autophile1

Drove the new BMW 745i
Well, the other day my brother brought his BMW 540i into the dealer to have his headlights checked for excessive fogging but forgot to book an appointment. They usually give out BMW 330i's as loaners but they were all given out. They told him he could take their new 745i demo out. The car only had 85km's on it.

First impression was, it is much uglier than in the pictures. They really ruined the rear end. If you look at the car from a distance with the Xenon's turned off, it looks like a glorified Camry or something along those lines.

First impression of the interior:

Very nice. The materials were top notch and I have never seen so many toys, gadgets, or electronics in one car before. It would probably take you a couple weeks just to have all the functions figured out, no I am not exaggerating. The front and rear motion sensor is cool in the sense that it will actually sense where the object is not just in front or behind type thing. If there is something moving around your car it will show exactly where it is. The iDrive was pretty cool and quite functional. The location makes it a little hard to use while driving though. I also dislike the electronic gear selector on the steering column. I think it just takes some time to get used to but I kept putting it in reverse when looking for Drive type thing. One very good thing is the electronic park brake. There is no foot brake or hand brake but just a button that engages the rear brakes. It also has an auto park brake. I though this was a good idea for a car of this size. If it is turned on the park brake will automatically engage everytime the car comes to a complete stop and disengage the second the gas pedal is depressed.

Driving impressions

The engine is sweet. Very slick throughout the entire rpm range. It is the transmission that kills the engine. The gears are waaaay too tall. I really expected shorter gears since it is a 6 speed auto. The manumatic shifting is no faster than ours which was a little disappointing, but you can downshift to first and upshift to second. Also, the engine is waaay to smooth for using a manumatic. You can't hear the enigine so you have to look at your tach to know when to shift. Ride is comfy as expected, the self leveling rear suspension was quite slick especially under hard acceleration. Throttle response is mediocre at best. Starting froma stop, if you do not depress the pedal further than say 1/4 of an inch the car seriously stands still and just revs a little. The steering was awful. Even though it is speed sensing, it is far too light. Again no exaggerating, but the looseness of the steering wheel felt exactly like the Dodge Caravan I rented last year. The steering did get tighter when I pass the 150km/h mark but still did not feel tight enough. I am not sure how much bigger it is than the last gen 7 series but it felt waaay bigger. When I was backing up and only using the rearview you really can't tell where the rear ends. When looking forwards you can't see the end of the hood. The seats were quite nice but still were not as comfy as the M5's bucket seats.

So in the end, the car is definitely not worth the +$100K (Canadian) that they are asking for it (in my opinion). I think BMW moved too far away from the semi sport sedan that the old 7 series was. If I ahd to choose a luxury car for the same or less money, I would definitely consider an Audi S8 or a Lexus L430...

Anyway, sorry for the novel, I actually have more to say but I am guessing if you have read this far you are already bored anyway. If you have any questions about it please feel free to post here or PM me.

Bryan
Sorry if this is off topic, I am not sure where it belonged. Mods please move it if you feel it belongs in OT.

__________________

someguy

Did you use the sport function in the Idrive menu? That should tranform the car to a much sportier car. It alters suspension settings and I believe throttle response (it is electronic). I have played around the Idrive and the new 7, I liked it

This review is pretty good

http://www.bmwcca.org/Roundel/2001/12/CoverStory.shtml

In the bottom article, Jeremy Walton (well known BMW author) says that it is the best driving machine that BMW has ever built

Eggplant-EX

Good post..

That is probably the sort of car most of us here will be driving when we retire... LOL

Red Rider

I stopped reading after he said the engine is way too smooth, and you can't hear it. I love hearing our engine scream, especially with the intake letting me know it's time to shift. I'm sure it's an incredible motor, i'm just not ready for that yet.

fender4

YES in 15 - 30 years from now we'll all be able to afford a 2003 used BMW for our retirement