Consumer Reports Claims The BMW 7-Series Can No Longer Be Called The Ultimate Driving Machine!

No Surprise... ALL of these new BMWs have gotten way too bloated and heavy these days, and all the tech-aids in the world can cover up that fact.

Calling all fanboiz! Calling all fanboiz! Someone is trash-talking "The Ultimate Driving Machine". Time to bring out the flamethrowers.

For me, the decline of the BMW Empire started with the 2002 MY 7-series and the polarizing (a nice way of saying most people were offed by it) "Flame Surface" styling language that followed. With an emphasis on gadgetry and different for the sake of different, BMW seems to have lost its way.

For the record, I own two older BMWs, and I love them. I was lucky to have bought mine at the point when they have their lowest defect numbers. The times, they are a changing.

Steve - I totally agree about the decline of the 7 starting in 2002.

I had a 2001 740i sport which rides and handles like a Lamborghini compared to the current 7 and its predecessors back to 2002. BMW now makes the Chrysler imperial/Cadillac fleetwood style car in the 5 and 7 series lines ups. They look good, have lots of amenities and go like stink in a straight line, but they are numb and engineered to be too comfortable IMHO. Comfort is the opposite of handling. As many computer assisted hydraulic variable electromagnetic doo dads you put on the car a soft ride will always hurt handling (feel - but not necessarily raw data).

I could go on for hours. BMW - you got what you deserved. You dilluted the most sought after brand in the interest of expanding customer base. You tries to grab too many S class, XJ A8 buyers and look what happened. If you had just stuck to the recipe, there wouldn't have been as much market share for Panamera - and that's doing well. You as a company have a long long hill to climb if you ever make it.

BTW, I've had 10 BMW cars and 3 bikes in the past decade. The decline of the brand hurts me personally.

Dumest f&^king thing a car company can do is build a car around what it thinks it customers want. What does the average buyer know about engineering!!! BMW used to build cars that were so good everyone wanted one AFTER the brilliant engineers and designers did their jobs.... I say let M takeover the whole company and disband the board of directors.

Never was the ultimate driving machine, just the ultimate MARKETING machine.

The current and next GEN Mercedes AMG's have the potential become the undisputed driving machines while maintaining MB's status as the pinnacle of Luxury, Innovation, and Comfort wrapped in one.

please. reputations are built on product. and for many years, BMW stood head and shoulders above other sport sedans. sadly, they have become entirely too tilted to luxury at the expense of performance in the past few years. the change has been disappointing to loyal buyers. apparently, BMW has joined the lexus and mercedes club and decided to focus on luxury and they're selling better than ever because of it. but after 4 BMWs, my next car won't be one. it'll be a porsche.

Yep, me too. Glad that I got to own a number of BMW's back when they were truly desirable.

I have to agree with you folks about past history. I've owned 4 BMWs; 3 Audi. I probably wouldn't buy another BMW because they have moved from that sports car image to passifying buyers who want their cars to ride like a Cadillac - float along. Also I have problem with TOO MUCH technology in a car. I love the navigation system, lane departure and some of the other technology, but some of the other stupid crap is unnecessary and drives the price of the car up. Additionally, the very nice clean and appointed dash in the BMWs seems to be a thing of the past. Now they have cup holders in the dash, some twisty looking 3 series ugly dash. Keep the sports performance image, tweak your beautiful engines, and update the interior without overhauling the whole thing to where it looks ugly.

consumer reports does suck when it comes to reviewing cars. they tend to love appliances. but they are right, so why attack them?

Here is an interesting comment someone wrote about this article on the consumer reports website..on a side note a vast majority of the reviews I have read about the updated 7 have been very positive..But of course there will always be naysayers.


"Full disclosure: I own a 2012 740Li.


I disagree with Jeff Bartlett on several fronts. I drove all five of the cars he says are better than the 7 -- drove them all several times, in fact, as part of my process of elimination for this class of car. Let's take them one at a time: First, It's simply laughable that he thinks the blinged-out slushy chrome-covered ride of the Mercedes trumps the 7. The Mercedes, while a nice car, is by no means a "driver's car" unless Jeff is referring to Livery. In my opinion, the 7 wins here due to the ability to choose between Comfort+, Comfort, Sport and Sport+ suspension, throttle mapping, steering and drivetrain settings. There is a very discernible difference between all four of these modes. To say he didn't feel much difference only betrays the fact that he didn't spend much time in the car. After all, the video is so poorly edited, it cuts from exterior shots of the 7 series to interior shots of the new 2012 F30 3-series sedan (a much smaller and less luxurious car). If he can't be bothered to present the correct interior throughout the review, how can we expect him to have applied any measure of detail to the actual review of the car?

Next, the Lexus ride comparison. I do agree that the Lexus offers a very compliant ride, but the steering is completely dead, and no hint of the "feel" of the road is conveyed through the wheel to the driver. I found my test drive of the Lexus to be the most boring of the bunch.

The Audi was nice, but the styling (especially the front facia) is circa 1978 Battlestar Galactica Cylon ugly. And please explain to me how three adults will comfortably fit in the back seat of that car? It has the same type of drivetrain tunnel the 7 does. If you're going to ding one, you have to ding 'em both... Only fair after all.

The Jaguar is an absolutely stunning car -- from the outside. What a beauty. Love the exterior styling. This car was a very close second on my list prior to getting the 7 series. However, truth be told, the interior is a bit of a confused mess, and it completely turned me off. Add to that the dearth of options (compared to the S class or the 7) and I'm wondering how it possibly rates above the 7 in Jeff's mind. I found the ride to be compliant at slow speeds, but absolutely numb at highway speeds. The front seats are nowhere near as comfortable as the seats in the 7 either. Not such a great driving machine if you can't stand to sit in it very long.

The Panamera offers a true sports-car-like drive. I found it overly stiff, and the interior, although nice to look at, was bedecked with way too many buttons (exactly what BMW avoids by employing iDrive -- which Jeff pans). Plus, this car isn't even offered in a long

Fair review, IMHO. Anyone who thinks these large luxury cars are "driver's cars" are dreaming. You have to sacrifice something when you're slinging around so much mass regardless of the amount of power you stick in the car. No one in their right mind would consider a RR Ghost, even with its 500+ Hp and torque, to be a driver's car. So these cars are not meant to be sporty in the true sense but really a compromise between sportiness and luxury.

Over the years the BMW 7 series has had a relative edge in "sportiness" but a relative paucity of luxury when compared to other makes. Other makes emphasized luxury over performance. Each makes seeks some sort of balance but no one make was clearly superior to the other. Competition is good because it gives us cunsumers more choices.

As far as which make to choose, each to their own. I agree most with car750i's approach: try them out yourself; don't put blinders on beforehand solely based on the car badge; make your decision based on how much you actually like driving the car.

PS: Unless you plan on spending a lot of time in the back seat don't put too much emphasis on how comfortable it is for 2 or 3 people back there.

The brand-new BMW 640i Gran Coupe is also not worthy of the "Ultimate Driving Machine' company motto:

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/1206_2013_bmw_640i_gran_coupe_first_test/specs.html

"In other words, the style and luxury outweigh the sport. It's so good at trying to be the ultimate four-door coupe that it misses the bull's-eye for being the ultimate driving machine."

Enough Said.

First , everybody knows that my favorite brand is MB. But that does not means that I am blind. I like MB for Power, Comfort and Luxury in that order. From BMW M5 and M3 Only. However the experience of BMW that comes from those 2 models , applied to the other big models including 7 series, Make them very good players compared to the S and A8 class. 7 is agile , S is nice in straight line, like a bullet train. The problem rise in the fact that BMW trying to make profit...and the need a Luxury car at the level of the S class. Is not about technology, is about Money. 7 series IMHO drive better than S class, but now the BMW is trying to put so many gadgets, that now they are not able to keep the weight down so the inertia does not allow them to as agile as before. If I were them I also would be looking for the best profit. The problem with the 7 is the same as the MB have with the M3, M3 is a yardstick in that category...S class is the yardstick in luxury , and no matter how hard MB try, M3 have reputation as the S does. M3 will continue at the top as S class does. But actually the differences in Sport and luxury level between BMW and MB are so small that now to decide between both is matter of loyalty....7 6 5 x5 all are not nimble tigers but more like big Rhinos....very heavy. Even the new Cady ATS is more that 100 pounds lighter than the 3 series. In the other Hand MB is getting lighter but now the ultra quiet MB are just in my memories cause now they are louder just cause the company is looking for an sporty spirit. Reliability... come on....any european luxury car is unreliable when is packaged with a lot of gadgets. What is bothering here is the maintenance costs...but as far as I know BMW is VERY expensive as soon as the warranty is over...and that is the fact that is killing the 7...Still a good car but stop complaining about the cost of maintenance, If you have to complaint about that, then your incomes are not according with that car...buy a Toyota Yaris .

Thats why I think that the next logic step for BMW is to follow MB and do an M version of each car that they build as MB does AMGs versions. Also improve the reliability.

I agree! I think that's what they doing now with 3 and 5 series. Normal models are getting more public friendly, and the MP models and M are still monsters. They should definitely do that with the next 7 series.

Its true. I guess it's hard to please everyone. General Public won't buy if it's too sporty, But when it's gets too luxury, the hardcore fans will get angry.
I'm looking forward to the next gen 7 as BMW said they gonna apply a lot of the i8 carbon technology on it. The biggest problem with the current 7 is the weight and the ride. It should get a lot better if the car can get below 2T.

People need to chill.

If YOU ran BMW the company would be bankrupt by now. Enthusiasts make up a very small percentage of BMW clients. If 95% of BMW owners are simply customers who may very well migrate to another brand the next time they buy a car, then BMW cannot afford to loose these people. They have to focus on them.

The 5% of enthusiasts still have driving machines like the 1er, 3er and Z4 and the M cars. In fact - who gives a damn if the 5 series and 7 series have gotten softer? Most people buying those cars are interested in comfortable driving, not blasting down backroads at high speeds. I find it funny how people here are upset about an overweight and porky car like the 7er being given a failing grade in terms of driving dynamics. Wow. Who cares? Who takes a 7er unto a track anyway? The 7er still drives great and is sporty. Consumer Reports is definitely exaggerating here and so are magazines who test these cars. After all, all these automotive journalists arrive at work in a Porsche Boxster and then drive a 7er and complain about handling. Um, yeah...

I agree that only a small percentage of Enthusiasts cares about how cars of this caliber drive. However, in agreement with the reviewer, if I paid such a price for an automobile that has long marketed itself as the ultimate driving machine, it better drives damn perfect - even I don't plan to track it. It's all about the drive. In this category, the competition has become fierce nowadays; BMW has failed dismally with the majority of their products today. Well, like Willis had mentioned, most of consumers - or I should call them leasers - just "migrate" from one brand to another. Who cares! No one in the U.S. are into buying and keeping a car for the long term. Leasing is the dominant trend for BMW and Merc. To exaggerate this a bit, if you could lease a Toyota, you could lease a BMW or Merc. In short, BMW has lost its identity when they attempt to accomplish so many things and to please so many target groups.

What is BMW trying to emulate after (e.g., the ride quality of Merc, the comfort and quietness of Lexus, and the luxury of Audi)? And they lost their sportiness in the process.

"Ultimate Driving Machine"is indeed a million dollar phrase, given the buy-in of the slogan by Typical Consumers and the ever increasing sales volume.

When does one have to think inside the box in driving an Ultimate Driving Machine: steering cannot be as compliant as a Lexus, suspension cannot be as stiff as a Panemera, styling cannot be as appealing as an Audi, and interior cannot be as luxury as a Jaguar? Pathetic... These criteria are all what the new BMWs have failed to accomplish - how ironic...

After all, people spend thousands of dollars to buy that "Ultimate Driving Machine" sticker slapped on their newer BMWs. No wonder BMW can afford to hand out so many Coupons and Rebates for their cars. Hope, I won't find these coupons on the Penny Saver one day.

Remember that magazines must be provocative to be noticed. CR writes an article that is guaranteed to create emotional response and sells magazines as they create debate. Truth and fact are irrelevant.

If I want to read a review on my next toilet purchase I'll be sure to check out the CR website and I bet this same reviewer thinks Cadillac is the ultimate driving machine. Surely anyone that has the money to spend on a 7 series will not be heading over to CR to read their idiotic reviews which no one cares about, instead they'll walk into a dealership and take the 7 series for a test drive and see if the like the car or not and compare to the rest of the luxury sedans on the market.