Well-heeled driving enthusiasts prepared to spend more than $100,000 on their four-wheeled pride and joy will, on the other hand, love it.So far as SUV-hating hybrid fanciers go, it's the ''in-your-face'' look of the X6 that will focus their angst rather than the amount of petrol or diesel they might think it consumes.

Actually, the two engines that will launch the X6 the superb 3lt turbo-charged straight six and the 3lt twin-turbo diesel are excellent in the fuel-efficiency and emissions departments.

If you want to do your motoring in an understated, anonymous manner, don't buy this car.

As a day in Melbourne traffic and out in the nearby countryside proved, this is a car that demands to be noticed. As the driver, you find people looking at you as well, probably to see what kind of person would buy the car.

At first glance you think it's an X5 SUV with a coupe roofline and rear-end styling.

As some commentators have already said much to BMW's chagrin from the rear it looks more than a little like SsangYong's Actyon.

In fact the X6 does not share one piece of sheet metal with the X5 and is a tad longer and wider.

Despite its dimensions, the X6 is a four seater not a five-seater or a seven-seater like its X5 sibling.

It's for people who want a seriously sporty driving machine with some, but not all, the practicality of a fair-dinkum sport utility vehicle.

In other words, the X6 is for people who want the ''sports'' but not the ''utility'' at least not all of it.

Certainly the X5 SUV is no slouch when it comes to driving dynamics and handling. That is one reason it has been so successful.

But if you think the X5 is good, you won't believe the X6 and the way it drives, handles and performs.

Australian marketing boss Tom Noble said the company was introducing vehicles that challenged convention but were born out of customer demands.

''The BMW X6 caters for a more discerning sector of the market which wants a specific product and won't compromise,'' he said.

He described the X6 as a blend of the strengths of the X5 and the 6-series coupe served up in an eye-catching form.

''Since we previewed the concept X6 at the Australian International Motor Show in October 2007, the level of interest from BMW owners and conquest customers has been incredible,'' Noble said.

In confirmation, even before the first X6 made it into a dealer showroom, 100 of the 300 units that will reach this country before the end of the year were sold. More than 60 of the spoken-for cars are turbo-diesels.

As well as appealing to ''early adopters,'' BMW expects X6 customers to be existing X5 owners and owners of cars wearing Lexus, Saab, Volvo, Porsche, Maserati, Jaguar, Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz AMG badges.

Initially two versions, the X6 xDrive35i and the xDrive 35d, will be available, priced from $114,705 and $120,530 respectively, including the 33 per cent luxury-car tax rate.

Early next year the range-topping twin-turbo V8 petrol version will arrive. Buyers with about $150,000 to spend can look forward to an engine that is good for 300kW of peak power and 600Nm of torque.

The petrol-powered X6 xDrive35i's engine delivers 225kW of peak power between 5800 and 6250rpm.

It can sprint the beefy 2.1tonne car to 100km/h in 6.7 secs and waft it up to a top speed of 240km/h.

While BMW claims a combined fuel-consumption figure of 12.1lt/100km and a carbon dioxide-emissions figure of 286g/km, some serious punting pushed this to about 17lt.

The turbo-diesel's 210kW of peak power arrives at 4400rpm, and a thumping 580Nm of torque is on tap between 1750 and 2250rpm. For an ''oiler'', a 6.9-second sprint time to 100km/h is exceptional. Top speed of 236km/h is a tad slower than its petrol-powered sibling.