BMW XM Review

Almost everything about the XM is a misjudgement. The styling is the loudest of them, a slab-sided mass of brightwork and creases that nobody has successfully defended, and it announces the car's intentions badly before you get anywhere near it. Underneath there is real hardware. The 4.4 litre twin-turbo V8 with an electric motor makes 644 horsepower, the interior is genuinely lavish with the best materials BMW currently uses and a headliner that is worth seeing, and it will move down a road at a pace the size should forbid.

But it weighs over two and a half tonnes, it does not handle in any meaningful sense, and the hybrid system means it is neither efficient nor simple. Depreciation has been savage, with early cars losing a third inside a year, which tells you what the market thinks. Running costs are high and complexity is higher. There is a good car buried in here and it is not worth the excavation.