This isn't a review. Far from it. In a review I like to be relevant and objective, making like-for-like comparisons and reporting what I find. This is more of a an essay. A screed. A manifesto on what I like in a car. As such; prepare to go absolutely miles off topic.
So, let's establish that everything Jeremy Clarkson wrote about the BMW 640d in the Sunday Times is pretty well bang-on. Yeah, it's blisteringly quick, quiet, smooth-riding and technologically accomplished. In terms of being a car, save for the fact that it only has two doors, it's one of the more complete cars I've ever driven. Where the current real-world sliding scale of vehicle adequacy is aligned, the 640 scores heavily in the "as good as it needs to be" sector of the dial. It's not perfect; I'm not sure any car is. But it doesn't fall down in any specific area. It's terrific.
And it's about as far from what I want in a car as I can possibly imagine.
