Gadgetory

if you like driving a big old Tech Laden high-power luxo barge and kind of being hermetically sealed from the rest of humanity this might be your ticket let's drive the 2013 BMW 750 li the long one and check the tech now as you can see the 2013 7 Series did not get a major piece of plastic surgery done to it it's about the same as a 2012 but three things caught my eye in terms of innovations and improvement a really outstanding 8-speed automatic transmission you've got a basket of efficiency powertrain technologies that might surprise you and we're looking at a rear seat entertainment system that might actually change my mind on how worthless those are now there's not a whole lot new in the cabin tech of the 750 but that doesn't keep it from being a tech tour de force I drive is really solid these days and if you disagree then you have excellent voice command that lets you speak in whole phrases when entering an address one zero zero zero Vaness avenue san francisco california processing your input did you mean 1000s van Ness Avenue San Francisco BMW's map quality remains one of the best though I still doubt the usefulness of little sim city building depictions in any car and BMWs head-up display is still the best in the business period it can show a variety of selectable data points from speed limit on your road to the next nav instruction audio sources are am/fm HD radio but the HD does not have iTunes tagging aux Jack USB plus iPod satellite radio and now pass a 20 gig hard drive and of course bluetooth streaming in terms of apps BMW has long supported Facebook Twitter and streaming web radio through an app on an iPhone and iPhone only someone needs to send them some Android sales figures but this is new I now see a cloud-based version of Yelp in the dash which rides on top of the 3G connection that is built into the car something BMW and Audi pioneered about a year and a half ago now if you know much about me you know that I pretty much hate rear seat entertainment systems but this BMW has almost got me convinced to give them a second chance here the two screens mounted below the headrests on the front seats do they remind you of any mobile electronics product you can think of yeah there are generous size they're nice and thin the optical drive for them is down here but notice what's really interesting they are iDrive interfaces with an eye drive controller you can switch from right to left passenger based on which screen you're operating independent or together 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 this is a very nice way to do rear seat entertainment and the price is not bad under $2,000 under the hood twin power turbo means different things depending on the BMW since we have a v8 here it means two discrete turbos one for each bank they feed 4.4 litres of displacement in conjunction with direct injection and Valvetronic totally variable valve train the mind boggles at repair bills after warranty but in the meantime you'll enjoy 445 horsepower and a stout 480 foot-pounds of torque the nearly 4,700 pounds of car launched to 60 in 4.8 seconds while delivering a not at all awful 1624 MPG rating that relative efficiency is thanks to a number of things the new 8-speed automatic up from the six speed of before direct injection as I mentioned brake force regeneration to help charge the battery when you're braking and not always through the draggy alternator auto start/stop kills the engine at a stop which I've always thought BMW could do better and then there's the unseemly Eco Pro Mode which basically gives you the throttle response of a Prius climate control that shuts off at a stop and a drivetrain that free we when you're coasting two of those three seem to be sacrifices in a car that is really about not making it the first thing I noticed in this 7 is it's built like a vault I mean this is really a big heavy incredibly well screwed together car the next thing you notice though is that it sheds weight on demand very few cars can do this in other words it starts to handle and accelerate and brake like a much lighter nimbler car when you ask it to that's an amazing trick that only a few cars I've ever driven can pull off they can be a heavy luxurious ride and then something an entire class lighter when you need them to now as you've seen the technology in this car is very broad and sublime in many cases what I do like about the long wheelbase version is that you've got four seats that are on equal footing you feel like your investment makes more sense when you can expose this vehicles attributes to everybody in the vehicle BMWs auto start-stop technology still annoys me but on this car it is less intrusive than it is on other BMWs it still sounds a little bit like a lawnmower restarting and still shakes the car more than I think it should buy this car because you either have way more money than you need to afford it or because the company's paying for it it's a pricey ride but it does some really great things on the road for everybody inside you want help driving you've got it first there are drive modes from eco to comfort to sport that change the personality of the engine transmission and adaptive suspension then driver assist comes in many flavours adaptive cruise maintains distance not just speed that Lane Departure and blind spot technology not only warn you but can also veer you back into place BMWs night vision tech seems much improved now the focal length and field of view are now almost exactly what your eyes see out the windshield so glancing down at the night vision isn't as disorienting as I noticed before let's price this house class investment the 750li starts at about ninety one for delivered optioned up with driver assistance technologies rear seat entertainment that great head-up display BMW apps piano audio night vision and a few more tech toys I got it - just a tick under a hundred and eight and that's not entirely loaded no it's not a Lexus price but you knew that going in you pay a premium for a seven series but if you want a sedan with great luxury and tech for all four people and a car that can get down when you want it to this is one of your few and better choices