Is the new BMW 7 series smarter than you?
Is the new BMW 7 series smarter than you?
9:54

Is the new BMW 7 series smarter than you?

Automobiles
When you think about luxury cars, your mind jumps to one of a few places. There's Rolls Royce, Bentley, Range Rover or the luxobarge de jure the Mercedes S Class. But BMW wants you to have a look at it's all new Seven Series because according to them, it's better. [MUSIC] This is the sixth generation, seven series. Bigger and more economical, faster and more comfortable than ever before. It's a car that has to be comfy to drive in town, or on the open road, but also be comfortable to be driven in. This is BMW's daily chauffeur car, or your daily land yacht. [MUSIC] Whether you're driving in this or being driven, there's plenty to talk about. Its construction uses aluminum and carbon fiber reinforced plastic like what you get out of the I8 and the I3. That goes down the middle. All to keep the car's center of gravity nice and low. Now, like every luxury car nowadays, the 7 series has a number of driving modes, but this one has something truly new. It's called adaptive mode. It's basically the this car is cleverer than you button. So you can have the car in sport mode and it'll stiffen up a little bit, or in comfort and it'll be fluffy and light and lovely, or in eco pro and it'll be boring. But adaptive. What that does is it senses how you're driving, how fast you're driving, the roads you're driving on and just adjusts the car as you go along. That is properly clever. The interior features touch controls all over the shop, it'll park itself in a bay, on the street or even drive itself into your garage while you go and do other things. It's also got something of a first on it not its laser lights, which the Americans can't have by-the-by because your government hates cool stuff but gesture control. See, here's how it works. You put your hand in the strike zone which is about here, just above the gear lever, looking at the screen, there's a camera above that reads what your hands are doing. So if you want to change the volume, for example, you twiddle your finger like that and you get some really cheesy music. And when you want the really cheesy music to go away, you twiddle your finger back the other way and the horribleness leaves you. Then if you want to accept the phone call, you point. And if you want to dismiss it because it's a PPI salesman or something like that, you just bat the call away. Sadly the gesture tech, while being very clever, is a bit slow. It's first gen stuff. Neat to impress your mates with, but will rise or fall on whether it can be made better. IDrive has been improved too. Oh, and the Seven Series will steer itself for fifteen seconds so long as it can see the white lines on the road. So, you can stretch your hands if you want to be woefully irresponsible for a second. old 50. [MUSIC] The people in the back are well catered for. This is the long wheel base one, so there's loads and loads of space back there. I'm not the tallest man in the world but I could quite easily get my snooze on in there and not interrupt anybody. Then there's all the toys you can expect. You can expect a couple of screens back there that will be the telly and the radio. And you can stream things onto them and it's all kind of techno wizardry and magic. There's also a tablet back there that can give you various bits of information about the car and gives the rear passengers a little bit of control over the car's functions. For example, massaging seats, those are a thing back there. And, there's even an HDMI port, which means in theory you can turn your 7 series into a mobile Playstation. I definitely like the sound of that. [MUSIC] So, it's got plenty of toys. More than ever before on a 7 series of course. If it didn't have at least eleventy billion breakthroughs on a new Halo car, Someone in the factory would get shot or something. But is it any good to drive? [MUSIC] Now if the new 7-Series is a [UNKNOWN] steer the big cheeses of the world, well they won't be very happy. So this is what the seven is like to drive. From my seat It's lovely. This is a wonderful, wonderful car. It's almost calming to drive. In comfort mode, which is what I'm in now, it's just everything's light. The controls are light, the throttle responds, the pedal is just nice and smooth. The breaks as well. It's so relaxing. The steering, again, so light, so delicate. There's very little engine noise in here. You do get a little bit of diesel rumble, but not that much. As far as information goes, I have pretty much everything I could possibly need right in front of me. And the big screen in the middle, now it's a touch screen. So there's lots of different ways to interact with the entertainment. And there's a hell of a lot of that too with all the internet and telly, and there's a Blu-ray player in here. And there's basically everything you could possibly want. In the back, there's even a fridge, in this one at least, nestled between the two seats just above the armrest so you can have a nice chilled bottle of water on the way to your next appointment. Stick this thing in sport and it does transform just a little bit. Everything gets a little angrier, a little heavier. The gearbox becomes more aggressive, not to the point where it becomes jarring. This will never ever feel like a sports car. And there's no reason it should be. It's designed either to be driving comfortably, calmly to your destination or to be driven in. Your own little bubble of luxury loveliness. When they were researching the new 7 Series BMW's designers went to seven cities all the way around the world to learn what luxury means. People have different tastes so BMW wanted to make sure that the car catered to each and every one of them. [MUSIC] The adaptive driving mode is stunning. It's really, really clever because it guess what you're going to do next and it gets it right. So right now I'm driving down a very Three narrow roads somewhere in France. And it knows that I want to go a little bit slowly, wanna be a little bit cautious. Don't want mega aggressive gear changes. Don't want angry, angry sport mode or anything like that. And it just works with you. And if I do change my mind and decide to go a little bit mental, it'll know And it will adjust the car to suit. [MUSIC] The seat I'm in at the moment is heated, cooled, and has a number of massage modes, so right now my left buttock is taking a bit of a pounding. No matter which seat you're in, there's something in here just for you. [MUSIC] This is the 730d, so it's [INAUDIBLE] 730 horsepower. This thing can seal quite [INAUDIBLE]. It doesn't [INAUDIBLE] you back in your seat, but you do cover ground alarmingly quickly. [MUSIC] I'm trying to think of something I don't really like about it. Nothing, really. The barrels work in the sound system is really good. It's too good. I can't appreciate it. That's what I like about it. The sound system is too good, I can't appreciate it. Oh, and the key for this thing comes as standard. It's got a little screen in it. You can swipe through features in the car. It can tell you how much range you've got left and things like that Looks-wise, I think it's quite handsome. It's got a very nice silhouette to it. It's not too in your face. It's quite soft, especially in this dark tone we've got here. It's a lovely thing to look at. The exhaust, I particularly like because well, they're big and angley and angry, and that kind of thing appeals to me. [MUSIC] Here's the thing with luxury motors. They have to be everything, but at the same time, nothing. A car like this has to be fast, but deliver the speed in a way that won't overwhelm its passengers. Or make your mum sick. It has to take a corner well, but keep its occupants upright. The technology has to be clever enough to occupy a gap you never knew you had, but also be unobtrusive. It needs to be your automotive guardian angel. There, but in the background, saving your **** when you need it to. [MUSIC] The 7 Series then, is it the kind of car that can stack up against absolutely anything? Well, maybe not a Rolls-Royce. You're not quite at that price point here. This particular one. It's just under $100,000 pounds. Which is still an awful lot of money, but it's not Rolls Royce money. Here's the thing though. Every aspect about the experience you have in this car has been thought of. Every little detail, there's been someone working on it to make sure that the driver and the passengers have the best time possible. So no matter what your choice of luxury maker, no matter how you choose to spend your money, if you look at the 7 series and you can't appreciate the effort that's gone into making this the loveliest place on the road, well, you're making a mistake. [MUSIC]

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