Daily Rate

$349

Weekly Rate

$1,999

Free Miles

100 Daily

Additional Miles

$0.50

Transmission

Automatic  

Model Year

2009

Engine

4.4 Liter V-8  

Horsepower

360  

Passengers

4  

Doors

2  

M.S.R.P.

$93,259  

Available Colors

Black and Grey

Options

Navigation System, Sports Package, Premium Package, Heated front Seats, Satellite Radio, Bluetooth, i-pod connection.  

But the fact of the matter is that the 650i is extraordinarily quiet, stable, and supple in its everyday dealings. That cowl shake was probably the only noticeable manifestation at the time. The BMW recorded the lowest decibel readings in the three sound categories we measure. It never felt as if it were doing anything dramatic, but it pulled the second-highest lateral-acceleration number in the group. And its last-place finish in the lane-change test probably had more to do with the dearth of chassis feedback than anything else.

Yet the BMW is loaded with high-tech gadgets, and not all of them are associated with the annoying iDrive mechanism (which gets a little soft pad on its control knob this year, in case you care). The automatic softtop — it was not universally considered handsome — raises in about 25 seconds, draping itself over five windows in the process.

The short, vertical rear glass can be left in its upright position to act as a draft excluder for the rear-seat passengers. The BMW was best in this group at transporting rear-seat passengers (the Benz and the Cadillac have no rear seat at all), but not behind the two six-foot-something testers on this trip. Their seating positions had the front backrest firmly in contact with the rear cushion.

If the BMW is about cruising, then it has all the cards: a great stereo, a navigation system, automatic climate control, stability control, and a host of special brake-related programs from wet-weather clearing strategies to something called comfort stop, which alleviates that sudden snap stop practiced by bad drivers. For fast, daylong cruising, the 650i is in a league of its own.