Here's Why the 2001 BMW 7 Series Is the Best Luxury Sedan Ever

This is a

2001

BMW 750il back in

2001

. It was the absolute king of the road with a V12 engine in the front, tons of technology, and classic BMW styling. It's also my favorite

luxury

sedan

of all time and today I'm going to show you why. I borrowed this 750il from a viewer

here

in the San Diego area and yes, I know I just made a bold statement: my favorite

luxury

sedan

of all time, so let me give you a little background on this 7 Series that It was known as the e38. enthusiast model and by BMW in-house and was sold from 1995 to 2001.

The

best

versions came at the end of the line when BMW offered an M sport model with these cool wheels and a sportier suspension that made this car much more athletic than Rivals like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, this particular e387

series

is a 750il, meaning it ditched the 282-hp v8 found in the base 740i level for a 326-hp v12. When this car was new the base sticker price was 93,000 which is about 135,000 in today's money and back then this thing was the absolute leader of the BMW line when the BMW line was at its peak the Z8 The original I personally think this is the most beautiful four door sedan

ever

made, not this one specifically, I actually prefer the look of the short wheelbase model, this is the long wheelbase version. which was the only way to get the V12 in the US, but to me it really doesn't matter much.

The overall look of this car was just perfect, it was so simple, elegant and so classy that it was the pinnacle of BMW Design and it was so much better than the 7 Series that replaced it and the same was true for the technology. This car gave you

ever

ything you needed, but it wasn't overly tech-heavy with an infotainment system that lets you search for screams while you drive. down the street, so today I'm going to show you the 2001 e38 750il, the top model of the last year of the

best

7

series

, and show you all of its interesting quirks and cool features.

I'll take it out on the road and drive it and then give it an excellent rating and for more of my thoughts on the e38 click the link below to visit autotrader.com oversteer w

here

I wrote a column about this car and where I've compiled a list of the best bmw models of this era that are currently for sale on autotrader. Now I'm going to start the tour under the hood and as you can see, yes, this is a V12, not the little V8. on the base model 740i, but the v12, the v12 was of course much rarer than the v8, not many people opted for it, but the original owner of this car did.

Now there are a couple of interesting quirks under the hood, one of which is this little one. warning label that tells you how to change the headlights or rather how not to change the headlights, shows a man with his hand on a headlight who is terribly surprised, just feels bad for him, another interesting element related to the engine , this top-of-the-line v12 with 326 horsepower cuts almost exactly the same figure as the current 7 Series cuts with its base level turbocharged six-cylinder. Oh, how times have changed. Next, we move to the rear, where you can see an interesting element: the car has factory parking sensors.

You can see the little indentations. and the radar bumpers that send things out and obviously when you're backing up and it beeps to let you know if you're about to hit something, that's not a big deal nowadays, but back in 2001 I remember no car had this. It was one of the first cars with parking sensors. It's impressive to see and it still works. Next I want to talk about the styling of this car. I said I think it's the most beautiful four-door sedan ever made and I really support that. I know some people might say it's outdated, some people might disagree with me, but I think this car came from an era before automakers just tried too hard with all kinds of indentations and cuts and lines to make. make your cars look cooler and stand out. this thing was understated and it was just perfect the design was so good it was so beautiful the slim headlights i always thought they looked good the taillights in the back the taillight assembly just that simple square one was so good this car meant business and performance and athletic driving without having to tell everyone what it meant.

Next we move to the rear of the car and the trunk which opens in a rather unusual way. For starters, there is no latch here that you can simply put your fingers under and open the trunk. Instead, the trunk only opens in one of two ways. There is a small button on the driver's footrest that you can use or you can insert the key now. When you insert the key, the operation is quite unusual. You insert the key and press. and then a small motor lifts the trunk take a look but it doesn't open the trunk you have to do it yourself and it's quite heavy so it's just a motor that opens it and then you do all the work but close it it's even more unusual, you close it almost completely and then the motor does the rest, take a look, it's a bit strange to see that you can't slam the trunk shut, but instead you get in the right place and the motor latches now, once you open the trunk, there are a couple of interesting items back here, one of which is a diagram showing how to fit four golf bags in the back of your seven series.

When this car came out, maybe still today, people always complained: I won't buy a sedan if I can't fit four sets of golf bags in the back, so BMW was sensitive to that and not only could it fit four sets, Instead, they printed a diagram and placed it inside the trunk to show it. you know how to do it now, next, another interesting element on the sides of the trunk, you have a couple of elements hidden inside the trunk lining, on that side you have the CD changer and the navigation system discs and here, on the side from the passenger, you have the tire jack and the batteries, that's not really that unusual, seeing ancillaries like that inside the trunk, the strange thing about this car is that the latches are held on with magnets, practically every other car manufacturer uses just a cheap plastic latch. here because you don't really get into these compartments that often, but BMW went with a magnet which probably made things more expensive, but also sorted it out a little bit when you went to get your tools to change tires.

We move on to another interesting one. The item in the trunk is perhaps the most interesting type of trunk that you can see on the inside of the trunk lid, there's a little triangle there, well, that's where they keep the warning triangle, obviously, which is set if you breaks so you open it and you go in there and you look and there's no warning triangle, well that's because the warning triangle is required in some countries in Europe, but it's not required in the United States, so BMW decided not to include the warning triangle on the US 7 series models.

I thought it was expensive to include a warning triangle. Most Americans don't even really know what it is or how to use it, so they didn't bother. Although there is a warning triangle symbol on the outside of this thing, there is no warning triangle. There, on any US 7 Series, there is now an interesting thing instead of the warning triangle. You have a very nice diagram of an e46 3 Series sedan, so you go find your triangle. It's not there, but at least you can see it. E46 3 Series 3 Sedan, however, you have a full tool kit with screwdrivers, wrenches and all that, and most of these things say bmw, which looks very nice.

Next we move inside the e38, well there are quite a few interesting quirks. and present here the first one that you notice the moment you start the car and that would be this strange little green yellow red diagram inside the gauge cluster. That diagram is designed to show when you need to come in for service. You can see it right now. completely green, that's because this car was recently serviced. As you drive more miles the green starts to fade, you turn yellow and then when it's red you have to come in for your service. Our next interesting element is on the center console. and that would be the ashtray, now getting to the ashtray is kind of interesting, it's hidden under this wooden panel, you push it and then it stands up to greet you, but that's not the most unusual thing you see there and Look at this button, what's the point?

Does that button work? Well, you press it and it comes out of the ashtray so you can go and throw away your ashes once the ashtray is full in this car. You don't just pick up the ashtray like a commoner, you press a button and it will be handed to you next. This car has a power tilt and slide steering wheel, which was a very cool feature in 2001. Ultimately, this was a very high-end luxury car, but it gets better. This car also has a heated steering wheel which would have been a really nice feature in 2001, but it gets even better.

This car has massage seats. You press this little button on the center console and the seats actually massage your front ones. Now I have to admit that I barely feel the massage. It's really nothing special, but it's there, it's happening, this car must have been one of the first to feature massaging seats next to the center console. We need to talk about the phone, yes the phone, this car came equipped with a car phone because that's what the industry titans driving 750ils had in 2001. To operate the phone, you press this little eject button, then they give it to you and then you can pawn it and use it and look how old this phone is.

It surprises me? There was every time this was considered the most innovative phone. It's hard to remember the perspective of that time. This phone says BMW in several places. They didn't want you to forget who gave you your phone. I also like the fact that it says time port on and I'm assuming that's the phone model. It is certainly a time port. Looking at this and remembering coming back to life in 2001. Now, the interesting thing about this phone is that it is mounted on what it appears. It appears to be the center console lid, but it is not actually a lid.

This car does not have a center console like most cars where you can store things. Instead, it's an armrest and you can move it forward or back depending on what you find. The most convenient thing is that there are two small storage pockets here, one on the driver's side where you can store small items and one on the passenger side where you can store small items, but for some reason this car eliminated the large center cargo console than most others Next, we move on to the climate control vents, which are quite interesting. Now you can move them from side to side with a small dial on the bottom, just like most car climate control vents, but the strange thing is how you close them in a lot of cars, you just slide a dial up and then close behind the dash somewhere inside the dash.

In this car, when you move the dial up to close the vents, they close into the dash, so when closed they give more of a clean look uninterrupted by the climate control vent lines, in case you don't want to blow air on you and don't even want to see the climate control vents next we need to talk about the handles or the coat racks on the ceiling just inside the door these are very nice handles for hangers not only They are not only trimmed in wood with little aluminum ends in the wood, but also when you open them and then close them, they close very smoothly.

Not only do they slam shut, they're designed to provide a luxurious experience even when you hang up your code or grab them to get into the car. Next I want to talk about how solid everything feels in this cabin, it's hard to place. a video, but everything about this car feels so solid and so firm when you push it, you really feel like you are in the best built car you can imagine, the steering wheel always seemed like a real business person's steering wheel to me. I'd be grabbing this thing while you're driving 150 miles an hour down the highway to fire your VP of Communications because he got caught stealing paperclips.

This was a very serious steering wheel and it feels like every button is just It feels great, but my favorite part is the turn signal material on these late 90s/early 2000s BMWs. The turn signal material signals and the wipers felt so solid, so thick and soresistant that it was so nice to touch the next door panel with another. An interesting item is that you can see that there are two different door pockets, one of them is just open and the other is closed and has a small door, so I guess one of them is for the items you want people to see and the other is for the items you don't want people to say, I'm not really sure why they chose two different levels of privacy for the door pockets, but they did Next we move on to the seats, now the seats obviously They go forward and backward just like any car, they go up and down and the headrest goes up and down, which is the mark of a true luxury car, but there is also one more switch on the seat controls that is not labeled , what makes it work well, it's actually something interesting, it moves. just the top of the backrest forward or back, so there is one control to move the entire backrest and there is just one to move the top to make the seat much more perfectly comfortable, as you would expect from a car. high-end luxury.

Upstairs, we move on to the infotainment system. Yes, this car has a center display and as you can imagine, since this is a 2001 model, it is about as dated as you can imagine, but it is still the factory system and it is great. Check it out today. It's surprising to me. Every time we thought it was cutting edge technology, but I remember when.This car came out new and had cutting edge technology. Now the first thing you access is the on-board computer and you can see that it shows eight different items. You have your limit, your speed limit, your fuel range, the distance you have traveled since the last fuel consumption reset and your average speed it also shows your outside temperature it works quite well and it is interesting to see everything displayed on the infotainment screen the next interesting item is dsp and that is the stereo settings, go in there and you can Look, there is a little equalizer and you can change the way the sound is presented, but the most interesting thing is that if you press memo, you can see which gives you several different options for how the sound will sound, including concert hall, jazz club, and cathedral. sitting in this car driving you're like you know this doesn't sound enough like a jazz club well you can change that also awesome the fact that this car had a navigation system.

I can't imagine trying to use navigation. system on this screen but I had one, it's not working right now, but it worked 17 years ago when this car was new and I'm sure it was difficult to use back then too, now the next interesting item in the infotainment system, yes you click set on the bottom left, the settings come up and you can play with a lot of different things, you can change it from miles to kilometers, you can change the fuel economy from miles per gallon to kilometers per liter, whatever you want. To do the usual things, the interesting thing is that it says language and you can see that there are two US options and well, it turns out that US is English, so you may be wondering why it is Spanish Of course I guess e is for Spain and no is for English, it doesn't make sense to me, but they didn't really have many characters they could use, so you can choose between US English or Spanish.

Another interesting element here are the cupholders, which are clearly an afterthought. They are incredibly flimsy, take them out and you will realize that they are not designed to carry much and BMW has placed them in the worst possible place, directly in front of all the climate control buttons and switches, so if you really have a cup there . You can't use any of that, you can say the Germans don't really want people to drink anything in their vehicles, but they reluctantly put in cup holders. The other interesting element in the front is the glove compartment, you pull it and it opens smoothly. on its own, pull it again and then it moves towards you so you can access its contents.

Surprisingly, the glove box is not traditionally hinged, but rather hydraulic, which is crazy engineering. The other interesting thing in the glove compartment, it contains a flashlight, it is hidden. on the left, you pull it out, it has the BMW logo on it and yes, this one still works almost 20 years after it was a new car. Next we move on to the rear of the seven series, there are quite a few in the back seat. interesting elements, one of which is seat belts. The first thing you notice when you come back here is that the seat belts come out of the middle, so when you sit in this seat you don't go over the shoulder on this side and you get the pillar seat belt, like basically every other sedan , it comes out in the middle and the owner of this car told me that he thinks that's because the theory is that if you get into a serious accident and the firefighters have to cut the belt, it's easier for you.

Cutting the point closest to the door instead of having to cross your lap and cut you, which makes sense to me and that's interesting, maybe more interesting is the fact that this car doesn't have traditional seat belt buckles . As in most other cars, the buckles are actually installed in the seat, they don't just move like in some cars, they are actually like a component of the seat itself, which is why you put the seat belt on. on the seat buckle. I've never seen that before. The next interesting item is the cup holder back here, which is almost as flimsy as the cup holder in front, it sticks out from the base of the seat, like where your knees are and you can see when it's extended, not something you'd really like entrust it with something that might spill and stain your back seats, it doesn't really look that sturdy, but it's a cup holder, anyway, the next interesting element on this car is the long wheelbase. version of a luxury sedan, so it has some nice amenities for rear-seat passengers, including footrests.

You have these carpeted footrests that you can move and adjust to fit perfectly where you want, so you can rest your feet in exactly the right place as you want. read the Wall Street Journal while being chauffeured down the street, another interesting article back here, this car has heated rear seats which was a pretty cool gimmick for 2001. I miss the thing for me about the heated seats though. Heating is that you press a button to turn them on and then there is a little slider that you can adjust the amount of heat that you are getting.

Interestingly, on the front there was a button and it only had three settings, medium low and high, but on the back there is a slider and you can do something like that. slide it to any setting so that rear seat passengers have more heated seat options than front seat passengers, which is a little strange, unfortunately there is no massaging seat back here, but there are seat controls that you can see which are mounted on the nearest cushion. to the door, you can move the seat back forward and you can move the headrest up or down. Speaking of the headrest, an interesting element near the headrest is that you can see that there is a panel back here with two lights, one of them is just a The ambient light can be turned on by pressing the button on the back of the panel.

You also get a reading light that you can press the button in front of the panel and the reading light comes on in case you want to read the Wall Street Journal while you're being chauffeured with your feet on the footrest and it's dark outside. We then move on to the door panel where there are a couple of interesting items here, one of which is a little cubby that you push in and then it comes out and you can store things in it apparently it's for glasses, that's where you put your glasses to read the Wall Street Journal and if you want to put your glasses or your sunglasses in there, you can put them in there and always have them in your handy little storage place. cubby and finally we move on to the first aid kit which is a particularly fun item in this car, it's located above the center armrest and is a sort of hidden leather storage compartment that you wouldn't really know is there but there is a little sign first AIDS.

Take it out and you will see that the first aid kit is there. Take it out and you can see that there are quite a few items related to first aid, all of which I find a bit funny, for example here are wet wipes, of course these are wet wipes from 17 years ago. but these things haven't been wet since 2006. My personal favorite: there's a little first aid tutorial hidden in here. It is a small book that tells you what to do if various medical emergencies occur. My favorite is if you resort to bites and stings. it actually explains what to do if you receive, for example, an animal bite or a kick or, my favorite, an insect sting, if present, remove the stinger by lightly scraping back and forth, do not squeeze or use tweezers.

Your bmw 750il will teach you how to deal. with a bug bite and that's the ultimate in luxury, don't you think? Those were the quirks and features of the 750il and now it's time to take it out on the road and drive it well driving the e38, it's been years since then. I have driven one of these. I'm delighted to be back behind the wheel. The first thing you instantly notice is a much more athletic luxury sedan than you're used to. If you drive any modern luxury sedan, the steering is just a million. The many times more connected modern luxury sedans simply aren't on this level, in terms of athleticism, and also, although it's a huge car, it doesn't feel that big for a full-size luxury sedan, it's a big car by comparison. with a Miata, but you drive a new seven or a new s class and this suddenly feels agile and in fact it is, the suspension is just fantastic, it really is tremendously better than the steering, it's just much more connected than a modern s class now.

I'm saying all this and I'm still going to end up giving it a not-so-great handling score because at the end of the day this is not a sports car, I'm just surprised it was ever the standard for luxury sedans. and we have lost that the new 7 is quite athletic, but the steering is much vaguer and much more numb and you are higher, you are more isolated, you don't feel as connected to the car now yet. I feel like it still floats a little bit, I mean, it's not an M5 um and I want to emphasize that it's not an M5, it's not like an M, you know, a crazy sports car, but it's fun now, the acceleration is surprisingly leisurely considering that It's a v12 that this car followed.

Kind of an old school theory of the v12, which said you didn't use it for low acceleration to make it incredibly fast and drive you crazy, but rather it was designed to be a car that you could drive at 150 all day and not have to. . Worry about anything and that being said, even if you went to 100 110 and dropped your foot it would still take off because it had torque even at those numbers. um this was never a car that was meant to be like a performance car. So you step on the v12 coming out of a corner and it moves, it's fast, it doesn't feel slow but it doesn't feel as fast as you would think given you have this big v12.

This one in particular is really smooth, the owner has done a lot of mechanical work to make this car as nice as possible and it sings. This thing is super super soft and you step on it and it feels exactly like it would. be and I really feel transported back 17 years, to what this car was like, when it was a new car, it feels very stable, you're surprisingly far from the sound, I'm surprised how quiet it is here considering It's kind of an athletic car, the quality The ride isn't as good as modern luxury sedans, but it's stable even over bumps.

The car never feels unstable. One interesting thing about this car is that you know you look at the On the outside it reminds you of the old era of BMW styling where it was just the best, but even on the inside you get that feeling if you don't look at that infotainment screen and if you just use the steering wheel. hit the turn signal, flip the headlight switch, you feel like this was the best era of BMW, you don't have to be on the outside of the car looking at it to get that feeling, so that's the 2001 BMW 7 Series, the best luxury sedan. of all time, yes I know they are getting older and I know you can buy one used for like 8 grand and I know they had some reliability issues and yes I am aware that the new luxury sedans are technically better in the sense of They have more power and more technology and better equipment and whatever, but for me the e387 series was just the perfect combination of attractive styling and good performance and good comfort and good technology and good driving experience all in one, it was just perfect and now it's time to give it an excellent score starting with the weekend categories andThe design of the 750il is absolutely beautiful, the most attractive sedan ever.

I can't give it the same rating as the Ferrari F40 or the 250 GT Lusso, but I'm going to get close. a 9 out of 10. Acceleration goes from 0 to 60 in 6.7 seconds and gets a 2 out of 10. Handling is reasonably agile for a car of this size and gets a 5 out of 10. The fun factor is relatively low, this car is not about fun even though it has a v12 and gets a 4 out of 10. Cool factor is fine, most people wouldn't give this car a second look in a parking lot but I would would and I know other enthusiasts would too and it gets a 5 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 25 out of 50.

The following are the daily categories starting with features: The 750il was good for its time but weak for modern standards and gets a 4 out of 10. Comfort is good this car is supple, though not as pillow soft as the best luxury sedans of its era and gets a 7 out of 10. Quality is a mixed bag, interior materials They are top notch but the appearance of the cabin is clearly aged and the reliability is a bit unsure to say the least, it gets a 6 out of 10. The practicality is decent as it has a spacious cabin and a large trunk and it gets a 5 out of 10.

Finally appreciate that this is a magnificent sedan and it is as cheap as a nice sedan can be. You can get it for around $10k, but it comes with outdated technology and questionable reliability. This car is iconic, but as an everyday vehicle, you get what you pay for and it gets a 6 out of 10 for an overall daily score of 28 out of 50. Add it up and Doug's score is 53 out of 100 and that's how It compares to rival luxury cars of this era - the e38 750il is just one point behind the Phantom W12, which is a nice trick since the Phantom came out three years ago.

After the 7 Series disappeared and the 750 also has a respectable performance against other luxury cars of its time.