Of all of the vehicles that I've had the opportunity to park in my driveway during the past several months, none has drawn more popular attention than the 645Ci.  This is what a contemporary coupe ought to look like.  The 6 Series has a form and presence that speaks of today—with a hint of tomorrow—not of the past.  To be sure, there are the distinctive BMW styling cues from the kidneys in the front to the kink on the deck.  But overall, it is a vehicle that one could argue shares more with what might been devised by those German immigrants to the U.S. who were fundamental to the creation of the American space program than those who are fascinated by the Wild West stories of Karl May.  Too many vehicles on the road—even those that are being released right now—tend to have a certain something of nostalgia about them, and the nostalgia is for time when horsepower meant just what that word is derived from.  If there is an error to the 6 Series, it could be that it is nostalgic in that it harkens, in a sense, to a time—such as the 1930s and the 1950s—when people imagined the 21^st century as being a time when there would be characteristics and cues that were anything but quotidian: the FUTURE would be writ large.  It would not be more of the same.

This is a car for the driver.  To be sure, the front-seat passenger gets their space, which cannot be said of those who might have the unfortunate circumstance to sit in the rear.  Anyone older than seven would have a problem getting back there—and a seven-year-old requires that a 10-year-old sits in the front passenger's seat so that it is motored forward sufficiently far for a modicum of legroom in the back.  (Even BMW refers to the space back there as being for "occasional" seating.)

But that's not the point of this car.  This car is meant to be driven, not occupied.  How much it is meant to be driven can be derived from the way the Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) is setup—or at least was on the model that I drove.  At the far end of the six-speed selector is a 4.4-liter, 32-valve V8 that produces 325 hp.  There are an array of features on what's called the N62 engine, such as the Valvetronic system, which varies not cam timing as some high-tech engine systems do, but valve lift, which facilitates both efficiency and responsiveness, and the Double-VANOS system, which rotates both the intake and exhaust valves in a stepless manner via a servomotor to optimize performance.  (Remember: this is a car of now, not yesterday.)  And at the other end is the shifter for the SMG—either that which is mounted on the tunnel or the two Formula One-style shift paddles fixed to the steering wheel.  The driver can simply put the lever in "D" and call it good, can ignore the clutchless manual shifting option.  But the driver probably wouldn't do that (once again, this could be an anomaly in the vehicle that I drove, although I had other people tell me that they had a similar experience).  I found that when in the traditional automatic mode, the system ran first gear way out beyond the 3,500 rpm mark before initiating a shift, which caused the sort of jerk that is characteristic of a gear shift performed by someone who is rusty on a manual.  While second-to-third was less in need of inertial dampers, it wasn't nearly as smooth as someone would expect of a vehicle that has an MSRP of $69,300.  When used in the manual mode, things go smoothly –or not, depending on your facility with the fore-and-aft selection of the lever or the paddles.  The fundamental is that with the SMG-equipped 6 Series, driving is a participatory activity.

Like many coupes, there is a certain sacrifice from the point of view of having a point of view for things behind you.  Which undoubtedly helps explain the optional sensor-based Park Distance Control, which uses the navi screen as an interface to show you, where the vehicle is in relation to objects; the image is supplemented by audible warnings.  The last thing that you want to do is to get even the slightest ding on your 6 Series.  After all, even the merest mark would undermine the smoothness of the aerodynamics.  And raise insurance rates—in the future.