BMW 7-Series

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BMW 7-Series

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How much?	$ 149750
Engine:	4395cc, 8cyl, 402BHP @ 5500, 442lb ft @ 1750
Transmission:	Automatic
Fuel Economy:	11.4 - l/100km
Performance:	5.3 sec 0-100kph , 250kph
How heavy?	1980kg

Tom Bird
21 October 2008

Ah the BMW 7-series, the first car Bangle spannered!

No, that’s the old 7-series. This is the all-new fifth generation car, due to hit the region in just a couple of weeks.

What’s different about it then?

Firstly, the styling. BMW’s design director Adrian van Hooydonk describes the new 7 as ‘the perfect balance of elegance, presence and sportiness all in one’. It’s certainly got a better family look to it.

Has it still got the dreadful iDrive?

It has, but, it’s so much better than the first generation of the system, BMW should have renamed it the iDrive Nano. The central dial spins much more freely now, and there are a number of buttons providing shortcuts to various parts of the menu, rather than getting lost in the ultra-complicated system of yore.

What else is new?

In a bid to satisfy the kit-hungry buyers here (the third-biggest region for the 7-series) and in China (second only to the USA) BMW have thrown every conceivable gadget onto the car. There’s night view, head-up display, stop-and-go cruise control, lane departure warning, blind spot warning, ventilated massaging leather seats, TV, DVD player – and for the first time in any car, full internet access.

There’s plenty more too – side and rear cameras, two-stage brake lights, seatback-mounted screens, iPhone integration, four-zone climate control (complete with a separate air-con unit in the boot for those in the back), and active steering – complete with rear-wheel steering. There’s also a four-stage active suspension system that has settings from Comfort all the way to Sport+.

Sport+? Isn’t that more suited to an M-car, not a luxo-barge?

Indeed it is. In Li form (standard in the region), the 7-series measures in at more than 5.2metres long with a wheelbase just 1cm shy of a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Therefore it’s not exactly the most agile of cars. Sport+ makes the 7-series feel very out of its depth very quickly – throw it into a corner with too much vigour and it’ll plough on into understeer.

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