BMW 7 Series 750Li Saloon Review

Overall Rating

Endless wonderfulness. BMW engineeering which delivers a raft of quality performance, whether it's the power of the engine or the sexy swish of the self-closing doors.

Driving it - wonderful. It purrs along as smoothly as a smooth thing and when you push the pedal it goes like something off a shovel - tremendous acceleration and speed. More importantly when you need to stop in a hurry it stops more quickly than you'd think the laws of physics could allow! So it feel luxurious, fast and safe.

I suppose it would be possible, in spite of those incredible brakes, to crash it in which case a huge number of airbags would kick in and smother you in even more safety. Have I got across the notion that it feels (and I'm sure is) safe?

A joy to drive at quiet crusing speed and a joy at high speed too.
The long wheelbase is a joy. A bit of a bugger to park, but as a passenger it's wonderful (and as a driver it's great to hear the back seat passengers' admiring comments too).

When in the front, you can spend half your life crafting the perfect seating position with the electric twiddlers. Firmly the best seat adjustment range I've met.

Plenty of choice to keep you occupied with the various computer controls too - not totally intuitive but not bad.

Gadgets are good - I especially love the self-opening and closing boot. At first I thought just a clever gimmick; in practice though it's a really practical and useful benefit - try it for a while and you'll never want anything else.

You don't need me to list the clever stuff - it's all in the brochure. But what I can say is that it all works, and works well.

The speed is the most worrying - until you get used to it you'll find you are going faster than you intended; very much faster. Watch the speedo and then watch it again.

The reversing radar can be a pain. Most of the time hugely useful (even if the noise can be a touch irritating). But the colour coded picture turns scary red when you're about 6" away from an obstacle and on the rare occasions when you need to squeeze through a tiny gap you do so in terror. And the radar can see the back of a lorry but can't see a scaffolding pole stuck out of the back of a lorry. So if, as I did, you have confidence in the radar picture and continue backwards towards a scaffold-pole-bearing vehicle your radar screen says you're OK and your boot lid gets dented.

The long wheelbase gives you pleasure inside (and a better looking profile too) but is a pain to park sometimes, so it's slightly impractical for parking.

The self-closing doors are great and you soon get used to giving just enough gentle push for the door to swish shut so so quietly. But you'll be driven mad by your passnegers, who don't know about this, slamming the doors of your beautiful car!

I have only one real bad point: The satnav is about as poor as any you'll come across. Truly hopeless for a top range facility.

This car is superb.

It's common for owner's to like their cars - even to feel a degree of affection. But I love this car to bits; it's a pleasure owning it, it's a pleasure driving it and it's a pleasure being driven in it.

I'm lucky enough not to have to worry about costs and I suspect it's expensive to run; but if that's a concern for you I imagine you can get similar pleasure from the smaller deisel engine version (and feel you're a cool energy saving exec at the same time).

But if you want the works, enjoy this version and be a happy person. A very, very happy person.

I looked at the top of range Audi and Mercedes and liked them; but the BMW 7 I love. With a passion.