By Gary Anderson
Road Test
If you’re ga-ga for gadgets, the BMW 745i may suit you
How technically savvy are you?
If you have trouble resetting the clock on your VCR after a power outage, then this month’s featured car is not for you.
On the other hand, if you delight in finding new features on your personal data assistant, and scrolling down through pages of hypertext gives you a thrill, then you’re going to love the new BMW 745i.
In the luxury sedan strata, new convenience features have been outstripping space on the dashboard for their controls.
In addition to the navigation systems now standard on the big cars, suspension systems can be set for winter or summer as well as for sport or comfort. Trip computers can calculate time to the next destination or fill-up, cruise controls can be preset for desired speeds or notify you if you’ve exceeded a preset limit. The list goes on and on.
With the new-generation 7 Series, BMW decided to borrow several chapters from personal computer manuals and consolidate all major controls into one “interface” system built around the car’s control screen and a large brushed-aluminum knob in the middle of the matte-finish cherry wood console. By pushing and twisting this knob to change pages and select options, you can control the navigation, audio, climate, communication, emergency and driving preferences systems.
However, as if this weren’t revolutionary enough, the car has a new keyless identification system and starter button, as well as electronic switches for the automatic transmission and parking brake.
The new driving system is so different that the owner’s manual kit includes a pad of tear-off pictographic instruction sheets to be given to the parking valet. Without these instructions, your BMW would be stuck in the unloading lane of Spago’s until you returned, with the attendant unable to start it, much less put it into gear to move it to the parking area.
Even the seats, with their ability to adjust not only height, distance, slant and thigh support, but also headrest, side bolsters and lumbar supports, have gotten a new control system.
First you punch a button for the area of the seat to be adjusted, then you move a joystick to set that part of the seat to your liking.
It’s fortunate that all this can be preset and programmed into a memory system, since it took my wife, Genie, nearly 10 minutes to get the driver’s seat set almost to her liking.
But then, someone has to be a trendsetter, and BMW has always been known for its innovations.
We found that a quick tutorial the first time we got in the car was sufficient to put us in control of essential systems. Then each time we drove the car, we were able to add another system to our repertoire, whether it was programming the navigation system or presetting the stations for the radio.
Once under way, this sedan is everything you’d expect from BMW - and then some. It is heavy (4,510 pounds) and long (16.5 feet) but we found the car to be very light on its feet, er, wheels, at all speeds.
This competence is due in part to BMW’s proven capabilities of suspension engineering, and in part to the new “Active Roll Stabilization” with hydraulic anti-sway bars that twist opposite the roll to keep the body level in fast, tight turns. In tests, this big sedan has been beating the sports cars on handling courses.
On the highway, the combination of cabin soundproofing and ultrasmooth six-speed automatic transmission makes the speed limit warning feature desirable. Without it, you could be driving over 100 mph while still believing you were doing less than 65.
The 4.4-liter 4-cam V-8 puts out 325 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque, sufficient to power the car to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds, or accelerate from 60 to 90 in six more seconds.
With the exterior design, BMW has also broken new ground, though to mixed reviews.
If you are most interested in the carrying capacity of the trunk and passenger space in the car, this may not bother you. Nevertheless, the car looks tall and the trunk area looks like the additional cubic feet were gained by tacking on six more inches of metal over where the trunk lid should have been.
Incidentally, you don’t have to lift or close the trunk. The key switch not only unlocks the trunk, but also raises the lid; an illuminated switch on the lid causes the trunk to close on its own.
The entry fee for this level of luxury and innovation is fairly steep, though less than the comparable Mercedes S500.
The version we tested, which included 19-inch alloy wheels as well as the comfort seats, parking distance warning system, premium sound package, and automatic rear and side window sunshades, stickered for $77,100 msrp.
With a little practice, and more study of the five manuals in the owner’s package, we think we could get to like this car a lot. It isn’t for everyone, but then BMW never claimed its product was simply an automobile.
The 745i may be as close as anyone has come so far to building “the ultimate driving machine.”
Anderson is editor and publisher of British Car Magazine, published bimonthly and distributed internationally from offices in Los Altos (949-9680; www.britishcar.com).
