There’s always a kernel of truth hidden inside every automaker stereotype. Toyotas run forever because they’re generally overbuilt, quality machines driven by people who keep up with regular maintenance. GM products run badly longer than most cars will run at all because they’re a perfect blend of ‘fix it in post’ American manufacturing processes and engineering designed to shrug off deferred maintenance. BMWs are often regarded as hot garbage because pushing the envelope rarely results in reliable product on the first go. Believe me when I say, no BMW has pushed the envelope harder and failed more miserably than the ActiveHybrid X6.
This particular model is where a whole bunch of first-generation technology combined into a smorgasbord of misery for anyone who dared to run one after the warranty period expired. We’re talking notorious components mashed together, preposterous repair bills, difficult-to-source parts, the whole nine yards. All in the vehicle that kickstarted the questionable coupe crossover trend.
Are there less pleasant cars on the road? Sure, but few combine expense, unreliability, and marketing cynicism in such a skin-crawling manner to make you think an automaker shouldn’t have got away with this. Let’s put it this way: The Ford EcoSport is worse in the context of a review, but all things considered, the ActiveHybrid X6 has a solid shot at the title of worst car of the 21st century. Yikes.
The Background
Before even getting to the oily bits, there’s the issue of the X6 itself. The traditional Bavarian breakfast of Weißwurst, a pretzel and beer must have been in full effect when Chris Bangle’s design team decided to throw a fastback roofline on the X5 midsize SUV. In doing so, BMW created something with the fuel economy of an SUV and the practicality of a coupe. A steaming indictment of human vanity that’s spawned countless imitators.
Separately, I like fastback rooflines and I like SUVs, but blending the two always seems to create something with the silhouette of a FILA dinostomper. Adding to the ugliness is the general disjointedness of the ActiveHybrid X6’s design. Without the plastic cladding of the X5 to reduce visual impact, there’s just so much metal between the X6’s greenhouse and the ground. The three-level stacked-grille front fascia hasn’t aged particularly brilliantly either. Unique to the ActiveHybrid X6 is a hood bulge that clashes with the full-length scallops in the hood in an undignified display of make-fit necessitated by the hybrid wiring under the hood. Not the most beautiful thing on the road, is it?
If you were a major automaker looking to green up an SUV with a hybrid powertrain, what sort of engine would you use? How about a bleeding-edge, catastrophically unreliable twin-turbo hot vee V8? That doesn’t sound ostentatious at all! Dubbed the N63B44O0, this lump of aluminum was the first-ever hot vee engine in a production car. Packaging the turbochargers inside the vee of the block is a great idea – it allows for a narrower engine and reduces turbo lag thanks to shorter exhaust runners. The compressed air from the turbos was then fed through water-to-air intercoolers and into the engine. Sounds fairly simple, right? Unfortunately, a first-of-its-kind V8 from a company with an iffy track record of making V8 engines was never really a brilliant idea, and customers found out the hard way.
A V8 From Hell
It turns out that a hot vee turbo setup generates a lot of heat. So much heat that the electric auxiliary coolant pump for the water-to-air intercoolers had to run for an eternity after the engine was switched off. It turns out that 12-volt batteries don’t really like that, nor do they like BMW’s idea to only charge the batteries when coasting. Needless to say, reports of 12-volt batteries requiring replacement at every oil change weren’t uncommon. Speaking of electrical components with short lifespans, how does ignition coil replacement at 45,000 miles sound? Pretty terrible, right? Mind you, ignition coils are downright cheap compared to the early N63’s failure-prone high-pressure direct fuel injectors. Each fuel injector currently retails for around $449 and the updated parts had to be coded to the car in banks. If one injector on each bank resign from their duties, it’s time for nearly $3,600 of injectors alone.
Also on the menu? Timing chains that would stretch, valve stem seals that would dry out and fail, and seriously rapid oil consumption. In 2014, this engine was subject to something BMW called a Customer Care Package – a recall where BMW tiptoed gingerly around the word ‘recall.’ It covered a truly bewildering array of equipment: possible replacement of the direct fuel injectors, mass airflow sensors, crankcase ventilation system lines, turbo intake seals, fuel pressure sensor, vacuum pump, and timing chain. However, not every customer was eligible for every replacement part in the care package. As a result, BMW dropped the price of a long block down to $3000 in 2018. Mercifully, newer variants of the N63 engine share fairly little in common with the first-edition problem child and seem to be perfectly reliable. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that this first-iteration hot-vee hot mess found its way under the hood of the ActiveHybrid X6.
Grounds And Gears
Further complicating this lump of Bavarian engineering is a truly bizarre choice of gearbox. See, the ActiveHybrid X6 was born from the Global Hybrid Cooperation project, a joint venture between General Motors, Daimler, Chrysler, and BMW that dates back to 2004. In short, the people who made the Chevrolet HHR, Mercedes-Benz B-Class, Jeep Commander, and Bangle-butt E65 7-Series all decided to design hybrid technology together. What could possibly go wrong? Only a little thing called the Great Recession. The Allison AHS-2 gearbox born out of the Global Hybrid Cooperation project worked fairly well at the early stages of its life and was a pretty novel technology that deserves a separate deep dive. It also has really poor parts support because the Global Hybrid Cooperation was dissolved in 2009. As such, the ActiveHybrid X6’s gearbox is both shared with a Chrysler Aspen Hybrid and no longer available new. Not encouraging stuff considering hybrid drivetrain problems were reported within the first two years of the ActiveHybrid X6 going on sale. If the controller on the gearbox goes bad, a remanufactured unit costing more than $9,600 is the only way forward, and that’s assuming you can even find one.
All of this might be worth it if the ActiveHybrid X6 was astonishingly economical or amazing to drive, but it simply isn’t. In EPA fuel economy testing, it managed a disappointing 17 MPG (13.8 L/100km) city, 19 MPG (12.4 L/100km) highway and 18 MPG (13 L/100km) combined. In period road tests, reviewers lamented the SUV’s unrefined inputs. Car and Driver said, “Both the brakes and the newly electric power steering are drained of feel. The binders are terribly grabby at low speeds, and the pedal sinks all the way to the floor in a panic stomp.” Not exactly Ultimate Driving Machine material, then. Daniel Pund at Edmunds said, “The 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 represents more work for less meaningful results than most first marriages.” Harsh, but fair.
Is This The Worst Car Of The 21st Century?
Let’s recap. The BMW ActiveHybrid X6 is ugly, impractical, unreliable, hideously expensive to run and not particularly good to drive. When new, it was also priced in a bracket that attracted people who should’ve known better. I mean, this thing had a sticker price of $89,775 in 2010, that’s an obscene amount of money to pay for an experience like this.
What’s more, it wasn’t even the most efficient option on its platform when it was new. The 2011 BMW X5 35d ran on diesel and got substantially better fuel economy, all with lower running costs, fewer common failure points, and a proper SUV roofline. Sure, the ActiveHybrid X6 was quicker, but it wasn’t better, and considering the current state of hybrids in America, failing to match compression-ignition economy with a hybrid is certainly a fail.
(Photo credits: BMW)
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Counterpoint – at least these things were as hideously expensive as they are hideous, and were only ever bought by folks with more money than sense. They were not inflicted on most of the regular car-buying public.
It feels like it would be much more egregious to screw up the engineering of an economy car so badly that keeping it on the road becomes obscenely expensive. The poor suckers who fall into that trap are well and truly up the proverbial creek.
On the other hand, for almost 90 grand you could’ve had an actually-good BMW (E90 3-series with manual transmission and sport package, $40k) AND an actually-good hybrid (gen 3 Prius, fully loaded for $26k) and over 30 grand in change.
I think you just proved my “more money than sense” point – give me a Prius and an E90, maybe I’ll spend the change on a ZJ too.
“What’s a ZJ?” “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”
Who’s Barry Badrinath?
Who’s Barry Badrinath?
Who’s Barry Badrinath?
> it would be much more egregious to screw up the engineering of an economy car so badly that keeping it on the road becomes obscenely expensive.
You mean like Ford, GM, and Mopar 1969-1998?
I’d put the regular X6 up for worst so far this century for starting the “crossover coupe” thing so the worst version of it is a very strong contender.
Chris Bangle would never admit it but he just cloned the Aztek. The Aztek was a failure at the low end market but the X6 was relatively successful at the high end (they were everywhere here for a short while – probably until the warranty ran out), proving once again that money doesn’t buy taste.
The luxury crossover coupe is like the automotive tuxedo t-shirt, but flipped to the upper class. “Yes Kensington, I want to be formal – but it is also my intent to party.”
Ok, hear me out… LS swap, full cage, long travel. Get rid of most of the stuff that sucks. I hated the fastback roofline when it first came out, but in something off the wall and silly, it could be cool!
You’d still have to live with that look.
You’re not wrong, but it suits something like a Dakar truck better. It’s got Touareg Dakar lines to me. But it is hideous , so may as well be silly
Sort of has basketball clown shoe vibes to me. If I had to go with that look, I’d choose the Honda Crosstour which admittedly is not much better, but not as likely to deplete the bank account. I remember the first time I saw one my reaction was a massive sense of cringe.
I’m on the same page in general. I remember seeing one and wrenching.
Mentioning crosstour, I have a coworker who swears his dream car is a crosstour. I never thought that was possible
The closest in looks to either of these that I owned was a 66 Charger. Not in the same league but an ungainly looking design. The bubble back Barracuda was probably closer.
Oh I forgot the bubble back
Hearing this shared a gearbox with the Chrysler Aspen really solidified its terribleness for me.
One of my neighbors had an Aspen hybrid and actually really liked it. It disappeared about a year ago, I’ll have to ask what happened to it. I’m betting the transmission mechanically totaled it.
I had to google FILA Dinostomper, I had no idea what it was. Yikes!
https://tinyurl.com/dinostomper
Damn. Ignorance is bliss, after all.
“Toyotas run forever because they’re generally overbuilt, quality machines driven by people who keep up with regular maintenance.” and regularly back into things…. and never fix the bumpers.
FIFY
This article makes a strong argument. But what are some of the other contenders for worst car of the 21st century? VinFast? Fisker? That awful Versa I got as a rental in Portland?
The Fisker isn’t in the same league of horror as the Vinfast AFAIK. The vinfast is sui generis.
I work in an industry where I have access to data around cost to repair vehicles. The X6, as a whole, is the SINGLE WORST vehicle in the data pool. Their cost to repair and frequency of repair are both obscenely high, even compared to many other BMWs.
<SLAMS YES BUTTON>
KNOW YOUR FOE!
Can we get the top and bottom 10? I realize it’s probably proprietary data that can’t be shared, but maybe a bowdlerized version skipping specific years could be?
Loosely, you are looking at exactly what you would expect. Toyota at the top, BMW at the bottom. Corolla and Camry are amazingly good performers. Accords are up there as well.
Bottom are BMW 5 and up. Below 5, BMWs seem to do much better. Big 3 trucks are also somewhat near the bottom. Avoid any kind of cylinder deactivation system in a V8 if at all possible, or deactivate it immediately for seriously improved longevity.
Thats about as much as I can really share.
Oh, and if you do want a V8 work truck, just buy the Tundra. The Tundra’s reliability is so much higher, and total cost to repair so much lower, its not even a question. Desire is the only reason to buy any other V8. If only practicality matters, buy the Tundra.
That’s great, thanks for sharing!
As someone who currently daily drives a ’13 X5 50i – run fast and far away. I’m currently on engine #2 at 88k miles because the original ate the timing chains. I’m also now outside of my extended warranty and looking to sell or trade it in lol. My investment of $4,500 in 2021 in an extended warranty paid out almost $25,000 before reaching it’s coverage limits.
From November ’21 – Now I’ve replaced:
Air Conditioner condenser
Engine
Power Steering pump and hoses*
Power Steering hoses again*
Rear airbags and air compressor
Front Brake caliper and front drivers wheel*
Items marked with a * were replaced at no cost by my local dealership due to errors on their part when they replaced the engine.
TLDR: Don’t buy one of these or the X5 with the V8, it will bankrupt you.
Well, I don’t want to be that guy, but what did you expect? 😛
One positive: the only X6 available in Bluewater, one of the best BMW colours.
I have always hated these. The poor driving experience of an SUV with the poor cargo capacity of a sedan. Hey, at least it was ridiculously expensive!
Counterpoint. I’ve always loved that design.
I think you meant “hot take”
I don’t disagree, it’s aged relatively well.
People need to stop betting against BMW, time keeps proving them wrong and it’s hilarious to watch.
The Bangle 5 series will forever remain a distended infected boil near the collective anus of car design, with a thick hair in it.
The E60? It’s very handsome now
I think so?
https://www.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/flexslider_full/public/slideshow_image/bmw-m5-2_0.jpg?itok=bS9o3UB9
Same, they are/were pretty striking in person.
Every time I see one on the road (fortunately rarely now) I think, “bloody hell, it’s somehow even uglier than I remembered”.
It’s like my brain is trying it’s best to blank my memory of the worst parts.
So yeah, “striking” I guess.
Having worked on one of these steaming piles at my shop, I can wholeheartedly agree. Thankfully I just had to do an oil change and replace some rear air struts so I didn’t have to touch the mess under the hood. The customer wanted me to look into some oil leaks and I politely told him to scrap the vehicle. The N63 is already terrible to work on, but it’s so much worse in an ActiveHybrid because there’s a giant control module stuck on top of the engine, so you’ve got a bunch of high-voltage garbage to remove before you can even access the top of the engine.
They put a high voltage electrical module right above the turbos? smh
Yeah, and it’s water-cooled. Incredibly idiotic all around.
LOL
I’m beginning to think Piëch was moonlighting as BMW employee at the time and may be responsible for this.
One of my friends bought a used early X6M with the hot-vee 8. The car truly was an absolute disaster. His example kept cooking turbos with regularity until he finally got rid of it. And because he bought it used after the warranty expired, BMW basically told him to fuck off. He never benefited from any Customer Care Package or such. He switched back to Audis.
That alone says something
.
Your friend enjoys pain.
He’s rich and so doesn’t much care. He currently owns 2 R8s. Note that while I am friends with him, I am most definitely not in the same financial class.
Sedan-SUVs have to be one of the worst ideas ever. The shocking thing is that so many other manufacturers copied this stupid idea in spite of anecdotally not being very common so why bother? How hard is it to design a solid timing chain tensioner-BMW has had years of straight sixes (admittedly a simpler timing arrangement) with timing chain sets that are generally life time components with very few failures.
Is it? The only question I have is whether they actually pushed the envelope far enough. I’m not sure they did.
Why not offer this also in a powered retractable hardtop cabrio version? Why no hydraulic suspension like McClarens? Why did it not have retracting door handles, nor automatic soft closing doors and hood? Why not also add moveable aerodynamic elements like shutters, as those servo motors will never need replacing? Why stick with AGM 12V batteries when lithium ones might’ve lasted longer for keeping that auxiliary fan running, and with an inadequate battery management system, could’ve introduced the potential excitement of car fires guaranteed to cause insane damage.
This could’ve been so much more disappointing, instead of just obviously bad!
Oh yeah, the “so bad it’s kinda good” narrow line that some movies aim for, or the Lada Niva for that matter.
It does make sense that being the first at this SUV/coupe monstrosity they should’ve gone bonkers, all in, and they didn’t.
OK hear me out: butterfly doors with a half-cabriolet roof behind them, like George Costanza’s hair.
These things look like someone photoshopped them in an ironic attempt to highlight everything wrong with design trends at the time.
What’s REALLY wild is that they don’t look as bad now as they did when new. The first time I came up behind one of these in traffic I was speechless. I thought it was a custom job. It looked impossible. Now about 20% of models are this fugly.
They still look as bad, but the newer BMWs are way worse. That doesn’t change a bad design though. It’s like people warming up to the E65 or other Bangle machinations. Those are extremely ugly cars still.
Thé e85 gets a pass though, right?
It has some better ideas but I hate how the headlights and grilles are at different heights.
This does sound like an awful POS. BMW’s early electric steering attempts were truly terrible. When I test drove the F30 series 3-series, I told the salesman “my father’s Oldsmobile drove better” – and he didn’t argue with me. Recent BMW rentals suggest that the electric power steering has improved, but maybe not to the point where it was with the hydraulic steering (except for maybe the M-affiliated cars?).
Truly a contemptuous piece of shit.
The owner of my company had one of these back when it was new to the market. I recall saying to myself “Wow, that thing sure is hideous.” when I saw it for the first time. He had it for about a year. I actually ended up traveling in it to a Giants (the NY football kind) game with a group of coworkers, for some weird reason he told us to take it. Was shocked that something so large could have such a cramped backseat.
A coworker asked what happened to it once we noticed it had been absent for a while and the owner said “Let’s just say I won’t be buying another BMW any time soon” and left it at that.
You cannot tell me that most companies’ offerings wouldn’t be improved by licensing Toyota hybrid technology instead of trying to engineer their own.
Agree
One can probably say the same about EV and licensure from Tesla and BYD/CATL.
I believe Mazda is starting to, allowing them to offer a PHEV CX90 after years of never offering a hybrid.
Nah, the PHEV CX90 has a traditional 9-speed auto but with a wet clutch instead of a torque converter. Toyota’s hybrid tech (and Ford’s, who stole & then was forced to license it) is only a planetary gear set with 2 electric motors. No clutch, no torque converter, nothing that “shifts”. That’s why it’s so mechanically reliable; it’s just a bunch of gears.
Oh thanks for correcting me! I swear I’d read somewhere that Mazda was starting to license Toyota’s hybrid tech.
The CX-50 – which is built in Toyota and Mazda’s joint plant in Alabama – will debut with a hybrid version later this year.
The CX-90’s hybrid system isn’t borrowed from Toyota for the I6 mild-hybrid nor the I4 PHEV.
I owned a 2012 X5 xDrive 35d, and every part of the diesel emissions system was replaced at one time or another, either by myself or BMW. I would not call that car “reliable”. I can only imagine how terrible this X6 must be if the 35d is considered “better”.
I have a buddy who owns a BWM repair shop who had a similar vintage 335d that he ended up selling after it was 4 or 5 years old because he was tired of fixing it all the time.
You think you hate it now, wait ’til you drive it.
The header image made me think of Robocop.
It’s Back, Big is back because Big is Better. Presenting the 6000 SUX. An American Tradition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl8mQhxhE_Q
Seems like we read about many cars that have been released “in beta”. This one appears to have been released “in alpha”. But hey, somebody has to push the envelope, or technology won’t advance.
The difficulty is that when you push the envelope, it shouldn’t be directly into a shredder.
If I design a microwave that’s less roomy inside, wastes more electricity and breaks every week, that’s not pushing the “technology envelope”. That’s just me being really bad at inventing new stuff.
Once again, props to the graphic design team for that top image, bravo.
The look doesn’t particularly bother me, aside from looking like it provides less overall space than a nice-sized sedan.
But the drivetrain truly sounds like a perfect storm of awful.
There was a rather successful Wealth Manager I worked with who purchased an X6 M.
After the pointing and laughter subsided, he did not appreciate when I explained to him that the more practical and comfortable X5 body style and 6 cylinder engine (which would get him and his family from Manhattan to his vacation place on Long Island in about the same time – because traffic) were something on the order of $25,000 less – with far lower maintenance costs – which when invested in a certain up and coming automaker at the time…
I got an Uber ride in an X6M once. The driver spent the entire ride aggressively hitting on my girlfriend, which neither of us appreciated.
Sounds like the X6 M is a Douchemagnet.
I’d say all M cars are douchemagnets save the M2 and M3 (sedan only.)
Frankly that’s about what I’d expect from an X6M owner
My neighbor had one of these X6 (I don’t recall the specific model, but it was probably a diesel, since this is Europe after all) – what I recall is the abysmal lack of space in the rear. I mean, for the gargantuan exterior, the inside was a joke. It was 4 passenger car, as far as I remember.