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
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