I was fortunate to spend most of last week with the our long-term BMW 750. What a great car: accurate steering with great "feel", excellent ride/handling balance, and gobs of power. The 750 handles like and has an overall feel of a smaller sedan.
What's left to do but pick nits?
1. There is a ton of wind noise coming from the driver's window area. I tried lowering and raising the window, of course, to try to reseal it. No joy. This condition was present in another 750 we drove recently, so this isn't an isolated case. (There is, however, almost no road noise present.)
2. Initial throttle tip-in is feeble. When the driver senses this he compensate by squeezing down more throttle, then the car quickly picks up. When driven aggressively, it's no problem at all. But when just cruising or puttering about at low speeds, it is a challenge to drive smoothly and not befitting a luxury car.
3. The A/C is weak (it was hot in SoCal the past several days.) Fortunately, there is a MAX A/C setting (full blast fan with cabin recirc) you can use when it's hot, but it's too loud and drafty to run this setting continuously.
4. Accessory drive noise. This is the worst problem of the car and it's annoying. The 750, with the exception of the D-window wind noise, is very quiet. However, from a start or at low speeds with partial throttle openings, the engine bay emits a relatively loud accessory-belt whining noise. The last time I heard such sounds were from a lower-end sedan.
None of these things are deal-breakers of course. It's still a great car.
But they shouldn't be present in a $90,000 sedan.
Albert Austria, Sr Vehicle Eval Engineer @ 8740 miles
nealibob says:
03:32 PM, 05/18/09
damn turbos :)
adavis2493 says:
03:51 PM, 05/18/09
Saw one for the first time the other day in White. Damn that Bimmer looks good.
I think it is somewhat similar to the Nissan Rogue: It looks mediocre on paper, but in real life- it's pretty attractive.
**By no means am I comparing a Rogue to a 750...
allthingshonda says:
04:33 PM, 05/18/09
Weak AC would be a deal breaker for me. With the exception of a Aveo, Fit, Yaris etc all cars should not have a problem cooling the cabin quickly and maintaining a comfortable temperature at low fan speeds. Hell you would assume that the twin turbo V8 would be able to handle a large capacity compressor with no problem. My Acura's Auto system usually runs the fan at medium to low speeds after about 20 minutes of Max output on 90 degree days. At it's max setting vent outlet temp is 38 to 40 degrees on extremely hot days. This is not uncommon for German cars, most of them do have weak ACs probably due to the fact the summer temps in Germany don't come close to the heat here in the states.
altimadude00 says:
06:07 PM, 05/18/09
I've noticed that on my car, both the front and rear door seals don't fit tightly at all at the top of the B-pillar. There is adequate sealing up the length of the pillar between the doors, but when it gets to the corner of the doors, the seals don't fit tightly together. This may be causing the loud wind noise at highway speeds as it does in my car.
mercedesfan says:
07:34 PM, 05/18/09
Strangely the S550 had a similar wind noise issue for early production models. Thankfully mine was free of the problem, but I remember reading that there was something with the window laminate that caused excessive wind noise at highway speeds.
Also, I think opting for the ventilated seats would help the a/c. My car is black on black, so I cannot imagine living without ventilated seats.
oftech says:
08:30 PM, 05/18/09
Get the darkest legal tints (3M, no doubt) and it'll cool down a lot quicker. I have a black interior in my BMW and while the inside still gets hot, the seats and steering wheel aren't unbearably hot. Plus when you hit max a/c, you need only run it for about 2 minutes for it to cool down completely. Combine the tints with one of those windshield reflectors and you probably won't even need to take the ac off of the auto setting ever.
dragonflight says:
10:59 PM, 05/18/09
@mercedesfan
As a former owner of a black-on-black non-ventilated S320 that had it's A/C broken for the last 5 years of its life with me, it's fine in the morning. But hell hath fury for your commute home if you haven't parked in a garage all day. It seems impossible to get rid of the accumulated heat, even with all windows and sunroof open at highway speeds.
Wait, why did I buy a black-on-black un-ventilated BMW to replace it then? Damn it all, it looks great.
dougtheeng says:
06:21 AM, 05/19/09
I really don't think this BMW looks classy. The last 2 7-series have been steps backwards in exterior design, imo.
lazyhater says:
08:28 AM, 05/19/09
1, Wind noise in a top of the line luxury car, not acceptable!
2, Turbo lag?
3, AC is always weak in a BMW. Germany doesn't get hot I guess?
4, Turbos whistle?
lazyhater says:
08:31 AM, 05/19/09
Don't forget it doesn't have power trunk lid, that is not acceptable in a $90k luxury car also, it should be standard like power windows. It is standard in all Lexus LS460, a base LS460 starts at $64k.
roadburner says:
08:50 AM, 05/19/09
"3, AC is always weak in a BMW. Germany doesn't get hot I guess?"
My 1995 3er and 2004 X3 have great A/C. Ditto for my B7 loaner, which had to deal with 95F ambient temperatures. I'm not saying that the new 7 doesn't have weak A/C-I haven't driven one yet-but from the late '80's up the HVAC in the BMWs I've owned have had no problem coping with hot and humid weather. I wish that the A/C in my MS3 worked as well.
bimmerjay says:
09:34 AM, 05/19/09
"Don't forget it doesn't have power trunk lid, that is not acceptable in a $90k luxury car also, it should be standard like power windows. It is standard in all Lexus LS460, a base LS460 starts at $64k."
First off, the base 750i starts at $80k, not 90. And the base $64K LS460 does NOT include a power trunk closer - it's a $400 option. The power closer is only standard on the $74K LS460L and up per the Lexus product guide.
The $64K LS460 also doesn't have Nav, Bluetooth, a twin-turbo V8, Drive Dynamic control, or telematics standard either (all std on the base 750i). Similarly equipped the Lexus will still be cheaper than the BMW but the difference is not nearly as huge as it initially seems.
bimmerjay says:
09:49 AM, 05/19/09
I drove a 750Li this weekend, in fact.
It was 92F and the A/C seemed ok (my car had an Oyster interior with the ventilated seats), it's typical BMW. No it's probably not as powerful as the system in a CTS, but it seemed adequate to me.
"2, Turbo lag?"
Holy crap no, if there's one thing this car doesn't have, it's turbo lag. The DBW programming is a little odd though, playing with Drive Dynamic certainly livens things up, but when you hit it the response is very immediate.
My car did not have the convenience package with the power closers (had to close the doors myself, dammit). The manual decklid action is really weird. It's fine until you've pushed the lid about 2/3's closed, then the effort to finish closing goes up dramatically. It is actually notably difficult. There is a standard power pull-down latch that finishes the job once you get to that point so you don't have to slam it, but still... BMW should either make the power decklid standard or re-balance the manual one.
The interior of this car is 100x better than the old one - it is positively beautiful and high-quality and the standard Comfort seats are amazing. I don't like how the iDrive screen is less recessed than it used to be, but the contrast and brightness are better so I guess that compensates somewhat.
redliner says:
09:50 AM, 05/19/09
Nit-picks to be sure, but luxury car owners (especially MB driver, IMHO) tend to be very picky, so your only simulating the average user experience.
banhugh says:
04:01 PM, 05/19/09
"Nit-picks to be sure, but luxury car owners (especially MB driver, IMHO) tend to be very picky, so your only simulating the average user experience."
Yes, I would slap the BMW design (or cost) engineer with a spoiled trout for not including that power opening and closing trunk...