It’s almost monolithic in its appearance. Overall, the i7 looks both futuristic and retro-tech. BMW have managed to hide a long-wheelbase 7 Series within a design that doesn’t look overstretched – this hadn’t been the case with previous generations.Īnyway, other exterior highlights on our test car include the 21-inch Dark 3D wheels with blue calipers (part of the M Sport pack), tinted windows and the spectacular Iconic Glow Crystal headlights. ![]() Strangely enough, you don’t really feel as though you’re driving an LWB model, mostly because its center of gravity is so low, and the very proportions of the car don’t give anything away visually. That’s why there’s so much legroom inside for rear seat passengers, and that’s why the rear doors are so massive. That’s right, it’s an LWB car but without the ‘L’ moniker. Not everyone knows that BMW stopped producing long-wheelbase variants of the 7 Series with this new-generation car, and that’s because the i7 is already bigger than any previous long-wheelbase 7 Series model. ![]() Less controversial than the front end is the rear, which, in my opinion, looks understated in a rather elegant way.Īnother important observation, which will interest pretty much 100% of BMW i7 buyers, is the sheer size of this thing. It doesn’t take long for you to get used to the split headlight design, and after a while, you might begin to realize there’s nothing wrong with BMW going in that direction regarding future models. It also adds Shadow Line accents, which help with the grille. Or just get the M Sport Pro package, which automatically makes the car look more aggressive, in turn, helping the grille shrink a little, from a visual standpoint. The grille suddenly doesn’t seem so big, and my personal recommendation would be this: get the i7 in a predominantly dark color if you mind the grille design that much. Then there are the headlights, which don’t resemble any BMW light units from the past – something Bimmer lifers might struggle with as they attempt to identify with the new 7.Īnyway, this car, which is the i7 xDrive60 in BMW Individual Frozen Deep Gray, benefits from its all-round dark and sinister aesthetic. The grille is abnormally large, and you can get it illuminated too (if you care for that option), which only makes it more prominent. The rear design seemed fine, as did the profile to some extent, but the “face”? I mean, it was controversial, to say the least. Let’s start with the basics and talk about its appearance.ĭesign Evaluation“ What the hell.” I remember saying to myself when I first saw the all-new 7 Series / i7 in production guise, without any camouflage on. This latest generation G70 variant is a technological tour de force, and the fully electric i7 model is definitely the one to have if you want to be done with gasoline once and for all. The F01 was the last 7er to really put some distance between itself and its rivals, until now. It had rear-wheel steering, an eight-speed automatic gearbox, Night Vision with Pedestrian Recognition, plus arguably the most advanced radar-guided cruise control on the market by 2008 standards, capable of bringing the car to a complete stop before accelerating from a standstill. It simply blew rivals such as the Mercedes S-Class, Lexus LS, and Audi A8 out of the water. In the end, the F01 wouldn’t be just any new 7 Series, but the first-ever 7 Series available with an electrified powertrain – the so-called ActiveHybrid 7, which arrived later. ![]() It always helps to spend a lot of time with a car before drawing any major conclusions. That was the first time I had ever driven an all-new luxury sedan for several hundred miles. I'm sure both strategies have merit, but only time will tell which carmaker got it right.Īnyway, let me quickly take you back to 2008, to the international media launch of the F01 7 Series, held in Dresden, Germany.
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