Gadgetory

well here we have two cars that really represent the pinnacle of what a lot of folks mean when they say a really nice car the 2013 BMW 750 li and the 2013 lexus LS 460 in the F Sport trim let's find out how they really differ in their essence as we check the tech now rather than go through these guys with an exhaustive bullet by bullet head-to-head comparison and spend an hour doing so instead I want to find out how these two cars that both can print CNET style do so differently to let you figure out which one is really right for you first off these two cars dashboards speak tech differently the lexus says it's sort of loudly more button rich and crisp and somehow busier the BMW is by no means basic but it's tech interfaces play second fiddle to creature comforts in cars at this level the basics better be standard so you'll find GPS navigation with live traffic Bluetooth calling and a backup camera with good guidance overlays and those are standard on both cars though it wasn't that long ago that BMW nickeled and dimed you for most of that stuff and speaking of cameras are 750 has the optional walleye cams installed up front and while they're of somewhat dubious value they're not found on the lexus you steer the Lexus interface with this inverted puck they call the remote touch controller it moves the cursor offers punch to enter and uses haptic feedback as it bumps over things on the screen but it badly needs a back button BMW has endured the years of sneers and jeers to turn I Drive into one of the best in car interfaces you steer it with this I Drive knob and handful of associated shortcut buttons including one for back and interestingly BMW has removed haptic feedback as I Drive matured I found voice command the Lexus was quick to understand me but requires parsing an address into many parts or button presses enter an address enter an address say only the city name or say change state San Francisco BMW is also quick on the uptake but lets you blurt out an address the most complicated thing you'll typically do with voice all in one phrase one zero zero zero Vaness avenue san francisco california processing your input did you mean 1000s Van Ness Avenue San Francisco most cars play The Greatest Hits of modern audio sources with just a few differences the Lexus is the car of these two that supports iTunes tagging with its HD radio but the BMW has a 20 gigabyte hard drive - rip - both are equally useless to most people which brings us to apps Lexus is part of Toyota that means they get the excellent Entune app suite renamed n form here it's a basket of name-brand cloud loaded apps including Yelp OpenTable Pandora Bing I Heart Radio and Facebook Places and that's standard BMWs app support is still optional and it just rolls up Facebook Twitter and web radio via an iPhone app no Android but built into the car regardless of phone is Google search which is killer and now Yelp as well and note that BMW has built-in 3G in the car where Lexus requires you tether your phone to get connected whether you're listening to one of those streaming apps or AM radio Marc Levinson's 19 speakers and 400 watts on the Lexus or Bang & Olufsen 16 speakers and good greif 1200 watts in the BMW mean both cars can be optioned with sound better than you can hear cars like this don't just treat backseat passengers like hitchhikers the Lexus wins on total rear seat comforts optional to include reclining shiatsu massage butterfly headrests rear seat cooler and air purifier you can tell the Germans still inwardly scoff at such nonsense but have dragged themselves to include heated and cooled massage seats where they score big is the best dual rear screen entertainment system in the biz there are generous size they're nice and thin but notice what's really interesting they are iDrive interfaces with an eye drive controller you've got access to multimedia radio navigation all the same services you've got in the front of the car you've also got connected Drive so without having to bring an iPad to the car you've got some modest degree of online services right here in the vehicle built-in both these cars are v8-powered the Lexus has the bigger 4.6 liter v8 but the BMW slaps a pair of turbos on it's smaller 4.4 liter the BMW ends up with more horsepower more torque and it's quicker and even though that 7 Series weighs more and is faster both cars deliver identical mpg so you got to hand it to BMW here at least on paper not to get that equal efficiency with higher power and weight BMW had to add complexity in the form of brake force electricity regeneration borrowed from hybrid cars an engine automatic start/stop which I still find rather crudely executed but luckily defeatable being luxury rides both these cars come on suave at first unless you dig down into their powertrain but when you do the BMWs power and Road handling make it a more serious driver's car to my hands even though the Lexus is an F sport both cars have a handful of engine transmission and suspension profiles from eco to aggressive and they do offer pronounced differences from one end to the other though I think three settings would probably be ample guys BMW offers a head-up display to extend the interface of the windshield as well as night vision that is now actually not totally disorienting but I really enjoy the Lexus enform apps base on the road and find its big interface and brands of content more useful than BMWs rather Stern translation of Twitter and Facebook which I don't need in the car anyway if you need help driving both cars are there for you Lexus has active Lane drift technology but passive blind spot tech BMW's Lane drift and blind spot are now both active in the seven each car offers adaptive cruise control the Lexus can also do front collision warning and even bring the car to a stop at City speeds if you're too busy fiddling with your coffee to watch what you're doing BMW leaves you alone to rear-end someone in independent Bavarian fashion okay the bottom line on these two cars begins with the bottom line which is quite different I checked up that BMW dialed it in seen that style and pushed a hundred and eight thousand then a similar tech load on the Lexus and I couldn't quite break 90 so about an $18,000 Delta not silly money in terms of their character the BMW has a real serious executive sedan feel to it but it's a real gutter fighter on the street when you push it hard the Lexus I think a little less so even as an F Sport but it has more of a schwa devii about the technology in it it's a real tech toy play it that way you