If your view of transportation is just frooncing to work and back, then vehicles like the BMW 7 Series aren’t really going to be your bag. The seventh generation of the 7 was introduced in 2023 and continues with the luxurious estate sedan motif of its predecessors.
At a glance
- Even more luxurious than it was before
- High-end tech features
- Mild hybrid system as standard
- Features list is long and drool-worthy
For folks who are considering monthly payments equal to most people’s mortgages, there are vehicles like the new BMW 7 Series. This is a huge, well-designed and well-heeled sedan. Accessories and features will appeal to both the person who prefers to drive themselves and the person who prefers to be driven. The vehicle comes in two flavors: the 740i and the 760i.
The 740i features a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six that outputs 375 horsepower (280 kW) to an eight-speed automatic transmission in rear-wheel drive. This "base level" (if you can apply that term to something this high-end while keeping a straight face) 7 has adaptive LED headlamps, adaptive air suspension and adaptive interior ambient lighting. It’s also got soft-close doors that pull themselves shut to prevent slamming, along with four-zone climate control and heated leather upholstery.
The 18-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (wireless, of course) is controlled via a 14.9-inch touchscreen. A wireless charging pad, head-up display and fully digital instrument cluster are also standard. So is a huge suite of advanced safety systems and driver’s aids, like semi-automated parking.
If that sounds like a lot of stuff for a base model vehicle ... well, we agree with you. That’s pretty swank. Just know that its price starts just shy of US$100,000.
But wait, there’s also the 760i; which is the version of the 7 Series that we drove.
This one swaps the six for a 4.4-liter turbocharged V8 with 536 HP (400 kW) and all-wheel drive. The heated seating in this one gets ventilation as well. From there, a host of add-ons are available via packages or à la carte. The two-tone paint on our test drive, for example, was a magnanimous touch – as was the Luxury Rear Seating package with its rear seat heating, ventilation, and massage options.
The Executive Package, oddly enough, adds more stuff up front. Plus, for those not used to doing strenuous things like opening their own car door, it adds automatic opening doors. Press a button and the BMW does the job for you. Closes them too. Because only the plebs have to do that sort of thing for themselves.
It’s easy to mock a high-end car like this for the type of coddling and uber-lux it gives, but that’s mainly because most of us can’t afford this kind of luxury in our daily lives. If we could, we definitely would.
The 2023 BMW 760i is a dream to drive and even dreamier to be driven in. The muscular engine is unobtrusive and doesn’t get in your face until the right-most pedal is pressed hard. Then it makes itself known, growling and pressing the car forward as you press back into the seat to go along. Most of the time, that big V8 is barely heard puttering under the hood, returning confident predictability in everyday driving.
One smart design feature of the new BMW 7 is the AWD system. It works in the BMW 760i with the adaptive suspension to smooth the drive when accelerating, cornering or parking. It’s an intelligent system aimed towards the ultimate goal of the 7 Series: comfort. Most of the driving assistance items are the same.
In 2023, the BMW 7 can include the German make’s latest Highway Assistant feature. This allows the vehicle’s advanced systems to drive the car in highway and freeway situations, hands-free. It works with the lane-keeping and adaptive cruise systems along with the driver alert monitoring system, to drive the car automatically. It’s relatively limited, for safety reasons, but comparable to systems from Cadillac, Lincoln and Mercedes-Benz.
And yes, before readers start commenting about how "wasteful" and "polluting" this car is, know that both a plug-in hybrid and fully electric model are on their way. The upcoming PHEV model will, it appears, be replacing the outgoing V12 model from the last generation as the M Series option for this new version of the 7.
Compared to the previous-generation 7 Series, the 2023 BMW 7 Series is a far more high-end executive-style sedan. The 7 is now clearly separated from the less costly 5 Series and has gone where it should have been the whole time. This is the pinnacle of BMW offerings and that’s definitely true with this new design. As much as a car can mollycoddle, this one will do it ... assuming the right accessories have been added, of course.
Product page: 2023 BMW 7 Series