BMW 740i 2015 Review

BMW 740i sedan
Australian Launch Review
Melbourne, Victoria

It's been a long time coming, but BMW's sixth-generation 7 Series is finally here, complete with weight-saving 'carbon core' structure and an overload of new safety and comfort technologies. Priced significantly higher than its predecessor and key rivals like the Audi A8, Jaguar XJ and Australia's most popular limousine, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the new Seven opens at $217,500 for the 730d diesel. There's also the 740i tested here, the long-wheelbase 740Li and, from early next year, the 750i and 750Li.

BMW’s latest technological knockout, the new 7 Series, might be a great car to drive, but it’s not a very good driver.

Sure, it can park itself, even when you’re not in the car (while you control it via the tablet-like Display Key — a handy feature if your garage isn’t quite big enough to swallow its bulk and still leave room for the doors to open)  and its Traffic Jam Assistant can take the boredom out of rush hour by operating the brake and throttle for you, but in terms of steering it’s got a way to go.

BMW describes its Steering and Lane Control as “semi autonomous” but it’s more like “semi retired”, because it tends to take multiple bites at a corner like an old person and did, on one occasion, see a misleading road marking it wanted to follow and attempt to jink us off the road.

This is why you have to keep your hands on the wheel while using it, but you can lift them for around 10 seconds, a feature created entirely so you can show off to your mate with his Apple Watch  — “look, steers itself, pretty nifty eh?” — and then never switch it on again.

Theoretically, if you did use it, in concert with the active cruise control, you could go from Sydney to Melbourne in a kind of slobbering trance, your feet stock still, one hand barely resting on the wheel, brain in neutral, but I’m pretty sure people do that already.

To be fair to the 7 Series, its semi-autonomous systems are about the only thing about this new sixth-generation car that isn’t utterly convincing, geek-tacular, or both.

That Display Key, for a start, is a spectacular thing; one of those ideas you hold in your hand and think ‘what took someone this long?’ It has a touch screen, can be charged up using a little cord in the centre console and can be used to check your fuel range, whether you remembered to lock the car (a boon for OCD sufferers) and even “precondition” the cabin to your preferred temperature as you’re wandering down from your helipad.

And what a cabin it is, particularly in the back where you can be touched up by the most invigorating Nappa leather massage chairs the world has yet seen while playing with your integrated seven-inch Samsung tablet (again, how did that take so long?), which allows you operate iDrive, and play with countless ambience settings, including mood lighting and fragrance choices.

Actually drive the Seven yourself, as 85 per cent of Australian buyers apparently do, and you’ve got a feast of new Easter eggs to play with, including the world’s first in-car gesture-recognition system.

So you’re driving along, enjoying some Brahms on the new and superb Bowers & Wilkins Diamond stereo system when someone dares to phone you; just by waving your hand dismissively in front of you, the car knows to reject the call and send it to voicemail.

A “come-hither, peasant” wave allows you to accept calls, and you can also turn up the volume by spinning your finger in the air, pinch and swivel the freakish 3D external camera view or do whatever you like with a special 'flying-V' gesture, which you can program to carry out your favoured command.

Gesture control may or may not catch on, but it’s a hell of a novelty for the first hour at least.

BMW claims the 7 Series is now the most technologically advanced car on the road, after throwing in the fact that it is built with a core of carbonfibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP -- just like its i8 supercar) and lots of aluminium to save weight — up to 130kg of it — and its new LaserLights, which increase your high-beam vision from 300 to 600 metre.

It’s that kind of leap, doubling the performance of a pretty important feature, that a new-generation 7 Series is supposed to represent. This is the car that debuts the baubles, and brilliant bits, that all BMWs will soon have — it had iDrive first, for a start, although that isn’t perhaps the happiest example.

One of the most impressive leaps forward, this time, is in the design department, because from front to back the new 7 Series looks powerful and yet almost lithe, with a particularly clever character line at the rear that gives it a great back-end.

The face is dominated by the largest kidney grille ever fitted to a BMW (an active grille at that, for aero and thermal reasons) and with the classic light detailing overall it’s definitely the best this car has ever looked.

The dimensions haven’t changed much, as it grows just 19mm in length, but the engines are all new — a twin-turbo V8 for the 750i, a twin-turbo straight six for the 740i and a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel for the pick of the bunch, and the cheapest, 730d.

There are no big bumps in power or torque (the 740i and 730d both rise 5kW to a respective 240kW and 195kW, while both deliver 450Nm of torque and consume 7.0L/100km), but the performance improves because of the weight savings (down to just 1755kg in the diesel) in the car, and economy is impressive, with a best of just 4.9L/100km in the 730d.

Powered by a 4.4-litre turbocharged petrol V8, 750i and 750Li variants generate 330kW/650Nm, with fuel economy of 8.1 and 8.3L/100km respectively.

The result is suitably thrusting acceleration – 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds for the 740i we drove and 6.1 in the diesel — and properly regal progress. The 7 Series is whisper quiet, eerily so in the case of the 730d, which is almost entirely rattle free, and its ride and handling balance is simply supreme.

There are two different Comfort settings, which tells you something about how its two-axle air suspension with automatic self-levelling is set up; smooth is the word.

All cars we tried were fitted with the $5000 optional Executive Drive Pro, which scans the road ahead with some of its many cameras, spots bumps and potholes and prepares the shock absorbers for impact.

The result is an almost Rolls-Royce level of wafting, when you want it, but a far sportier and more enthusiastic setting when you don’t.

BMW wants its limo to be the most driver-involving on the market, and its excellent, muscular yet crisp steering takes care of that customer demand.

Australians, in particular, like their big luxury cruisers to feel ready for the track, with the world’s highest take-up rate for the M Sport package — 85 per cent — even though it used to sting you an extra $10,000. It becomes a no-cost option across the new range, which makes the price rises seem a little more reasonable.

The 730d is up $11,300 to a starting price of $217,500 (good luck not ticking any options, the $2000 massage seats are too tempting); the 740i is also up $11,925 to $224,200, the long-wheelbase 740Li now costs $238,000, the 750i rises $6070 to $289,600 and the 750Li now costs a cool $312,700.

All of these numbers are large, of course, the Bavarian car-maker's new flagship sedan also brings a number of other upgrades like 19-inch alloy wheels, BMW Display Key and Touch Command, lane change warning, steer assist, and ‘Pure Excellence’ design theme, though the M Sport package is a no-cost option across the range.

There's a host of other new standard extras including a 16-speaker Harman/Kardon surround sound system, heated front seats, arm rests and steering wheel, Nappa leather upholstery, leather instrument panel, electric side blinds and professional navigation with gesture control.

This is in addition to carryover range-wide 7 Series items like head-up display, reversing camera, glass sunroof, active park distance control, digital radio, adaptive air suspension, Driving Assistant Plus, parking assistant, night vision with pedestrian recognition, surround view, TV and BMW’s ConnectedDrive services.

New 750i extras include 20-inch alloy wheels, the BMW Display Key, BMW LaserLights with selective beam, Touch Command, Pure Excellence design, professional nav with gesture control, nappa leather with leather instrument panel and front heat comfort package

In addition, the 750Li’s panorama sunroof features Sky Lounge technology and it also gains a massage function, active seat ventilation, rear heat comfort package, electrically-operated rear seating and a rear-seat entertainment experience.

It's not cheap, but when you ride in the back of a new 7 Series, or if you’re lucky enough to take the wheel, you can easily see why someone would feel justified in spoiling themselves with one, particularly if it’s a cold morning and you’ve got the new heated arm rests fired up.

It’s so great, you may as well drive it yourself. Flawless autonomous cars will arrive soon enough.

2015 BMW 740i pricing and specifications:
Price: $224,200 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 240kW/450Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.0L/100km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: TBC

Also consider:
>> Audi A8 (from $196,900 plus ORCs)
>> Jaguar XJ (from $197,585 plus ORCs)
>> Mercedes-Benz S-Class (from $216,700 plus ORCs)