• Summary
• What's Good
• What's Bad
• On the Road
• In The Cabin
• Prices and Specs
• Owners' Reviews

Latest Update 15-4-2012: American National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) recall stating that the circuit board for the electric auxiliary water pump can overheat and this could lead to a smoldering of the pump or an engine compartment or vehicle fire.

Introduction:

A lot of us have invested in things we might have avoided if only we'd known the world economy would start behaving like a grand piano chucked from the top of a tower block.

Things like expensive shoes, shares in Woolworths or perhaps a new car. Which brings us to BMW.

It's spent about one billion Euros on a car, the latest 7 Series, which is big, complex, expensive -£54,000 buys the poverty version, £100k plus for one with all optional the bells and whistles- and likely to be viewed by many as the last word in vehicular conspicuous consumption.

This a problem for BMW; which wants to sell the 7 Series to people with a lot of disposable income, in a world where those that still have money are hanging onto it, and those that don't are now saving up for something like a lightly soiled Kia Pride, rather than a flagship uber saloon.

Then there are the private hire companies which bought the diesel versions of the outgoing 7 Series to waft captains of industry to airports and posh hotels. However, for the benefit of the five remaining people who can still afford one, let us consider the 7 as a car.

Visually, it's a clever evolution of its immediate predecessor, who's monumental, New Brutalist looks made a lot of people wince. Styled by an engaging American with a beard called Chris Bangle, some thought the old model's tail appeared to have partially melted, and others found its iDrive control system a nightmare to use.