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

this is a 2001 BMW 750il back in 2001 this thing was the absolute king of the road with a v12 upfront tons of Technology and classic BMW styling it is also my favorite luxury sedan of all time and today I'm gonna show you why I've borrowed this 750il from a viewer here in the San Diego area and yes I know I've just made a bold claim my favorite luxury sedan of all time so let me give you a little background this seven series was known as the e 38 model to enthusiasts and by BMW internally and it was sold from 1995 to 2001 the best versions came at the very end of the line when BMW offered an M Sport model with these cool wheels and sporty er suspension that made this car a lot more athletic than rivals like the mercedes-benz s-class this particular a 38-7 series is a 750il which means it ditched the 282 horsepower v8 found in the base levels 740i for a 326 horsepower v12 back when this car was new the base sticker price was 93 thousand dollars which is around a hundred and thirty five thousand dollars in today's money and back then this thing was the absolute top dog of the BMW lineup back when the BMW lineup was at its peak the z8 the original x5 the e39 m5 the e46 3 Series times were good at BMW when this car was brand new more importantly this car was just awesome for one thing there's the styling I personally believe that 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 you could get the v12 in the United States but to me it doesn't really matter all that much the general look of this car was just perfect it was so simple and so elegant and so classy it was the pinnacle of BMW design and it was far better than the 7 Series that replaced it and the same was true with technology this car gave you everything you needed but it wasn't an excessive overkill of technology with an infotainment system that lets you browse a yelp while you drive down the street and so today I'm going to show you around the 2001 a 38 750il the top model from the last year of the best 7 Series and I'm gonna show you all of its interesting quirks and cool features then I'm gonna take it out on the road and drive it and then I'm going to give it a dug score and for more of my thoughts on the e30 8 click the link below to visit autotrader.com slash oversteer where I've written a column about this car and what piled a list of the best BMW models from this era currently listed for sale on auto trader now I'm gonna start the tour under the hood and as you can see yes this is a v12 if not the little v8 in a 740 i base model but the v12 the v12 was of course much rarer than the v8 not too 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 warning label telling you how to change the headlights or rather how not to change the headlights it shows a man with his hand on a headlight getting horribly shocked you just feel bad for him another interesting engine related item this top-of-the-line v12s 326 horsepower is almost exactly the same figure the current 7 series makes with its base-level turbocharged six-cylinder oh how times have changed next up we move around to the back where you can see one interesting item is the car has factory parking sensors you can see the little indentations in the bumpers to the radar that sent stuff and i'm senor backing up and beeps to let you know if you're about to hit something it's not a big deal today but back in 2001 I remember no cars had this this had to have been one of the very first cars and parking sensors it's impressive to see and it still works now next up I want to discuss this cars styling earlier I said I think it is the most beautiful four-door sedan ever made and I really stand by that I 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 the auto makers were just trying too hard with all sorts of gouges and cuts and lines to make their 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 thin headlights in front I always thought looked good the taillights in back the taillight assembly just that simple square was so good this car meant business and performance and athletic driving without having to tell everybody that it meant that next to move around to the rear of the car and the trunk which opens in a rather unusual manner for one thing there's a latch here that you can just put your fingers under and pop the trunk open instead the trunk only opens in one of two ways there's a little button in the drivers footwell you can use or you can stick it akia know when you stick the key in the operation is rather unusual you stick the key and you push and then a little motor lifts up the trunk take a look but it doesn't open the trunk instead you to do that yourself and it is quite heavy so it's just a motor that kind of unlatches it and then you do all the work but closing it is even more unusual you close it most of the way and then the motor does the rest take a look it's kind of odd to say that you can't slam the trunk down instead you kind of get it in the right place and the motor latches now once you get the trunk open there are a couple of interesting items back here one of which is there's a diagram showing how to fit for golf bags in the back of your 7 Series now back when this car came out and made me still today people always complain I won't get a sedan if I can't fit 4 sets like golf bags in the back and so BMW was sensitive to that and not only could this fit 4 sets but they actually printed a diagram and put it inside the trunk showing you how to do it not next up another interesting item on the sides of the trunk you have a couple of items hidden inside the trunk lining on that side you have the CD changer and the navigation system discs and over here on the passenger side you have the tire jack and the batteries now that isn't really all that unusual saying auxilary items like that inside the trunk lining the weird thing in this car though is the latches are held on with magnets virtually every other automaker uses just a cheap plastic latch back here because you don't really go into these compartments all that often but BMW chose a magnet which probably made things more expensive but also classed it up a bit when you were going to get your tire changing tools next if we move on to another interesting item in the trunk maybe the most interesting and the trunk 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 that you set up if you break down you open it up and you go in there and you look and there is no warning triangle well that's because the warning triangle is mandated in some countries in Europe but it is not mandated in the United States so BMW decided not to include the warning triangle on US model 7 series they figured 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 just didn't bother so even though there's a warning triangle symbol on the outside of this thing there's no warning triangle in there in any US cemeteries now one interesting thing instead of the warning triangle you do have a very nice diagram of an e46 3 Series Sedan so you go to get your triangle it isn't there but at least you can look at it 46 3 Series Sedan you do however have it toolkit with screwdrivers and wrenches and all that stuff and most of these things say BMW on them which is a very nice look next we move inside the e38 where there are quite a few interesting quirks and features in here the first one you notice the moment you start the car and that would be this odd 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 right now it's all the way in green that's because this car has recently been serviced as you drive more miles the green starts to go away you get into yellow and then when it's red you have to come in for your service the next interesting item is in the center console and that would be the ashtray now just getting to the ashtray is kind of interesting it's hidden under this wood panel you push it and then it sort of rises up to greet you but that isn't the most unusual thing you look in there you see this button what is that button for well you push that and it pops out the ashtray so you can go and dump your ashes once the ashtray gets full in this car you don't just lift out the ashtray like a plebeian instead you press a button and it is delivered to you next up this car has a power tilt sliding steering wheel which was a pretty cool feature back in 2001 this was ultimately a really high-end luxury car but it gets better this car also has a heated steering wheel which would have been a really good feature back in 2001 but it gets even better this car has massaging seats you push this little button in the center stack and the seats actually massage you the front ones now I have to admit I barely feel the massage it really isn't anything special but it's there it's happening this car must have been one of the very first to include massaging seats next up back to the center console we have to talk about the phone yes the phone this car came equipped with a car phone because that's what titans of industry who drove 750 ILS had back in 2001 you don't operate the phone you push this little eject button and then it is sort of delivered to you and then you can pull it out and use it and just look how old-school this phone is it blows me away if there was ever time when this was considered the most cutting-edge phone it's just hard to remember the perspective of that era this phone says BMW on it 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 guess that's the model of phone it certainly is a time port looking at this thing and remembering back to life in 2001 now the interesting thing about this phone is it's mounted on what appears to be the center console lid but that isn't actually the lid this car doesn't have a center console like in most cars where you can store stuff instead it's an armrest and you can move it forward or backward depending on what you find most comfortable there are two little storage pockets in here one on the driver side where you could store little items and there's one on a passenger side where you could store a little items but for some reason this car removed a large cargo carrying center console that most other vehicles have next up move on to the climate control vents which are rather interesting now you can move them from side to side with a little dial at the bottom just like most cars climate control vents but the weird thing is how you close them in a lot of cars you just slide a dial up and then they close behind the dashboard somewhere inside the dashboard in this car when you move the dial up too close the vents they close on the dashboard so when they're closed they kind of provide more of a flushed look uninterrupted by climate control vent lines just in case you don't want any air blowing on you and you don't even want to see the climate control events next up we must talk about the grab handles or the coat hangers on the ceiling right on the inside of the door these are very nice coat hanger grab handles not only are they trimmed in wood with little aluminum ends to the wood but also when you pull them open and then go too close then they close very softly they don't just snap closed they're engineered to provide a luxury experience even when you're hanging your code or grabbing them to get in the car now next up I want to talk about the solid feeling of everything in this cabin it's hard to put in a video but everything in this car just feels so solid and so firm when you push it you really feel like you're in the best-built automobile you could imagine the steering wheel for one always look to me like a true businessperson steering wheel you'd be gripping this thing lay you're driving a hundred and fifty miles an hour down the Autobahn to go fire you're vice president of communications because he's been caught stealing paper clips this was a serious serious steering wheel and it feels like it every button on it just feels so good but my favorite part is the turn signal stock back in these new late 90s early 2000s BMWs the signal stalk and the wiper stock just felt so solid and so thick and so sturdy it was so to touch next up on the door panel another interesting item is you can see there are two different door pockets one of them is just open and the other one is closed it has a little door to it so I guess one of them is for items you want people to see and one of them is frightens you don't want people to see I'm not really sure why they went with two different levels of privacy for the door pockets but they did next up we move on to the seats now the seats obviously go forward and backward just like in any car and they go up and down and the headrest goes up and down which is the mark of a true luxury car but there's also one more switch over on the seat controls that's unlabeled what does that do well it's actually kind of interesting it moves only the top part of the backrest forward or backward so there's a control to move the whole backrest and there's one just to move the top part to get the seat that much more perfectly comfortable as you might expect from a high-end luxury car now next up we move on to the infotainment system yes this car has a center screen and as you might imagine since this is a 2001 model is about the most outdated thing you can possibly think of but this is still the factory system and it is very cool to check out today it's amazingly there was ever time we thought this was cutting edge technology but I remember when this car came out new and it was cutting edge technology now the first thing you go to is the on-board computer and you can see it shows eight different items you have your limit your speed limit your fuel range your distance that you've traveled since the last reset fuel consumption and your average speed it also shows your outside temperature it works pretty well and it's kind of interesting to see all that displayed in the infotainment screen the next interesting item is DSP and that's the stereo settings you go in there and you can see there's a little equalizer and you can change how the sound is presented but the most interesting thing is if you press memo you can see that it gives you several different options for how the sound will sound including concert hall jazz club and cathedral so you're sitting in this car driving along you like you know this thing doesn't sound enough like a jazz club well you could change that it also impresses the fact that this car had a navigation system I can't imagine trying to use the navigation system in this screen but it had one it isn't working at the moment but it did work 17 years ago when this car was new and I'm sure it was difficult to use back then as well now the next interesting item in the info payment system if you click on set in the bottom left it brings up the settings and you can play around with a lot of different stuff you can change it from miles to kilometers you can change fuel economy from miles per gallon to kilometers per liter whatever you want to do the usual stuff the one interesting thing is it says language and you can see there are two options USA and E well it turns out USA is English so I may be thinking what is e why that's Spanish of course I guess e for espana and not e for English it makes no sense to me but they didn't really have a lot of characters they could use so you can choose between English USA or Spanish e another interesting item up here is the cup holders which were very clearly an afterthought they're incredibly flimsy pull them out and you can tell they're not designed to carry much and BMW has placed them in the worst possible spot directly in front of all of the climate control buttons and switches so if you actually have a cup in there you can't use any of that you can tell the Germans really just don't want people to be drinking anything in their vehicles but they put cup holders in and begrudgingly the other interesting item up front is the glovebox you pull it and it softly opens up on its own pull it again and then it moves towards you so you can access its contents amazingly the glovebox doesn't have traditional hinges but rather hydraulics which is just insane over engineering the other cool thing in the glovebox it contains a flashlight it's hidden on the left you pull it out and has the BMW logo on it and yes this one still works nearly 20 years after this was a new car next up we move on to the back of the 7 Series in the backseat there are quite a few interesting items one of which is the seat belts now the first thing you notice we get back here is the seat belts come out from the middle so when you sit in this sit you don't go over your shoulder on this side and get the seat belt from the pillar like in basically every other sedan and instead it comes out the middle and the owner of this car told me he thinks that's because the theory is if you get in a serious accident the firefighters have to cut the belt it's easier for them to cut the one point closest to the door rather than having to reach across your lap and cut you out which seems like it makes sense to me and that's interesting maybe more interesting is the fact that this car doesn't have traditional seat belt buckles like most other cars instead the buckles are actually fitted into the seat they don't just flop around like in some cars but they're actually like a component of the seat itself and so you put the seat belt in the buckle in the scene of never really seen that before the next interest hanim is the cupholder back here which is just about as flimsy as the cup holder in front it comes out from the base of the seat sort of like where your knees are and you can see when it's extended it's not something that you would really want to trust with anything that could spill and stain your back seats it doesn't really look all that sturdy but it's a cup holder nonetheless next up another interesting item in this car this is the long wheelbase version of a luxury sedan and so it has some nice rear seat passenger amenities including foot rests it has these carpeted foot rests that you can move around and adjust to fit perfectly where you want so that you resting your feet in exactly the right spot is you read The Wall Street Journal while you're being chauffeured down the street another interesting item back here this car has heated rear seats which was a pretty cool trick for 2001 the weird thing to me about thinking it seats though is you push a button to turn them on and then there's a little slider then you can adjust how much heat you're getting now strangely in front there was a button and it only had three settings medium low and high but in the back there's a slider and you could sort of slide it to any settings so the rear seat passengers have more heated seat choices than the front seat passengers which is kind of odd unfortunately there's no massaging seat back here but there are seat controls you can see they're mounted sort of on the bolster nearest to the door you can move the seat back forward and you can move the headrest up or down now speaking of the headrest one interesting item near the headrest is you can see there's a panel back here with two lights on it one of them is just an ambient light you can turn on by pushing the button in the back of the panel you also get a reading light that you can push the button in front of the panel and the reading light turns on in case you want to read The Wall Street Journal while you're being chauffeured with your feet on your footrest and it's dark outside next we move on to the door panel where there are a couple of interesting items in here one of which there's this little cubby that you push and then it pops out and you can store stuff in it apparently it's for eyeglasses that's where you put the glasses to read The Wall Street Journal and if you want to put your eyeglasses in there or your sunglasses you can put them in there and always have them in your comfortable little storage cubbies and finally we move on to the first aid kit which is an especially hilarious item in this car it's located above the center armrest and sort of this hidden leather storage compartment you wouldn't really know it's there but there's a little first-aid signee pull it and the first aid kit is in there you pull it out and you can see there are quite a few first-aid related items all of which I find kind of funny for example here is moist towelettes of course these are 17 year old moist towelettes but these things haven't been moist since like 2006 my personal favorite there is a little first-aid tutorial hidden in here it's a little book that tells you what to do various medical emergencies occur my favourite is if you turn two bites and stings it actually goes through what to do if you get for example an animal bite or a tick bite or my favorite an insect sting if present removed stinger by scraping lightly back and forth do not squeeze or use tweezers your BMW 750il will teach you how to deal with an insect sting and that is just the ultimate in luxury wouldn't you say and so those were the quirks and features of the 750il and now it's time to get it out on the road and drive it alright driving the e38 it's been years as I've driven one of these I'm thrilled to be back behind the wheel the first thing you notice instantly this is a far more athletic luxury sedan than you're used to if you drive any modern luxury sedans the steering is just a million times more connected modern luxury sedans just are not on this level in terms of athleticism and also even though this is a huge car it doesn't feel that big for a full-size luxury sedan it's a big car compared to a Miata but you drive a new 7 or a new s-class and this thing suddenly feels Spri and in fact it is Brian the suspension is just fantastic it really is tremendously better then the steering is just so much more connected than a modern ésta now I'm saying listen I'm still gonna giving it not that great at handling score because if the other day this isn't a sports car I just it surprises me that this was once the standard for luxury sedans and we've kind of lost that the new 7 is pretty athletic but the steering is a lot more vague and a lot more numb and you're higher you're more insulated you don't feel as connected to the car now it still feels it's still a little bit floaty I mean it's not an m5 Emily and I want to emphasize that it's not an m5 it's not like an M you know crazy sports car but it's fun now acceleration is surprisingly leisurely considering this is a v12 this car followed sort of the old-school theory of the v12 which was you didn't use it for low-end acceleration to make it crazy fast and go nuts instead it was designed to be a car you could cruise at 150 all day long and not have to worry about anything and when that said even if you were going like a hundred hundred ten and you drop your foot it would still kind of take off because it had torque even at those numbers this was never a car that was intended to be like a and performance car and so the v12 you step on it coming out of a curb and it moves it's quick it doesn't feel slow but it doesn't feel as fast as you would think given that you're you've got this big v12 now this particular Isle this one is really smooth the owner has gone through and done a ton of mechanical work to make this car as nice as possible and it sinks this thing is just super super smooth and you floor it and it feels like exactly how it would be and I really feel like I'm transported back 17 years to how this car was back when it was a new car it feels very stable you're surprisingly removed from sound I'm surprised at how quiet it is in here considering it is kind of an athletic car the ride quality is not as good as modern luxury sedans but it does have a stability to it even as you go over bumps the car never feels unsettled one cool thing about this car is you know you look on the outside and you're reminded of the old era of BMW styling where it was just the best but even on the inside you kind of have that feeling if you don't look at that infotainment screen and if you just kind of use the steering wheel touch the turn signal stock the headlight switch you feel like this was the top era of BMW you don't have to be on the outside of the car looking at it to have that feeling and so that's the 2001 BMW 7 series the best luxury sedan of all time yes I know these are aging and I know you can pick up a used one for like eight grand and I know they had some reliability issues and yes I'm aware that new luxury sedans are technically better in the sense that they have more power and more tech and better equipment and whatever but to me the e38 7-series was just the perfect combination of attractive styling and good performance and good comfort and good technology and good driving experience all rolled into one it was just perfect and now it's time to give it a dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the 750il is absolutely beautiful the best-looking sedan ever I can't give it the same score as the Ferrari f40 or the 250 GT Lusso but I'm gonna get close it's a 9 out of 10 acceleration to 0 to 60 and 6.7 seconds and it gets a 2 out of 10 handling it's reasonably spry for a car this size and it gets a 5 out of 10 fun factor is relatively low this car isn't about fun even though it's got a v12 and it gets a 4 out of 10 cool factor is only okay most people wouldn't give this car a second glance in a parking lot but I would and I know other enthusiasts would too and it gets a 5 out of 10 for a total weekend score with 25 out of 50 next up are the daily categories starting with features the 750il was good for its day but weak by modern standards and it gets a 4 out of 10 Comfort is good this car is supple they're not quite as pillowy soft as the top luxury sedans of its day and it gets a 7 out of 10 quality is a mixed bag the interior materials are top-notch but the cabins appearance is clearly aging and reliability is a bit uncertain to say the least it gets a 6 out of 10 practicality is decent as it has a roomy cabin and a big trunk and it gets a 5 out of 10 finally value this is a gorgeous city and it's cheap as a nice one can be had for around 10 grand but that comes with outdated technology and questionable reliability this car is an icon but as a vehicle to use everyday you get what you pay for and it gets a 6 out of 10 for a total daily score of 28 out of 50 add it up and the Dougs score is 53 out of 100 and here's how it compares to luxury car rivals from this era the e38 750il is only one point behind the Phaeton w12 which is a neat trick since the Phaeton came out three years after the 7 Series went away and the 750 has a respectable showing against other luxury cars from its era to you [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 4,098,683

Rating: 4.7952561 out of 5

Keywords: e38 7 series, bmw e38, e38 750il, doug demuro, bmw 7 series review, 2001 750il, 2001 750i, 2001 7 series review, 740i m sport review, e38 7 series review, bmw e38 7 series review, bmw 750il review, 2001 bmw 750il review, demuro

Id: litO7FrTwDI

Length: 24min 56sec (1496 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 09 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/ruoyuxiong]

The president of Virginia Motorsports here at university of virginia has a 99' silver 740i with 200k miles he picked up on craiglist.

I asked him how was it.

"It is fucking leaking everywhere."

[u/nukelauncher95]

RIP Tupac

[u/gluten_heimer]

I guarantee "E" is for "Español."

Also, that color is awesome.

[u/[deleted]]

You'd be gripping this thing while you're driving 150 MPH down the Autobahn to go FIRE your Vice President of Communications because he's been CAUGHT stealing PAPER CLIPS!

Doug got me laughing out loud with this one.

[u/[deleted]]

>This car gave you everything you needed, but it wasn't an excessive overkill with technology

>OOH look! Massaging seats!

That said I'd love to have a little brookstone massage seat in my car. Do other luxury brands still offer massaging seats?

[u/UnbridledHedonism]

Man... I know this is the Dougscore and not myscore (and I certainly have soft spots for some older cars too), but it is hard to swallow that this brown square has a 9 in styling and a C7 Z06 has a 6.

[u/[deleted]]

Plot twist: Doug dented the rear of this car testing how fast he can make the backup beeping go.

[u/tru3gam3r]

yeah so how unreliable are these cuz I fuckin want one

[u/ATLBMW]

My favorite Bond Car from my favorite Bond movie.

I know that was the EU only short wheelbase, but still a wonderful piece of machinery.