piece for movie stars and the like.

[Turbanator]

a locally-produced 120d, M235i, and even the newly launched M2.

No doubt there will be very limited takers for X5/X6-M but there will still be a market - there are people who can afford such high end cars mostly on company name but the segment you are referring to is even more difficult - anyone who has money will like to be seen on something which is large - there will be very few guys who will have money and will still pick something so small and no matter how many fans we might have on forums for manual transmission when it will actually come to buy something in real 99,99 % will back off to Automatics and these new Auto's are actually quite good .

What BMW needs is more aggressive pricing - if they can sell X5 in USA @ less than 40 Lac they could have done better here even with all CKD Duties & Taxes.

What's the point of a fast and tightly sprung SUV when it is lumpy around corners and can't even go off-road?

I don't think they even call these SUV if you ask me personally the way x6 drives - with all that 4WD gadgetry - no other car / suv come close on twisty sections at least and mind you on new X5 they indeed have some offload gadgetry as well including some displays that tell tilt angle etc - they will infact encourage you to try off-roading if you go for demo and I could actually go over a roadside kerb which must be more than 1 ft without any efforts .

[shyn]

'The Fat and the Furious'. That's what these saber tooths in mammoths clothing are.
0-60mph in 4 seconds flat and if you think these fatties are just about straight line speed then you are wrong. They clocked the Nurburgring in 8:05! That's as fast as the outgoing E92 M3 coupe and a full nine seconds quicker than the Range Rover Sport SVR which was boasting about being the fastest SUV around the 'Ring.
I know SUVs aren't about lap times but it just goes to show how far they have come. I used to hate the X5 and X6 up until now, specially their M variants. But now I only have massive (pun intended) respect for them and ofcourse BMW.

[rohanjf]

Originally Posted by Mtv

More pointless offerings by BMW.

I think the reason behind launching such cars is only to bloat their product range on offer. I remember reading somewhere that CBUs with engine capacity and base price above a certain limit don't need to go through homologation process. That's why we don't even see test mules of these cars.

May be BMW targets to bag some awards distributed by some media houses, for further publicity.

[GTO]

Yawn, another day, another CBU launch.

Such CBUs are so easy to bring here as the investment is minimal and there's no homologation requirement. Even if they sell merely 10 of these X5 / X6 Ms in the entire year, that's a cool 3 crores in profit. Not bad. At the very least, it'll take care of the CEO's salary .

Originally Posted by rohanjf

base price above a certain limit don't need to go through homologation process.

Believe that price point is $40,000. Anything over that doesn't require homologation.

May be BMW targets to bag some awards distributed by some media houses, for further publicity.

Smart observation. They'll definitely get one of these awards from at least one of the 10 car magazines:

SUV of the year
Performance car of the year
Variant of the year
Performance SUV of the year
Import of the year
Etc. Etc.