2024 BMW XM PVOTY Review: M Is for Monstrous

See All 14 Photos14

Ridiculous. Outrageous. Massively powerful. Absolutely gargantuan. Roaring good time. Hilarious fun. When it comes to the 2024 BMW XM Label edition, the PVOTY judges were in full-on histrionic mode after their laps chucking the XM’s 6,000-plus pounds of mass around Chukwalla’s tight, twisty circuit.

The XM deserves all those callouts and then some, as it’s one of the most perplexing and polarizing vehicles BMW has ever produced. Billed as a ground-up effort by the M division, it’s a technological and engineering tour de force in many ways, though with several caveats. Given it’s a plug-in hybrid, it can travel as much as 31 miles on e-power alone, at speeds up to 80 mph. But to absolutely no one’s surprise given its size and heft, it’s also inefficient, with a 14-mpg combined number on gas-only power and a 46 mpg-e number.

Then you look at our latest XM test numbers and shake your head so hard it hurts: 3.4 seconds to 60 mph, just 105 feet to stop from that speed, and a 0.97 g average on the skidpad (a 2023 model we tested hit 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and took 103 feet to stop). These are numbers a vehicle like this should not be able to achieve, though given its 738 combined horsepower, it starts to make more sense. Get it on a racetrack—especially a relatively tight and technical circuit like Chuckwalla—and the first thing you’ll ask yourself is, why? As in, why did I take this thing out here? And jeez, it’s enormous, and whoa, these brakes are powerful, and man, that 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 sounds mean.

You must hand it to the M team, it’s almost as if someone in a product planning meeting about what vehicle it should develop as the ultimate expression of the M ethos said, “We dare you to make a three-ton vehicle dance.” Challenge accepted, apparently. “Oh, and don’t forget to adorn it with super-controversial front-end styling.”

We accepted the challenge of driving the XM in anger around Chuckwalla. Clamber up behind the wheel of the exclusive XM Label’s sufficiently opulent cabin for its $191,895 as-tested price tag, and you’re treated to much of what we’ve seen from various M brand vehicles, a wide array of settings designed to help you dial in your preferred driving style.

Here’s what executive editor Mac Morrison found once he got it set up to his liking and ripped the XM around the track: “This is a beast I never would’ve asked for, but it sure amuses me. Considering the absurd weight, it's impressive. Also, it doesn’t feel crazy-crazy heavy like you expect it to. It delivers an asinine and roaring good time."

Other judges weren’t nearly as kind, with the prevailing opinion being that although there’s some fun to be had, it’s just too heavy and unwieldy to be anything more than a novelty on a track. Bottom line, it’s no match for the likes of fellow super SUVs such as the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT or the Aston Martin DBX 707—at least in the type of environment we subjected it to. But maybe its X6 M stablemate is. Therein lies the problem with the XM: It straddles so many lines that in the end it only really succeeds at being monstrously big and powerful and (for BMW, at least) expensive. For some folks—although not very many, as BMW is rumored to have killed the XM's replacement—that’s enough.

See All 14 Photos14