The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Unique, sleek styling
- Turbo performance
- Handles great
- Lots of tech
Dislikes
- Costs more than an X5
- Not as spacious as an X5
- Lousy rearward vision
- X6 M Competition is too stiff
Buying tip
features & specs
The 2025 BMW X6 is just the ticket if you want a high seating position and sporty handling but don’t care all that much about rear-seat room or cargo space.
What kind of vehicle is the 2025 BMW X6? What does it compare to?
The 2025 X6 is a five-seat luxury SUV with a sloping roofline and a high-tech cabin. It’s a more style-forward sibling to the brand’s X5, and it’s comparable to the Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe and the Audi Q8.
Is the 2025 BMW X6 a good SUV?
With most of its X5 virtues intact, the X6 remains a strong choice for those willing to pay more for less cargo volume. It’s a 6.6 out of 10 on the TCC scale. (Read more about how we rate cars.)
What's new for the 2025 BMW X6?
Not much after last year’s mid-cycle update. This year, the X6 sees a few small feature tweaks.
The more stylish—and less practical—brother of BMW’s popular X5 wears a sloping roofline that gives it an athletic appearance. It’s a burly SUV with a comfortable, high-tech interior.
X6s come with either turbocharged inline-6 or twin-turbo V-8 power. The base model is plenty quick and even somewhat thrifty on fuel, but this design begs for something with an underhood burble and more power. Here, the mid-level twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 with its mild-hybrid tech puts out 523 hp, making it the perfect match for the X6’s balanced, comfortable chassis. It sounds great and it is remarkably agile for something this big. We’re more in favor of it than we are the X6 M Competition, which is more powerful but also simply too stiff to be tolerable on a daily basis. If you plan to drive your X6 on a racetrack—and we can’t imagine why, even though it is exceptionally competent—it’s the one for you.
The X6 is quite thirsty. It’s rated as high as 24 mpg in turbo-6 form, but those with a V-8 won’t top 20 mpg in routine driving. All models need premium fuel, and there’s no plug-in hybrid option here.
Inside, the X6 has a high-end design matched by high-quality materials. Add real leather and swap in open-pore wood trim and you’ll find a truly luxurious space—so long as you don’t consider lots of interior room to be your definition of luxury. The X6’s front seats have good support, but the rear bench lacks headroom due to the way the roofline cuts downward. That shape has a big impact on cargo volume, which starts at a decent 27.4 cubic feet with the rear seat backs upright and grows to 59.6 cubes with them flopped down. That's useful but about 13 cubic feet less than the X5.
Federal and independent testers haven’t completed their safety evaluations of the BMW X6, though it has done well in what tests have been performed so far. The 2025 X6 comes with basic crash-avoidance technology, including blind-spot monitors and active lane control, while adaptive cruise control and a very useful surround-view camera system are options.
How much does the 2025 BMW X6 cost?
BMW charges $75,675 for the least-expensive X6, though this lineup can easily jump into six figures with optional features. The X6 is about $6,500 more than an equivalent X5, which is hardly a cheap vehicle to begin with.
Its standard feature set is good, though. Look for synthetic leather seats that are heated and cooled up front, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a 14.9-inch touchscreen for infotainment, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless smartphone charging, and 20-inch alloy wheels.
Where is the 2025 BMW X6 made?
In Spartanburg, South Carolina.
2025 BMW X6 Styling
The 2025 BMW X6 puts form ahead of function.
Is the BMW X6 a good-looking SUV?
BMW has been modifying the roof of its X5 and calling it X6 for around 15 years now, so the company has had plenty of time to refine the form. What you see with the X6 is an X5 from the front bumper to the windshield. Afterward, the roof slopes downward to the tail, where it ends in what looks like a sleek, fastback sedan shape—on stilts. It works pretty well. We award one point here for the exterior and another for the pretty cabin for a 7 out of 10.
The X6 comes standard with the M Sport package that’s optional on the X5, meaning you get a sporty front bumper with a big lower intake and large vents in front of the wheels. The X6 M has slightly a different grille and lower bumper intakes, and it comes with staggered 21-inch front and 22-inch rear wheels.
The X6’s cabin is light on buttons but big on screens, literally. The 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and 14.9-inch touchscreen live under a single glass pane that’s canted slightly toward the driver. Most controls are on-screen; only a few buttons and knobs remain on the center console. The look is simple and pure, even though we would like more physical buttons.
2025 BMW X6 Performance
The 2025 BMW X6’s power and handling bely its heft.
The BMW X6 is a burly SUV with plenty of mild-hybrid-boosted power and very good handling. It’s big but light on its feet, earning it a 7 out of 10. We’d rate the fast X6 M Competition higher for its greater power and sharper handling, though it would lose a point for its stiff ride.
Is the BMW X6 4WD?
Yes, standard all-wheel drive makes the X6 a suitable winter vehicle so long as you mount winter tires.
How fast is the BMW X6?
The base xDrive40i has a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 rated at 375 hp and 398 lb-ft of torque, which zips to the wheels through a slick 8-speed automatic transmission. It’s smooth and plenty quick, with a 0-60 mph run of about 5.2 seconds. What it lacks is the kind of verve that we feel a vehicle that looks like this should have. That’s where the X5 M6i xDrive steps in. This model’s twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 boosts output to 523 hp and 553 lb-ft, resulting in a 4.2-second run to 60 mph. It’s significantly quicker and it’s accompanied by a snarling soundtrack that better suits the X6’s intentions. You don’t buy an X6 to blend in, after all.
The base X6 rides and handles quite nicely, thanks to a firm suspension with adaptive dampers. X6 M60i versions swap in an aggressive limited-slip rear differential to encourage powering out of a corner. Ventilated disc brakes at all four corners help encourage this kind of behavior. Add the Dynamic Handling Package and you’ll get active anti-roll bars that do an admirable job of keeping body lean in check, too.
The X6 M Competition amps up the 4.4-liter V-8 to 617 hp and 553 lb-ft, which nudges half a second off of the run to 60 mph. It is noticeably quicker in any situation, but it is tough to recommend since all that power comes paired with a harsh suspension. The X6 M Competition rides on staggered wheels (21 inches up front and 22 at the rear), which contribute to its astoundingly firm ride that transmits every little road imperfection into the cabin. The upside to this painfully stiff tuning is that the X6 M corners with sport sedan sharpness. It’s far too sharp and nimble for a vehicle that weighs around 5,500 pounds. This is a track-oriented machine, which would be perfect if not for the fact that BMW sells cars such as the M2 and M3/4 that are far better suited to track-day duty.
2025 BMW X6 Comfort & Quality
The 2025 BMW X6 is a less-practical X5.
While it is no less luxurious than the automaker’s X5, the 2025 BMW X6 has a somewhat compromised interior. It gets an 8 here thanks to its nice materials, comfortable front seats, and good cargo space (though not for the size).
The X6 comes standard with 16-way power-adjustable seats with heating. The plush thrones can be upgraded with massaging, cooling, and real leather rather than synthetic hides for an extra cost.
The rear seat has acceptable legroom and the bench itself is wide enough for three adults in a pinch, but the sloping roofline means that anyone over about 6-feet tall will need to duck their heads to get comfortable.
Standard cargo space is 27.4 cubic feet behind the rear seats. Fold the rear seat backs down and the X6 has a compact-size but still-decent 59.6 cubic feet of room.
2025 BMW X6 Safety
The 2025 BMW X6 has an incomplete crash-test record.
How safe is the BMW X6?
It has mostly good scores in what limited IIHS testing has been performed. However, the NHTSA has yet to test the 2025 BMW X6. As a result, we need to wait for at least one of the two testing agencies to finish their work before we can assign it a score.
The X6 comes well-equipped with active lane control, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, active lane control, rear cross-traffic alerts, blind-spot monitors, a driver-attention monitor, and automatic high beams. Optional features include a surround-view camera system (which comes in handy due to lousy outward vision), adaptive cruise control, and a system that allows for short stints of hands-off driving at speed.
2025 BMW X6 Features
The 2025 BMW X6 comes well equipped and offers lots of options.
BMW’s X6 may be somewhat of a niche model, but it’s available in a wide range of configurations. It gets points for its standard features, its numerous optional extras, its good tech, and a 4-year/50,000-mile warranty that includes the first 3 years of scheduled maintenance. It’s a 9 here.
The X6 starts at $75,675, which nets all-wheel drive, synthetic leather seats, heated and power-adjustable front sports seats, a 14.9-inch touchscreen, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, a wireless device charging pad, and 20-inch alloy wheels.
Which BMW X6 should I buy?
If you’re looking for performance, it’s worth stepping up to the M60i version. It’s a lot costlier at $95,475, but it also comes with some features that are optional on the base model like a sport suspension, cooled front seats, Harman Kardon audio, and a head-up display.
Even then, we’d add the air suspension and driver-assistance tech, which will nudge the X6 to six figures.
If performance isn’t your goal here, we suggest sticking with the much less expensive X5 M60i.
How much is a fully loaded BMW X6?
The X6 M Competition is a hefty $130,875 or so, though it’s outfitted like a proper flagship with soft leather, a synthetic suede headliner, and adaptive cruise control—but BMW tempts with fancy paint, nicer leather, and a few other bits and pieces that can push it to $150,000.
2025 BMW X6 Fuel Economy
The 2025 BMW X6 prioritizes performance over fuel economy.
Is the BMW X6 good on gas?
Not really. The 2025 BMW X6 may look somewhat sleek, but the X5 is actually more fuel-efficient. Here, you’re looking at a mediocre 23 mpg city, 26 highway, 24 combined with the turbo-6 or 17/22/19 mpg with the twin-turbo V-8 in the M60i. The X6 M Competition guzzles at a rate of 13/18/15 mpg.
There’s no plug-in hybrid version of the X6.