It’s pretty hard to get noticed when you’re sharing the LA Auto Show stage with BMW’s i3, the new 4 Series convertible, and the always awesome i8. But BMW’s Honey-I-Shrunk-The-X6 crossover something-or-other Concept X4 drew a huge crowd of journalists when its drapes were yanked off.
The X6 has always been a swaggering bully of a car, or truck, or whatever it is; haul yourself up behind its fat wheel and you instantly find yourself with a chip on both shoulders, looking for old ladies to mug and take their lunch money. The X4 looks like a ¾-scale model of the X6; it might put a chip on just one of your shoulders, and send you off to steal Thin Mints from a freckled Girl Scout.
That’s all about the exterior impression of the X4, however, because this is a concept car, with blacked-out windows so you couldn’t see inside. Several design features will no doubt evolve before the real car is rolled out, probably in late summer. Then we’ll see if the X4 is powered by the same fuel as its bad-boy big brother: pure testosterone.—Satch Carlson
