Car review: BMW XM packs uncommon sound and fury

SINGAPORE – The design brief for the BMW XM must have gone something like this: Listen carefully. We want an outrageously big, luxurious and powerful car with all-wheel drive, and we want it to be as fuel-efficient as a Volkswagen Polo. One more thing, we also want it to sound like nothing we have ever made.

The result is a car with a list of superlatives. It is the biggest and heaviest vehicle to wear the M badge. And although it is marked an X, it is as luxurious as the 7-series limousine, replete with wall-to-wall, leather-and-faux suede upholstery and a dazzling array of dynamic LED displays both inside and outside the car.