Interior
reviewed by
Comfort, whether in the front seat or rear seat, is superb in the 750Li. The 750i is comfortable in the front seats, but only offers 38.4 inches of rear legroom, compared to 44.3 inches in the 750Li. The 7 Series has a massive trunk, measuring 17.7 cubic inches for both models.
First, the good. Great interior lighting. World's best backup video camera, including sideview camera. Luxurious leather and woodgrain trim: three choices of interior wood trim, and four Nappa leather colors. The doors open way wide, for easy entry and exit. The dash is low, thin and lovely in black woodgrain, with a great instrument panel having a clean speedometer, tach, temp and gas gauges. The screen with navigation and all its menus is very readable, at 10.2 inches versus 8.8 inches before. Perfect leather-wrapped steering wheel, but it ought to be, as part of the $4900 Sport Package on our 750Li.
But too many surprising and significant inconveniences. Not counting the spacious glove compartment, there are so few storage places that you have to use the cupholders to hold basic things. All we had was a micro cassette tape recorder, a set of keys, a garage door opener, and some bridge tickets, and it was too much to ask of our $110,000 car to find us spots to store them. Use the center console, and there will be a small wing awkwardly flipped up under your elbow. Small door pockets help little.
Steering wheel audio controls, but no mute button. The standard climate control offers four zones, but we drove the 750Li during a heat wave, and the air conditioning on max couldn't make the cabin cool enough; furthermore, it reset itself at 70 degrees each time the engine was shut off.
Those wide-opening doors need a grab handle to easily close them, because you can barely reach the notch in the armrest to pull them in. The electric seatbelt pretensioner annoyingly pretensioned us when we just needed to lean forward for visibility when pulling onto the highway.
BMW has re-invented the position of Park with its transmission control on the center console, putting it where Reverse is on other cars. We never did figure out how to listen to the radio and hear the navigation commands at the same time, unlike the blissfully easy to understand Dodge we tested the previous week. We couldn't blow up the navigation map nor find streets that might or might not have been there. We were dismayed by the array of questions that had to be answered when we pressed Menu. So many options we never knew we needed or wanted, all with strange names that didn't describe any function we know of. Ditto with icons.
This is the fourth generation of iDrive, in what? five years? It would be more accurate to say this is the fourth attempt to get it right. BMW boasts repeatedly in its press kit that it's clear and intuitive. Not. It is better than before. But still bewildering, and it consumes enormous amounts of concentration while you're trying to focus on the road in front of you. We've talked to owners who have learned how to operate iDrive effectively and they like it. But we give iDrive the big thumbs down.
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