FIRST DRIVE:BMW has just answered one of the remaining unasked questions of motors - why would you want a coupé SUV? Michael McAleer, Motoring editor, reports.
DO YOU find the day of the week eludes you? Why not try the Dayclock. According to the Skymall, a mail order magazine on board Continental flights to the US, it's a wall clock "uniquely designed to help you keep track of weekly events like your golf day, card night, and so much more. Not only a great conversation piece, it's a fun gift." In other words, it's a wall clock that tells you what day of the week it is rather than what hour. It doesn't even tell the date, just the day.
When you first learn about the X6, you start to wonder if perhaps BMW's chief designer, American Chris Bangle, is spending too much time on transatlantic flights.
For BMW, the solution to the demand for a sports coupé SUV is the X6. If you are not one of the millions who have been crying out for a four-seat SUV with less flexibility and space than a regular SUV, then you may - like us - be slightly bemused.
Yet for all the cynics and sneers, we have a certain reservation about making a judgement call on the X6's potential market. The reason: BMW has long since demonstrated that, along with being one of the most innovative premium brands on the market, it can do what Skymall hopes to repeat: create demand for something we never knew we needed.
It's true that first sightings of the X6 evoke a rather mixed response. It really depends on what angle you catch it from.
From the front, this is every bit the SUV. Its height, large kidney grilles and enormous air vents give it an imposing stance. From the rear, it's squat but wide stance is apparent, like a large SUV hunkering down ready to pounce.
From the side it looks like someone has taken a 3-Series coupé and put it on monster truck wheels. It's from the side that the proportions look ridiculous. And yet . . .
Sit behind the wheel and the cabin has the usual BMW coupé traits. It cossets the driver more than passengers. For them there is ample legroom and space, but that's pretty much it.
For the person behind the wheel, there is a new sculpted auto lever - that will also appear in the new 7-Series. There's also a slight adjustment to the usual BMW seating position. This one is very much like in the Z4 rather than the X5. The steering wheel is more vertical to the driver rather than the slight tilt of a regular saloon or SUV.
Otherwise, it's standard BMW fare. Boot space is limited by the slope of the rear bootlid and the space comes in a rather unorthodox configuration. The sharply raked back door is not conducive to many boxes and the high loading lip makes loading and unloading awkward.
Then you come to the back seats. As the brief was to create a coupé SUV, the designers opted for a similar two-seat format as in the 3-Series coupé and 6-Series.So, while the front offers the feel of a regular car, the rear offers none of the practicality one expects in an SUV.
That's the practicalities out of the way. After all, if they claim it is a coupé SUV, then it must have some identifiable coupé traits.
The unfortunate thing for BMW is that the side profile line looks very similar to the Ssangyong Actyon. That's fantastic for the Korean brand, but terrible for the Bavarians.
Thankfully that's where the similarities end. Start it up, hit the road and the raison d'etre for this car all starts to fall into place. Though your passengers won't be too happy, the driver will be in seventh heaven.
You can often tell the confidence car firms have in their models by the routes they suggest you take. Three hours of motorway driving followed by a repeat journey on the way back suggests they are not that confident it will corner. Tight winding country roads with no long straights suggests it doesn't have the legs for long journeys.
BMW offered up all the routes around South Carolina, including an afternoon of unlimited track time at Michelin's test circuit. From the start, it suggested that it has ample belief in the car's driving behaviour.
They were right. This car only really makes sense on the road. On some of the most twisting mountain routes we've driven for months the X6's dynamic four-wheel-drive system bedded the car down and it hung to the median line as if magnetically attached, offering up only tyre screeching on 160 degree bends.
On motorway stretches it cruised along, devouring miles, while on the track we had to stop every now and again to remind ourselves that we were sitting at SUV heights and not hunkered to the ground in a sports car. It's not a word we like to use in car reviews, but this car's handling - given its size - was simply phenomenal.
The engine range is as impressive as we've come to expect from the Bavarians as well. Two 3-litre diesels were on offer along with a new 4.4-litre V8 petrol. We tested both diesel and high-end petrol and, while the deep growl of the petrol added to the occasion, it was the diesel that sparkled the most.
It is also a relative star in the SUV ranks when it comes to emissions. While the big V8 petrol will be hit hard in the new CO2-based tax regime due from July 1st, both diesel versions and the 3-litre petrol will only suffer a two per cent rise in Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT), while their road tax will actually fall by €213 a year. For its size, X6 emissions levels warrant praise.
The problem we have is that the X6 lacks any extra benefits over a regular coupé. It's probably the epitome of a selfish purchase in the SUV market. Here is a car that has all the imposing presence of an SUV but little of the practicality.
A car that performs like a coupé, but with a roofline nearly six feet in the air. It could simply be judged a statement by BMW of the excellent pedigree of its engineers.
So will there be a market for such a car? Yes. The Americans will love this. It's not as if they are terribly angst ridden over the state of the planet. What's not so clear cut is the reception it will receive from Europeans.
If you are the driver, you will want one, but it's going to be hard to justify. As someone who spends most of his time behind the wheel and not in the back seat, we're left with nothing but admiration for the BMW engineers. They seem capable of making a pram handle like a sports car.
It's a little harder to see who would need this car. Then again, Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome's "DayNight" watch - which does not tell the time, only whether it is night or day - sold out within 48 hours of its launch earlier this year as watch fanatics snapped up the €200,000 timepiece.
As with the long list of items in the Skymall magazine, the X6 is an answer to a question no one asked. But it's the 100 per cent right answer, despite that.