Driving the $120,000 BMW M850i Coupe: Full Review

today we're going for a test drive in the all-new BMW M 850 I I'll test the features functions and the 0-60 performance on this episode of driving sports TV [Music] throughout the 1990s BMW produced the attractive yet problematic 8 Series though it did look quick and it packed a 12 cylinder engine under the hood it's 2 ton weight and touchy electronics certainly pinched it's performance potential sales never really picked up on the model and as the world entered a recession the 8 was put on the chopping block now 20 years later the 8 Series is back once again it is improving on the 6 Series it replaces and BMW really hopes at this time they got both the car and the timing right the 8 Series Coupe is available in a variety of models with pricing starting at 87 thousand nine hundred dollars for a six cylinder with rear-wheel drive all the way to one hundred and forty six thousand dollars for the m8 competition coupe the one we're driving today is the mid pack M 850 I with xDrive it starts out 111 thousand nine hundred dollars but as you see it here it's got some extras like a carbon fiber roof ventilated seats and upgraded tech all that together in the price climbs up to one hundred and nineteen thousand two hundred and ninety five this vehicle competes with the Mercedes s-class coupe as well as the futuristic-looking Lexus LC 500 which I reviewed last year under the hood of this M 850 I is a 4.4 liter twin power turbo v8 here it puts down 523 horsepower through all four wheels thanks to BMWs intelligent all-wheel drive system this engine is similar to the one found in the upmarket m8 so it is totally fair that they call this an M 850 I instead of just you know an 850 I the only transmission offered is an 8-speed automatic that includes manual shift modes paddle shifters and launch control hashtag save the manuals EPA rates this set up at 18 miles to the gallon city and 25 on the highway but if you're counting your miles you're probably not gonna buy this car anyway in the back there's a teeny tiny little rear deck spoiler kind of like they forgot and added it at the last minute with some glue but open up that trunk and there's an impressive amount of space for a two-door fourteen point eight cubic feet you can even fold both seats down for larger objects with seats up the Lexus LC 500 only has a little more than a third of the BMWs capacity and the s-class coupe it struggles with ten point four cubic feet getting in and out of the second row is a struggle for adults however kids they'll probably be fine it's unlikely the owner will ever have to sit back there instead the driver gets treated to an excellent main cabin with high-quality leather and metals throughout drop into the tartufo and black perforated sport seats with 20 power adjustments memory heating and ventilation BMW has also taken to putting glass inserts in key touch points it is pretty but sun refraction can occasionally be an issue to start it up just hit the button right next to the shifter [Music] yeah that'll do to control the iDrive system there's a glass ensconced dial that also acts as a touchpad it is a quick and easy way to search for music radio or to set navigation you can also use natural speech find the nearest Starbucks this works remarkably well even if it is a bit slow to respond I have found several destinations which ones should I select USB is provided for mobile devices however carplay is only offered over Wi-Fi and even then only with an annual subscription I can never get it to work correctly with my iPhone 7 plus though I have seen it work fine with the iPhone X at the end of the day your mileage may vary in terms of getting it to function properly but even if you do get it to function that annual subscription is a real downer the same screen is used for an impressive surround view camera system you can even navigate a 3d model of your vehicle using gestures which is honestly the only useful thing you can do with gestures but this is part of a base safety package that includes parking assist proximity sensors front collision warnings lane departure and blind spot warnings adaptive cruise control is only available as part of the $1,700 driving assistance professional package which did not come on our test car overall this M 850 eye is pretty well equipped it looks great and it's even priced competitively when compared to the competition BMW specs this package at zero to sixty and only 3.5 seconds on paper to beat that in a Mercedes equivalent you're looking at the AMG S 63 which starts at just under 170 thousand dollars in contrast the $92,000 Lexus LC 500 isn't even in the same ballpark when it comes to acceleration you could say the lexus competes in terms of style and presence whereas the AMG competes so the big question is which of these two competitors is the more direct competitor to the M 850 residents or is it more about performance okay this is quick [Music] and that all-wheel steering does a really good job at high speeds it'll help me slot over by by putting both wheels one direction at slower speeds it'll counter sure to give me a tighter turning radius which is really good when you have a vehicle that's this long the seating position is excellent I get heaters and coolers and plus a lot of adjustments I also have a nice heads-up display that gives me my current speed limit as well as my current speed and any other critical information a funny thing and this is probably not surprising to anybody but if I put on sunglasses yeah it disappears because polarisers they don't work with heads-up displays just a side down [Music] it is probably completely unsurprising anybody watching this that the ma 50 I is available with a variety of drive modes everything from adaptive to Eco Pro to comfort to my favorite sport which can also be Sport Plus put it into that mode and this thing sounds wicked [Music] you know fast it is oh man I've done that a lot and it still surprises me now let's do one of my favorite things say it with me launch control I've set up a GoPro so that you can see what the gauge cluster looks like while I do this I'm gonna go ahead and set let's see see if I can figure out this whole pattern to be able to get launch control to engage first I need hit sport and then go into Sport Plus there I need to go to sport traction plus okay and I need to put the transmission into sport mode s1 and then I push down the brake and I push down the gas three two one go jiminy crickets and 60 [Applause] [Music] that was pretty amazing that really launched fast the all-wheel-drive system just launched I mean for lack of a better word it was like it was like an Apollo 11 rocket man out of the hole it was awesome nice now the funny thing is let me show you I'm gonna go ahead and do that again if I can stop the vehicle put everything else is set exactly as it was let's go ahead and crawl up here a little bit so everything is set as it was and I will now try to do that again Sport Plus traction going to sport hold down brake hold down gas yeah won't do launch control you got to put on miles in between the launch control launches because they don't want you to like abuse the transmission so that was our one that was it [Music] so if you're at the drag strip and you want to try you know to get a good time you're gonna have to drive in between each launch because otherwise you just won't have launch control available still launches fast but not quite that fast do you need to wait for the m8 I guess if you need like you know a competition or you're deaf sure maybe this thing just has so much grip and that's courtesy of the all-wheel-drive system it pushes power around primarily into the back because this is a performance oriented setup and it does a really good job combined with the all-wheel steering and you have a car that really can handle the corners with a plum oh it sounds so good I just wanted like bomb around at 6000 rpm just so I can hear that burble and the exhaust oh man that's awesome now it's kind of funny this vehicle wherever I went people were curious about it they were like what is that I've read online that several people think it looks too much like a current gen Mustang um I would actually disagree I mean yeah okay the rear quarter-panel maybe I can see a little bit of that but the whole effect of the car is so much more dramatic than the current Mustang I don't think that that's really a very fair statement overall and I do like the new current Mustang by the way don't get me wrong that bullet is amazing [Music] now the downside of this car and there is one is about money and it's not about the fact that this car is so expensive it's the fact that they nickel and dime you for what I think are basic functions these days I mean like cruise control this does have standard cruise control but if you want to adaptive cruise control yeah that's gonna cost you another seventeen hundred dollars on top of the hundred and eleven that you already paid for the car not to mention this one has some extra options so it's actually priced up to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars no for this one you have to spend an extra seventeen hundred dollars to get these stop-and-go capable adaptive cruise control and it's not like it's a terribly special adaptive cruise control I've used it in the x7 and it's fine you know these days a Toyota Corolla comes standard with adaptive cruise control a Corolla although even though they don't have adaptive cruise control they do have a number of safety features on this vehicle everything from front collision mitigation the lane departure warning which will bump steer and sometimes it's awkward as well as active blind spot detection where it will not only look out the corners it'll also bump me back into my lane if it feels like I'm encroaching on a vehicle you know nice features why couldn't you include adaptive cruise control while you're out at BMW why I do really like this electronic display up here it gives me my speedo on the left it has an attack on the right it's all digital it's really cool looking and has maps dead center now if I would prefer to have you know a large speedo in the dead center or just turn off maps all together I can definitely do that but this set up I think is actually quite nice there is something special about driving this car I don't know what it would be like on a track I've heard it's quite good but I don't have a racetrack available but I can say that in state to state travel and just bobbing around on these country roads it's really cool the cool factor is off the charts and I think there's something to be said about that it's not just the looks but it's also the feel and the sound they really do have the total cool package happening here [Music] [Music] after spending some time with the M 852 say that the BMW is a solid entry directly in between the AMG s 63 and the Lexus LC 500 on one hand it's fast very fast it also is very attractive getting about as many looks as the LC 500 around town but the BMW also has quite a few perplexing misses the weird car play implementation adaptive cruise control requiring an expensive package a really cheap piece of plastic on the underside of the transmission controller and the tacked on rear spoiler are all just items to ponder before dropping more than a hundred grand on one of these vehicles if none of these items really bug you the BMW M 850 eye is a great car for long weekends or if you're willing to spend the money for the adaptive cruise control upgrade it can even make a great everyday commuter car what do you think did BMW do goodbye the new 8th series post a comment below also like and share our videos for driving sports TV I'm Ryan Douthit I'll see you again next week right here

Channel: Driving Sports TV

Views: 17,449

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Id: 3_k0_5RKN2U

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 10 2019