2009 New BMW 7 series

What a hard act to follow. The last all-new 7-series, the 2002 745Li, was welcomed into the automotive world with about as much warmth and adoration as a 41-pound newborn baby girl with sixteen middle fingers and a full beard. And it merited about as much media coverage. Incensed enthusiasts on Internet forums called for

BMW design director Chris Bangle's head. The BMW faithful stumbled around dealerships breathing into paper bags to allay attacks of hyperventilation. Somewhere, someone passed out at the mere sight of the bulbous trunk lid. OK, perhaps not. But even we shockproof editors at Automobile Magazine were perturbed by the styling.

European bureau chief Georg Kacher called the 745Li "a car that completely defies conventional thinking on interior and exterior design." Design editor Robert Cumberford chimed in, "Ugly? It certainly is not beautiful." BMW ignored us, and all the other critics of that 7-series (known within the company and by BMW geeks by its chassis code name, E65), and stood by the bold new look. "We felt that a radically different shape and a radically different ergonomic concept were compulsory to leapfrog the competition," said one BMW board member at the time.

How ironic. Back in 1994, in describing the then-new, third-generation 7-series, Cumberford maintained that he barely could tell it apart from its predecessor. "Apparently the middle-aged buyers," he wrote, "are thought not to want imaginative styling."

So who was right? BMW will happily point out that the ugly-duckling E65 matured into a beautiful white swan-becoming the best-selling 7-series of all time. Then again, BMW acknowledges that the 2006 face-lift, which diminished the E65's bizarre and polarizing looks, was the company's most successful midcycle freshening ever in generating additional sales. Read between the lines, and it looks like Cumberford's observation was correct.

Whether it was the face-lift or China's growing demand for premium large cars that was actually responsible for the E65's record sales, one thing is for sure: the 2009 750Li marks a return to a conservatively styled 7-series. The new 7 probably will never win any beauty pageants-at least not without a nose job to reduce those enormous nostrils-but it's not likely to invite the vehement criticism that the last one did. The styling is disappointing to those who expected BMW's new flagship sedan to look like the gorgeous, swoopy Concept CS that generated gasps at the 2007 Shanghai auto show. Worry not, CS fans-the 7's superconservative styling serves as a hint that a production CS is coming. In the meantime, let us say good-bye to the Bangle Butt and welcome back the handsome and understated 7-series.

Beginning this March, you'll have your choice of two 7s-the 750i and the long-wheelbase 750Li. Both cars, internally designated F01 and F02, respectively, are about an inch and a half longer and 80 pounds heavier than last year's 750i and 750Li. Although the numbers on the badge haven't changed, the V-8 under the hood has. Replacing last year's 360-hp, 4.8-liter V-8 is the 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged and direct-injected V-8 first seen in the X6. The force-fed V-8 produces 400 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque, making the 2009 750Li significantly more powerful than the 2008 750Li-and quicker than even the 6.0-liter, V-12-powered 760Li, which now has been dropped.

Source: automobilemag