BMW 750L Reviews

These images, released this morning in Europe, reveal a less confronting design than the previous model. That edition of the 7 Series was the first to bear the mark of style-meister Chris Bangle, whose design gambits appear to be present mainly about the car's rear. The latest generation appears to have acquired a more streamlined shape, if not quite so “sporty” as some pundits had forecast.This is crucial in reducing drag _ a central tenet in BMW's much-touted efficient dynamics philosophy, which in the past decade has seen the German marque reduce emissions and fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent across its passenger vehicle line-up.Most important is the latest range of engines, of which the bi-turbo 4.4-litre V8 is the star with its 300kW and 600Nm.Yet for all its output, BMW claim consumption in combined conditions of 11.4litres of premium unleaded petrol per 100km and emission of 266 grams of CO2 per kilometre _ figures that compare favourably with locally-produced six-cylinder family cars and make an Aussie bent eight seem Jurassic.The sedan version of the 7 Series accelerates from 0-100km/h in a claimed 5.2 seconds and the bigger limo wouldn't be far behind.The other engine available from launch is an enhanced version of the award-winning bi-turbo 3.0-litre inline six, boosted to 240kW and 450Nm. This engine moves the 740i from 0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds, uses 9.9L/100km on the European combined cycle while emitting 232g/km of CO2.All engines are Euro V compliant - appreciably greener than any Australian government requirements. The others in the 7 Series are designated 740i and 750i, with the 140mm longer wheelbase versions called 740Li and 750Li.All models have a six-speed automatic transmission with an electronic gear selector and power going through the rear wheels. Lately BMW's steering, with and without active steering, has been criticised. The integral active steering system makes its debut as an option on the hydraulic rack-and-pinion set-up of the 7 Series.BMW says that this applies active steering on the front axle and speed-related rear-wheel steering. Dynamic damping control and dynamic driving control are standard. The dampers, gearshift dynamics, as well as the throttle and steering assistance map, are varied by the dynamic driving control button on the centre console. This offers comfort, normal and sports settings. A special traction mode and sports+ setting with reduced or deactivated DSC control is available for owners and chaffeurs who fancy pushing on a bit.The 7 Series is the most driver orientated car in its class and the newcomer is likely to continue in this vein, despite the continued handicap of run-flat tyres. Against the harsh riding boots there is an updated air suspension system.BMW makes much of the weight-saving measures. The roof, doors, bonnet and side panels are made of aluminium, while aluminium pressure-cast suspension supports at the front, and a final drive with an aluminium housing, work towards keeping overall weight as low as possible. The engines are also aluminium.The Bavarians have persisted with the iDrive multimedia system, known even to the more polite critics as “bloody iDrive”. The mildly revised system is here given a larger display with high-resolution graphics and a better menu structure. Like more recent Bimmers it gets direct selection buttons.The latest 7 Series makes its international debut later this year and arrives locally in 2009. Further pricing, specification and information for Australia will follow closer to launch, although prices should start from about $185,000. 

Were it not left-hand drive, there'd be little to mark this BMW as remarkable as it courses along the byways of Melbourne. Looks like a 7 Series sedan, sounds just about like a 7 Series.This is one of only 100 examples of BMW's Hydrogen 7, a car which we first met 14 months ago in Berlin. Three were brought here last week (along with a specially imported mobile fuelling station) on the on-going international publicity tour.Hydrogen 7s have been handed out to a selection of such eco-hip superstars as Brad Pitt, Jay Leno and, er, Will Ferrell. Roger Federer has been a bit busy over the past few days, but will accept delivery of one in Switzerland.It combines a petrol engine, alongside an 8kg liquid hydrogen storage tank, giving this six-litre V12 — good for 191kW/390Nm — a range of more than 700km, including 200km solely by means of hydrogen. The driver switches between fuel sources at the press of a button.In Germany, with hydrogen filling stations in several major cities (and fuelling from a hydrogen bowser is an almost alarmingly mundane affair), it's possible to get around the country without recourse to petrol. So it is to some extent in California.In Australia, where even diesel is still considered somewhat exotic in passenger cars, such a journey is still the stuff of science fiction — as is the notion of travelling at the comfortable 170km/h Carsguide drove the Hydrogen 7 on the autobahns of its home country. Yet even in a state whose government's insatiable greed for speed-infringement revenue makes NSW's enforcement regime seem permissive, we get enough out of the Hydrogen 7 to appreciate BMW's launch claim that the driving experience is “spectacularly unspectacular”.But then the circumstances would have to be straitened indeed not to appreciate the fact that you're punting along a 2.45-tonne sedan powered not by some crude oil derivative or contrived hybrid technology but the most common element in the universe. It's one that as long ago as 1874, the author and visionary Jules Verne called an “inexhaustible source of heat and light”.Now, with fossil fuels within perhaps 50 years of exhaustion, BMW is adamant that the hydrogen research program it began in 1978 is now at the half-way point towards a fruition that will see hydrogen- powered vehicles become the planet's dominant form of transport. In insisting that hydrogen must be married to combustion engines, though, BMW are talking as much about a sustained standard of living as sustainable mobility.Critics and proponents of rival technologies have been vitriolic — not least those in Germany. Indeed, on the Hydrogen 7's unveiling, the popular news magazine Der Spiegel declaimed: “BMW has created an energy-guzzling engine that only seems to be environmentally friendly — a farcical ecomobile whose only true merit is that of illustrating the cardinal dilemma of a possible hydrogen-based economy.”A major cause of disquiet is the production of hydrogen requires significant amounts of energy, while climate-friendly mass production of liquid hydrogen requires a vast supply of electricity.Jochen Schmallotz, the man running BMW's international hydrogen roadshow, is ready for that one.“In the next 10 to 20 years we will be able to mass manufacture hydrogen with renewable technology,” he says, pointing to developments that will utilise natural elements in the process.“Imagine what that means for Australia, a country that has to import most of its oil from the Arabian Gulf.“You're surrounded by water and you've got plenty of sun.“You could be self-sufficient in producing hydrogen.”Other companies, notably Mazda, advocate fuel cells, which transform hydrogen into electricity via a chemical process.The electricity generated then drives the vehicle. This method promises far greater efficiency, but currently yields modest driving performance — which is the chief reason BMW aren't taken with it, according to Hydrogen 7 project manger Dr Willibald Prestl.“Advocates of fuel cells say that internal combustion engines have twice the consumption,” he says.“We definitely do not believe that, not with the engine technology being introduced. Even in the last year we reached reductions (in BMW's existing fleet) of up to 20 per cent.“We can say a fuel cell has better efficiency and a wider range of use, sure. But there are so many problems not solved: durability, cooling, weight and lifetime.“We watch this technology very closely but, if there is a breakthrough, it will be in lower-powered cars, not the cars for which BMW is famous.”Although BMW stands to make not a euro from sales, Prestl says the next step is to produce a smaller capacity bio-fuel car, in 3 Series or 5 Series size.Ideally, though, he would like to build a car around the still cumbersome and space-eating hydrogen tank, rather than fit one into existing architecture.For now it's impossible not to be impressed by this marriage of three decades of research to BMW's flagship car.This mightn't be the marque's quickest car, but it is some way ahead of the field. SNAPSHOTBMW HYDROGEN 7Price: not for saleEngine: 6L V12, bio fuelRange: 200km on hydrogen, 500km on petrolEmissions: zero C02 per kilometre on hydrogenPerformance: reaches 100km/h in 9.4 sec