Article Abstract
- The F06/F12/F13 design traces immediately again to the 2007 BMW CS Idea — a present automotive killed by the monetary disaster that was just too good to waste.
- Designer Karim Habib is the largely uncredited thoughts behind each the CS Idea and the 6 Collection that adopted it.
- With values now nicely off their unique asking costs, the F-generation 6 Collection is perhaps the best-looking used automotive discount available on the market proper now.
Return to the Geneva Motor Present in March 2011. BMW is exhibiting the brand new 6 Collection coupe — the F13 — and in case you have been following the model carefully on the time, you’d have acknowledged what you have been : BMW getting its design confidence again. The Bangle period had break up opinion sharply, and the hedging that adopted didn’t assist issues. The vehicles BMW made within the late 2000s have been fantastic. Competent. However secure. None of that are phrases you need utilized to a automotive that’s speculated to make you are feeling one thing. The F13 was lengthy, low, and muscular, and it seemed prefer it had been drawn by somebody who was truly having fun with themselves.
Greater than a decade later, with the 6 Collection nameplate retired and absorbed awkwardly into the 8 Collection household, the F06/F12/F13 era seems higher than ever. One of many cleaner design high-water marks in latest BMW historical past, it was bold, cohesive, and — uncommon for the period — not clearly making an attempt too exhausting.
From idea to actuality: the BMW CS Idea that began all of it
To know why the F-generation 6 Collection seems the way in which it does, it’s important to return to 2007 and the Shanghai Auto Present, the place BMW unveiled one in every of its most putting idea vehicles in a long time: the BMW Idea CS. The one-off was the work of Karim Habib, a Lebanese-Canadian designer who had already left his mark on the E60 5 Collection inside and the F01 7 Collection physique. With the Idea CS, Habib bought to think about one thing with out many constraints — a protracted, low four-door luxurious coupe that may sit above the 7 Collection by way of sheer presence. BMW’s imaginative and prescient of a grand touring flagship. One thing that may compete not simply with a Mercedes S-Class Coupe, however with the concept of a dream automotive.
It was jaw-dropping. Lengthy hood, low roofline, muscular haunches, a taut beltline that rose towards the rear. The kidney grilles have been rendered massive and upright, flanked by slim, sharp headlights. The entire thing stated *event*. The sort of automotive you would possibly sketch if somebody instructed you to attract probably the most lovely four-door coupe you possibly can think about, finances and engineering be damned.
The issue was timing. The 2008 monetary disaster killed the CS Idea earlier than it might attain manufacturing. BMW shelved the range-topping highway automotive and the dream appeared to die. However Habib’s design research was too good to desert solely. Its DNA — these proportions, that stance, that coiled-up sense of objective — was quietly channeled into the following 6 Collection. The F12 and F13 carried the spirit of the two-door idea ahead, whereas the F06 Gran Coupe ultimately made the four-door imaginative and prescient a actuality for individuals who truly had keys to at least one.
Three physique kinds, one imaginative and prescient
BMW executed three essentially totally different physique kinds right here with none of them feeling like a compromise — and that’s more durable than it sounds. Every introduced one thing totally different to the desk, but all three have been instantly recognizable as the identical automotive.
The F13 coupe — the purist’s selection
The F13 coupe is the place it began, and for a lot of fans it’s nonetheless the definitive expression of the era. Two doorways, a low roofline, and people sweeping rear haunches give it proportions that really feel automotive within the old school sense. This can be a automotive whose form is its id. The silhouette is near-perfect: lengthy entrance overhang, cab set nicely again, a roofline that peaks simply behind the B-pillar and flows towards the tail. The Hofmeister kink is fantastically executed, and the large stance offers the automotive a planted, highly effective look even when it’s parked doing nothing in any respect.
Park one subsequent to nearly anything from the identical period and it simply seems higher. It has that high quality that’s nearly not possible to engineer intentionally: timelessness.
The F12 convertible — glamour, unfiltered
If the coupe is the purist’s automotive, the F12 convertible is unapologetically about lovely design. BMW’s engineers fitted a folding steel hardtop that stows in about 19 seconds at speeds as much as 25 mph, which implies the F12 retains clear, coupe-like strains when closed whereas opening up into one thing glamorous with the roof down. You lose just a little of the coupe’s structural rigidity really feel, as you do with any open-top automotive. Add a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 up entrance, and this convertible is a correct gran tourer.
The F12 additionally proved {that a} four-seat convertible didn’t must appear like an afterthought. With the highest up, it’s almost indistinguishable from the coupe in profile. With it down, it belongs in a distinct dialog solely — one of the vital lovely open-top vehicles of its decade.
The F06 Gran Coupe — the CS Idea made actual
The F06 Gran Coupe arrived a 12 months after the coupe and convertible on the 2012 Geneva Motor Present, and it’s arguably probably the most important of the three from a design-history standpoint. That is the automotive that lastly delivered on the 2007 CS Idea’s promise: a four-door gran turismo with actual coupe proportions.
BMW had gestured in that path earlier than with the E63/E64 era, however the F06 was extra bold and extra resolved. It’s an enormous automotive — longer than a 7 Collection of the identical period — but it wears its dimension with stunning grace. The rear doorways are literally useable, the roofline doesn’t look compromised, and the rear finish, with its low large stance and distinctive taillights, is among the most coherent issues BMW has penned for a four-door automotive.
The Gran Coupe additionally made the 6 Collection sensible in a method the coupe and convertible by no means have been. Right here was a automotive you possibly can take the household on a weekend highway journey with out anybody grumbling in regards to the rear headroom. It opened the mannequin to a a lot wider viewers with out giving something away aesthetically.
The inside: a correct driver’s cabin
The F-generation 6 Collection inside was one other sturdy level. The cockpit leans towards the driving force — controls are noticeably angled towards the helm slightly than break up evenly between occupants — whereas nonetheless providing sufficient real luxurious to fulfill the grand touring temporary.
Supplies have been good all through. Correct leather-based on the main surfaces, actual steel and wooden trim choices that felt like they belonged in a luxurious automotive slightly than an approximation of 1. The seats proved comfy on journeys that lasted far longer than the efficiency figures would possibly recommend. The game seats supplied a mix of lateral assist and long-distance consolation that the majority devoted sports activities vehicles don’t handle.
The iDrive system had matured considerably by this level, and the 6 Collection bought a model that was truly intuitive to make use of — not one thing homeowners of early iDrive might have predicted.
A design that retains getting higher
Good automotive design improves with age. The F-generation 6 Collection is a clear instance of this. When new, surrounded by different vehicles on vendor tons, it seemed good. Now, with used examples out there for a fraction of their unique asking costs and surrounded by a brand new era of BMWs whose design path is significantly extra divisive, the F-generation seems distinctive. The kidney grilles are appropriately sized. The surfaces are clear and taut with out being fussy. Nothing seems prefer it was added by committee or examined to loss of life in a spotlight group.
Examine it to what got here after — the G-generation 8 Collection that changed it — and the 6 Collection arguably wins. The 8 Collection is a fantastic automotive in lots of respects, nevertheless it lacks the convenience of the 6. It seems prefer it’s working at being dramatic. The 6 Collection by no means seemed prefer it was working at something.
The 2015 LCI facelift was well-judged: up to date headlights with full LED models, revised taillights, a bigger iDrive controller, and higher infotainment. BMW understood that the design was sturdy sufficient to wish solely mild evolution. They have been proper.
