Short Take Road Test
There's a running joke throughout Kevin Smith's movie Mallrats about the discomfort of making love in the back seat of a Volkswagen. With its implications of wealth and power, the BMW 650i may seem like a better vehicle to troll for partners, but the truth is, if the Vee-Dub in question is the New Beetle instead of the old, it boasts nearly 20-percent-more rear-seat space for such trysts than the BMW 650i's trifling 31 cubic feet. So small inside is the nearly 16-foot-long 650i that the EPA classifies it as a subcompact.
On the list of coupes with larger back seats than the 650i, you'll find such cars as the Honda Civic, the Chevy Cobalt, and the Hyundai Accent three-door. We tried to take an average-sized pair of friends with us to dinner one night, and both of them ended up with remarkably accurate dental imprints in their knee caps. Coupes, of course, are not about family hauling. They're about style, Joe Cool; not to mention speed, the perception of speed, and higher insurance rates.
This Big Guy Lays Down Some Big Numbers
A coupe is something separate from a sports car, but the BMW 650i puts out numbers quite sporty for 3857 pounds. We watched 60 mph arrive in five seconds flat on the way to a 13.6-second quarter-mile at 105 mph and a top speed of 151. However, overcoming two-ton mass simply requires more thrust, so even more impressive than the BMW's acceleration numbers is the 650i's 0.92-g skidpad grip, better by 0.05 g than the last M6 we tested and about what you'd get if you chained two Lotus Elises together to get a package with similar weight and interior space but likely more curb appeal.
Not as impressive as its skidpad performance is the way the 650i feels when driven hard. The clutch and the shifter are Jenny Craig-lite, almost too much so for a few of our test drivers, and as perfectly matched to the smooth 4.8-liter V-8 as golden sponge cake is to light, creamy filling. But when the road starts turning, things get flabby.
