BMW 730Ld SE CAR review

I guess it's time to say goodbye to the E65 - it won't be missed by too many. Its predecessor, the E38, was a competent, if too conservative car back in its day and the E32, well that's the car that put BMW on the luxury car map and was a stunning design by the great Ercole Spada. The current version was at odds with BMW's idea of always offering the sportiest car in its class, both visually and in terms of performance. And in pre-facelift shape it had some really awkward styling aspects (like the front lights-grille-ratio, among others) and thus allowed the A8 to lure away too many former 7 drivers. And that A8 Mk. 2 was also a very good car, better than the 7 in many respects. So when Merc presented their (also stylistically challenged) current S, which meant a return to quality and technological leadership, it also meant the 7 would fall into oblivion, despite one of the best facelifts BMW has ever made. I'm really looking forward to the new version, hoping it will be less of an E90 irrelevance and more something of an E32 for the noughties.

BMW, like Audi, seems to get 'lost' in the upper reaches of the car market against the seminal Mercedes S-Class. The 7 has always looked a bit of a Russian barge, confused and outdated in each generation. A stark contrast to the tight, focused bang-on packages of the 3 and 5 Series. C'mon BM, if you're going to produce an Exec limo do it properly and with a bit of panache!

are BMW deliberately trying to alienate the customers in this class? everytime i see an old shape 7 series I see a man who boughht a great car and is not going to trade it in for one of the latest efforts from BMW.my dad had a 7 series a while back and loved it, but in the end the lexus dealer got his money as BMW doesn't offer the special feeling anymore.