New 7 Series preview article/pictures

[Jay!]

Read the Article Here, or just look at the pictures.

Enjoy!

[bmwworld]

You can find another review here: http://www.bmwworld.com/models/e65.htm

BMW World's pictures are higher resolution.

[Jay!]

Pretty slick; I like it.

This is what I hope the Acura RL will aspire to be. It may be a while, though...

When's it supposed to hit the streets in the U.S.?

[bmwworld]

The car will be shown for the first time at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September. The first US display is anticipated to be the Detroit Auto Show in January. Models should be available by then.

[DVSNCYNIKL]

Damnit!! You guys beat me to it. I read an article and had pics last week of the car in R&T last week. But I couldn't post them then. Oh well, still good to see it. Interesting how they made it look a lot like the Z9 concept. Still trying to get used to the way the back of it looks.

[bmwworld]

Yeah, the rear end looks like a Fiat! Maybe that's because Chris Bangle used to design for Fiat.

One thing I like about the design is that the car looks smaller. Usually more curves make a car look bigger.

[Jay!]

Originally posted by bmwworld
The first US display is anticipated to be the Detroit Auto Show in January

Excellent! That means I'll get to see it at the L.A. Auto Show the following week.

[PookJP]

Wow! As many of you may know, I've been asking for this for a while. I like it a lot. I'll have to see one in person, but as someone else has already said, it does look smaller despite claims on www.bmw.com that it is larger. I hope that it has some neat techno gizmos that will lure S-Class and LS430 buyers. iDrive alone should be enough.

-Pook

[bmwworld]

This car has the gizmos!

Over 700 functions on iDrive alone, the world's first 6-speed automatic transmission, and much more.

[Porsche]

That looks actually good. all of these techno gadgets are getting so advanced and cool these days. I wonder how much i-drive will dd to the current 7 series price.

[gang$tarr]

what does the idrive system do?

[kharras]

The iDrive system is a system that combines almost all functions into one easy to use location. It's main concept is that using a trackball/mouse and navigation screen (centered on the dash at eye-level so that you can see it clearly without taking your eyes off the road) you can scroll through and click into any of the 700+ functions that it supports.

For example, click the mouse back and you go into entertainment. Move the trackball clockwise or counter-clockwise to go into any of the functions (radio, cd, etc..). Click down on the function (example, CD) and then move the trackball clockwise or counter-clockwise to go into the different tracks. Click down to select the track. That's the main concept. Once you get the hang of it, you can use the mouse without looking at the screen. I tried it out at the Detroit auto show, and it's pretty cool.

[gang$tarr]

Is the detroit auto show really good? I'm thinkin of drivin down there for it next year, what month is it in? i don't remember
It's like a 3 hour or less drive from here

[gang$tarr]

actually i think it's just over 2 hours

[kharras]

I'm from NY/NJ, so I know that it's about 12-14 hours by car from here. I didn't catch where you are from.

The auto show is pretty good. It's the second time I went to the Detroit Auto Show. Usually, it's supposed to be the best since all the auto makers (U.S.) are in Detroit. Everybody wants to make a good impression. It's in January, and the dates change every year.

Honestly, I think the NY auto show is the best because we get all the cars that were shown at the previous auto shows. Sometimes, Detroit, Chicago, and LA get the cars spread out among them (concept and new introduction) because they all happen around the same time). The NY auto show gets all the concepts, all the new intros, all at once. This year, however, the NY auto show lacked the luster that it had the previous years. Some cars were missing in NY that were in Detroit. I'm glad I went to detroit this year, because it was better than NY.