The longer I do this job, the more I realise I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about it when it comes to new and/or controversial design trends.

I - and quite a few of my motoring journalist colleagues, I might add - think BMW's new off-roader-cum-coupe thingy, the X6, is kind of stupid.

It marries the high ride height and massive exterior dimensions of the X5 crossover wagon (on which it is based) with the stylish-but-impractical roofline and tapered rear of a coupe.

It's a big car with comparatively little space and visibility.

So anyway, after my week in the X6 xDrive35d, the vox-pop verdict is in: awesome, stylish, imposing, absolutely magnetic, I just want to keep looking at it all the time, etc.

Yep, people went ga-ga over the thing everywhere I went. In fact, I couldn't find a single person to say anything negative about the X6.

Surely if they had to sit in the back seat, with hemmed in by tiny windows and limited headroom? Nope: apparently it's snug and sporty feeling.

Hearing of my plight, Yahoo!Xtra contributor Richard Bosselman called me on the X6's Bluetooth cellphone as I drove through central Auckland on Wednesday, to tell me that he thought my test car was "really stupid". Ta.

But overall, the X6 scores massive hits on style and desirability. Apparently.

It does also happen to be awesome to drive and I can't argue with that. I do think it somewhat cynical of BMW to limit its trick new Dynamic Performance Control four-wheel-drive - sorry, "xDrive" - system to the X6, when it would be so easy to also include it on the X5.

But it certainly does work. As well as shifting power front to rear, Dynamic Performance Control moves it side-to-side (and does so proactively), which often helps the X6 to actually steer around corners by directing more torque to the outside rear wheel.

There's aeven a little graph you can call up on the dashboard to let you know how much torque is going where. Intruiging. Distracting.

The X6 goes around corners outrageously fast for a two tonne-plus off-roader-cum-coupe-thingy. No question. But still, a sports car it is not.

It has the speed: but it's not involving like a BMW sedan and you do start to feel the weight of the thing move around when the roads are wet.

Credit where it's due, though: among the lardy crossover set, only the Porsche Cayenne comes anywhere near the X6 for grip-and-go cornering ability.

The 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel engine is also a beauty. With 580Nm of torque it shrugs off the X6's bulk, revs freely to 5000rpm and can be tickled along with the (standard) steering wheel-mounted paddle-type gear shifters.

But I stand by my criticism of the X6's everyday useability. It's lower and yet still wider than an X5, so those extended front guards (which you can't really see) are a liability in narrow parking spots.

The rear window looks letterbox-sized from the driver's seat and makes the X6 downright dangerous to reverse unless you have the $1280 parking camera (which ours did).

The week before I collected the X6, I had an X5 3.0sd M Sport with the same twin-turbo diesel engine under the bonnet.

At $139,500, the dressed-up, optioned-up X5 (you can also get a non-M version at $130K neat) was almost exactly the same price as the X6.

To my mind the X5 looked much more balanced and elegant, had excellent visibility with its higher cabin and large glass areas, drove almost as well on Kiwi roads with its sports suspension, and boasted bags more passenger and luggage space.

I'd love to say it made the X6 seem really quite useless as a "lifestyle" vehicle. But I can't, because during my weekend with the xDrive35d I got three adults and two mountain bikes into it quite easily. Damn.

What this means to you:
You probably love the X6. Just like everybody else.