KickingTires: 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show: BMW X6 Concept

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Looks like: A Hot Wheels car brought to life
Defining characteristics: A sports car body dropped onto Bigfoot’s wheels
Ridiculous features: A sports car body dropped onto Bigfoot’s wheels
Chance of being mass-produced: BMW doesn’t often introduce a concept that isn’t meant for production. The X6 looks so ready to hit dealerships we’d expect to see the real thing revealed by the end of this year.

We’re kind of at a loss here. We knew BMW was working on an SUV with a swoopy shape but nothing could have prepared us for this. The X6 is a real BMW, folks. The name might say concept — a hybrid version of it will be a concept as well; we’ll post about it as soon as we can — but BMW has been testing the X6 for production for quite some time. It seems BMW actually intends to sell this “sport activity coupe” to the masses. How big the masses are remains to be seen.

Why are we blown away? Well, despite the recent anti-SUV sentiment in the U.S., luxury SUVs are still selling well and the redesigned BMW X5 is the company’s best SUV to date, perhaps even the best luxury SUV on the market. BMW doesn’t need another vehicle in this segment and the X6 will have less room inside than the X5. Perhaps the radical looks, augmented by those ridiculously huge 21-inch wheels, will draw those who don’t want a soccer-mom mobile.

The idea of a four-door coupe style is not new — see the Mercedes-Benz CLS — but putting it on an off-roadable platform seems like an odd choice, it certainly doesn’t look like anything else on the road. While we regroup, check out the images below.