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Steve Dlamini-Kabini

JACK Frost is back with a vengeance, but that didn’t stop me from sampling the upgraded BMW drop-top model, the 650i Convertible.

While the country has been under siege from a number of cold fronts that have seen temperatures dropping to as low as freezing point in the last few days, BMW South Africa offered me the last of its convertibles to evaluate over a number of days.

The 2+2-seater is available in a choice of a six-speed manual and six-speed automatic sports transmission with paddle shifts mounted on the steering. I had the pleasure of testing the model fitted with the latest automatic gearbox.

Equipped with a two-zone climate control system, a powerful seat warming facility and a wind deflector situated between the front and rear seats, nothing could stop me from driving topless in the sleek German convertible. With the seat warming facility turned to maximum and the vehicle heater halfway, the early winter days felt just like a summer evening.

Interestingly, when the soft-roof has been neatly folded into the boot electronically, the rear windshield will also erect together with all windows at the touch of a button.

Unlike many soft-top roofs that attract wind noise at higher speeds, the 650i Convertible has a thick layer inside and out that’s able to stave off the wind without compromising the ride quality and performance of the vehicle.

And when it comes to the quality of ride and drive, the 650i is unlike its eldest sibling and BMW’s flagship drop-top, the M6 Convertible. While the M6 gives a harsh ride quality due to its sporty nature, the 650i Convertible is totally the opposite.

It has a rare combination of comfort and performance. This is one vehicle that can be driven everyday in peak traffic with great ease and comfort as opposed to its top-of-the-range M6 Convertible that jerks at low speeds. This is due to the design of its high performance seven-speed sequential manual gearbox (SMG).

Under its long and wide bonnet lies a monstrous 4.8 litre engine making 270kW of power with maximum torque peaking at 490Nm pushing the two-door sports machine from 0-100km/h in a claimed 5.1 seconds.

While the top speed is limited to 250km/h, BMW also claims a healthy fuel consumption of 10.5 litres/100km, a consumption figure that I couldn’t achieve throughout our test regardless of how economically I drove.

I did, however, see 13.9 litres/100km reflected on the onboard display. Fuel consumption is the least of worries for a person buying a car in this price range and it doesn’t really matter. But lower fuel consumption figures are seen as an added bonus.

On the outside, the face-lifted 6 Series range, including the coupe, now have a more powerful and striking stance on the road, with strong lines extending all the way from the A pillars along the entire engine compartment lid to the kidney grille forming a dynamic arrow further emphasised by the powerfully chiselled bars in the lower air intake.

The air intake itself is even wider than on the former model and borders at the bottom on a new contour edge, significantly highlighting the wide track of the car.

The newly designed direction indicators now feature LED light units with a crystalline effect.

Through their striking contours, the headlights give the front end of the 6-Series a clear, focused look, with new light technology adding further brilliance. Featured as standard are the bi-xenon dual round headlights covered by a layer of clear glass at the surface. This makes the corona ring lights clearly visible during the day and night. These corona rings shine even brighter, giving the 6-Series a prominent look with BMW’s typical daytime lights function.

The 650i Convertible has now been featured with an additional brake light integrated in the spoiler lip. The inner structure of the rear lights has also been modified to reflect the new lines of the car, with all light sources now being LED units.

However, there are not many changes to the interior that haven’t been seen in the previous model.

As far as safety goes, the 650i Convertible has one of the best safety mechanisms ever seen in a drop top.

The design has factored in high-strength load-bearing structure, generous and clearly defined deformation zones front and rear, side impact protection integrated in the doors and rear side panels and an extremely stiff passenger cell.

This allows the entire structure around the driver to maintain its function as a survival area in a severe collision – all these features provide the prerequisites for the exemplary standard of passive safety.

The BMW 6-Series also offers several airbags and includes automatic roll-bars that emerge from a module behind the rear headrests within fractions of a second of the car overturning.

The 650i Convertible priced from R933 500 to R950 300 comes with the usual factory warranties and five-year/100 000km maintenance plan.

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