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Monday, June 22, 2009

Last night, I decided to ask my baobei out to go pat thor cos we haven been going out at night for a freaking long time le. When she got out of her house, she asked me if we should drive her dad's BMW 7 Series instead of our boring Clio and Altis. Well, I was undecided at first but still, we ended up "stealing" the big monster out for a spin. So now, I shall write a mini review of BMW 730Li.

BMW 730 Li

First impression:
ITS FREAKING HUGE. Not only is it LONG, its FREAKING FREAKING WIDE too. As I was used to driving the smaller Altis, now I had to give more clearance to the left side of the car and drive closer the right marking line. Ever closed your car door halfway and you had to open and close it again? Never again with this intelligent car as it will auto tighten the door if it senses that the door is not closed properly. Although it wasn't my first time sitting the driver seat, it never fails to give me the impression that I am in the cockpit of an aeroplane with all the controls and Heads Up Unit(HUD). I didn't explore every single function in the car(which would probably take years) as I was too excited to test drive this 3 litre monster on the main road.

On the roads:
The steering wheel is quite light I would say. I didn't have to use much strength to get the wheel into full lock when doing an U-turn. But I found it too big for my liking probably because I was used to the smaller wheel on the Altis. The acceleration is just mind blowing. I didn't even have to step hard on the accelerator and the speed is already 70-80km/hr on the small road. Cruising down on the expressway is a breeze as it felt like 70km/hr when I actually doing a 100km/hr. I guess thats the problem with bigger cars as it's heavy and very stable even at high speed and it just tempts the driver to just drive faster to push its limits further. Once I rev the RPM till 5K when lights turn green and I felt like my heart got left behind at the back seat while body is still at the driver seat and all the cars behind me are just smelling my exhaust. HAHA.

Overtaking cars on the roads has never been easier. With just a slight push on the accelerator, this limo just surges forward immediately and overtakes the car in front effortlessly. I hardly had the chance to even rev the tachometer to 3K RPM as there is ample of torque from 2K RPM onwards.

The rear and side mirrors on the 7 series are also quite special though. During the day, they are used as per normal but when night falls, they are able to display the images in pure black and white and in superb quality. No more getting blinded by HID lights as the mirrors are able to filter away the beams and show only the lighted bulbs from cars behind. Its kinda hard to explain in words though. I guess its some sort of a safety feature where by you can see very clearly the cars behind at night without straining the eyes. Probably they added some coat of special film on the mirrors.

Conclusion:
With sophisticated technology implemented in a car, it felt more like a robot bringing you around rather than a car. But with such a high price tag, it would probably be out of reach for most of us. But then again, I would say its worth every single cent you paid for. If I could afford a 7 series, I wouldn't hesitate to get 1 myself.

karl mooed at : 9:29 PM