Test Drive: 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid

By Kevin Harrison

There’s a problem with society. Well, there’s many problems actually. But most notably, we seem to always want and demand impossible combinations of stuff.

For instance, we all wish to eat healthy but as soon as companies cut fat or sodium from our foods, we all turn into pouty six year olds. With our arms crossed and our faces full of irritation we declare “I’m never buying this again” because the cheese with 25% less fat tastes like a rubber boot.

No matter where you are in Canada, people will insist that their roads are the worst in the country, as if it were some sort of accolade. But then when taxes get raised or money gets diverted to fix the roads, we all turn into selfish children yet again.

“Fix the roads with someone else’s money, not mine” we all say.

The same can be said for fuel efficiency and the environment. Sure, we’re all concerned about these issues (most of us are anyway), but are we willing to do anything about it? Nope. Because the energy efficient bulb takes a bit longer to reach its peak brightness it’s not worth buying apparently. And if you tell someone they’re going to have to downsize if they’d like to save on gas, they’ll look at you as if you hunt rats in the middle of the night for fun.

So due to these kinds of attitudes, we’re left with things like the X6 ActiveHybrid – a stab in the dark to try to bring us a solution to our uncompromisable problem – power yet efficiency. Has it worked?

Read the rest of this entry »