Test drive BMW 7 E65 E66 2001 - 2005 sedan

Mars attacks

BMW of the 7th series, according to its creators, is a true revolution. Some argue that only wheels remained from the previous car in it. The joke, of course, but how much is the truth in it?

And we do not dream of the rumble of the cosmodrome
Horror phosphorescent eyes, long, like an octopus, three-fingered tentacles, radio communications antenna on an absolutely bald, covered with smooth dark blue skin, laryngeal, muttering speech and, of course, sparkling on the belt, shooting monstrous power with light rays. You should be familiar with this collective image of an alien civilization. Well, you should have read a couple of fantastic books in childhood?! The template, of course, is a portrait, but very colorful at the same time.
 
When the front headlights of the seven flash Xenon's intricate beam, this sedan is actually a little like a stranger from the constellation, for example, swan. No, seriously, many structural elements of the most modern BMW seem to have just come down from the pages of science and fiction literature. Moreover, they seem to bewitch insignificant little things and pleasant trinkets.
 
 
The backlighting of the door handles is equally beautiful and effective
 
The sting of this cunning key is hidden inside the keyhouse case and is used exclusively to lock the glove box
      
   
Automatic closing button - for lovers of external effects
 
The future today is the engine start button
  
 
Turn on energy!
Light press on the button of the remote control equipment - the locks were barely audible, and the outer door handles of the doors were lit up. Wow! We would have seen how many people are going to the people when the driver of the seven closes the trunk of the car. The secret is that this happens automatically - press the button, and the huge mouth slowly, really slammed slamms.
 
Further more - it is only worth the rear passenger to take his place, the so -called employment sensor will helpfully raise the headrest. And how cool there is parking lots here! The electronic parking assistant not only squeaks, but also shows how much the nearest lamppost is left on a large color display.
 
But the most powerful impression is launching the engine. We insert a cunning semicircle, half -knockers into a special nest so that the computer can recognize the code, and now click the start button. Turn on energy! - And the powerful engine wakes up in the bowels of an endless hood. In short, star wars - no more than nor less.

What planet are you, Mr.?
Against the backdrop of all these Martian miracles, the appearance of the seventh series sedan, criticized to the fluff, and, and we note, repeatedly, no longer seems shocking. Not at all. After all, the branded nostrils, albeit strongly bloated, and doubled headlights, albeit covered with bizarre geometry with dialists, do not give the right to make a mistake - we definitely have BMW. And that the trunk lid hangs over the rear optics and a bumper, like a deeply worn cap of a policeman, is nothing. At least not like others.
 
And in general, if soberly look at the seven strictly in profile, then all the conversations about the design revolution seem far -fetched. Before us is the usual classic silhouette of a large BMW. Nothing stunning. So leave unnecessary disputes, I have already proved everything. It remains to notice that dark tones go to the Bavarian flagship (or space cruiser?) Much more than light shades. Solidity, massiveness, imposence is very to his face. In a word, much more ambiguous than the exterior itself, the revolutionary system of ergonomics, better known as Idrive), appeared to us.
 
 
Bloc of the left steering wheel switches. At the top of the turn signals and the trip computer buttons, below-control of the cruise control
 
To the right of the steering wheel - levers of the gearbox and wipers
      
 
The communication center of the seven: on the left is the set of the set, on the right - a cell for a SIM card
 
This dashboard will not be accused of resemblance to less expensive BMW models
 
 
The center of the world
The first impression is that the mountain gave birth to a mouse. And that's what is the matter. The advertised ay-drama, according to the creation of the creators, allows the driver, not being distracted from the management, to do almost everything that the darling pleases. Manage music, turn on the stove, change the parameters of the car, for example, the rigidity of shock absorbers, monitor its technical condition, after how much you need to change, say, pads, and even delve on the Internet. Only 270 functions! Less, of course, than stars in the sky, but still impressive. However, the position of the heart, we admit - the vast majority of these functions are hardly useful to the driver even during the parking. You will not send a letter by e -mail, standing at a traffic light? Worse, to master the management of a -drive is by no means easy.
 
This is only in the theory of the round-trialist on the front armrest that allows easily, at ease, and most importantly, as the creators themselves are expressed, intuitively, roaming the endless labyrinths of the computer menu. In fact, even the FORS BEK function, which provides feedback, imitating the intermediate and final positions of the joystick, does not allow to find (at least quickly) a common language with a revolutionary system. All day I went to deal with the management of the musical center, by the way, very decent in sound. To save the selected station of the FM band in my memory - a task for half a second - took me about fifteen minutes, no less. If you think that I am such an impassable dumbass, try yourself!
 
 
Boxing sash in the front armrest open like a spacecraft cargo gateway
    
 
Thank God, at least the volume can be adjusted without problems - the buttons are prudently displayed on the steering wheel. The same story with climate control. They can be controlled through ai-drama, or you can handles on the central console. Guess at a time, what did I prefer?
 
But I want to dig deeper - after all, they promised us 270 functions! - And you will have to slow down at the side of the road. And finally, another pebble in the Ai -Draiv garden is the central display, which, according to the creators, allows you to read the information without taking your eyes off the road, that is, with lateral vision, is also not too convenient - graphic characters are small.
 
But - Stop! Any medal has two sides. If it were not for the notorious ay-drama, the number of buttons, keys and levers in the seven salon would probably exceed the number of horsepower under the hood. It is just right to arrange special courses for buyers of seven under the slogan with ai-drive for you!. By the way, BMW is already preparing something similar Russian representative office. But maybe it was not worth the garden? As far as we know, the new five, which debuts in 2002, will be equipped with a ay-drive system exclusively at the request of the client. And this is probably right.
 
       
Communication with Ai-Drive begins with this rose of winds and a round control joystick (in the photo on the left). From the main menu you can get anywhere - to the section of self -diagnostics, climate control, music center and so on. The testimony of parkingate is also displayed on the same monitor
   
 
Cauline of the luxury class
Here you have an example of the fact that not everything drawn from science fiction is definitely for the good. But if the expediency of a kay -deriva can still raise questions, then, say, an automatic box selector, taken to the steering wheel switch, is only a delight. Finally, a clumsy poker between the front seats goes to the landing dump. Buttons for choosing low and increased drive on the steering wheel. The operating modes of the 6-speed stepmoen is headed by the right upper steering wheel switch. He pumped the lever a little on himself and down - there is a drive mode, on himself and up - reverse. The parking position is activated by pressing the button in the end of this, though small, but inspiring a sense of solidity and reliability of the joystick. However, using the parking mode when stopping is not at all necessary. It is enough to turn on the automatic parking brake.
 
The convenient, I tell you, a thing. We stopped at a traffic light, and then the working brake got down to business, pressed the gas - the electronic watchman unclenches the grip. Activation of auto -brakes can be programmed for a special free button on the steering wheel. Class!
 
True, the steering wheel itself, unlike its multifunctional capabilities, was not very pleased. It seemed that the rim was covered with the skin of the skin - inaccurate seams and swollen somehow did not fit with real German quality. But this is perhaps the only hole in the salon of the 7th series, and even then is clearly higher than the waterline. Otherwise, there is nothing to complain about.
 
I have not seen such comfortable seats in any car. The range and number of adjustments so as not to load you beyond measure, I will only say that the rear sofa passenger can regulate the front seat in the longitudinal plane. What! Heat, electric drives, automatic curtains, cup holders, ashtrays - all this good in BMW would be enough for the heels of ordinary cars. But our car is not ordinary, consider a spaceship, so you quickly get used to your beloved increased attention to yourself.
 
And when obsessive comfort is boring, I want to have fun. In short, let's go to ride.
    
What is how much?
The representatives of the representative class F - the goods are expensive. And customs duties make them very expensive. Therefore, you should not be surprised that the minimum price of the new seven is $ 89,000. For this amount you receive the 735i model in very good configuration. It makes no sense to list everything that is included in it - you will get more than one page. We only note that the fundamental difference with the more expensive model 745i, the engine power of which is 333 hp, and the price is $ 104,500, lies in ventilated seats and an even more cool musical system. The price of the most expensive seven with an elongated base and a 6-liter 12-cylinder engine that has not yet appeared in Russia is unlikely to be below $ 120,000.
 
 
Leg by the leg? Be kind! But the back tunnel will interfere with the three
 
In addition to a spacious box, the armrest is also in the armrest buttons and heating the seats
 
 
Miracles continue
In fantastic novels, spaceships fly with the help of hyperwater spatial converters or, at worst, on marching engines. Well, we will open the hood is a strange thing, the engine here works on Otto’s cycle, in other words, internal combustion, but the tongue does not turn to call it ordinary.
 
How can you? Indeed, in the new V-shaped Bavarian eights, all the best best practices of the BMW of recent years were embodied. The most famous of them is a double Vanos that regulates the position of camshafts. The newest is the first serial system of continuous change in the length of the intake tract, which increases powerful return. Well, the most curious is a Walvtronika, in which the throttle in the head of the block is replaced by a cunning -drive inlet valves. Now, by pressing the gas pedal, the driver does not activate the damper, but the electric motor, which lifts the valve through the lever and the rocker - the higher it, the more air mixture enters the combustion chambers. At the output, we have an increase in power, savings in fuel consumption, an almost instant response to the gas pedal and, importantly, the engine ignorance to gasoline of different quality. Well, again, say, not fantasy?
 
In fact, the 3.6-liter eight of the last generation consumes fuel by 14% less predecessor-the approximate savings are a liter-half per 100 km of run. Moreover, the novelty is also 14% more powerful. And 7.5 seconds of the run from a place up to a hundred for a heavy - almost two tons of dry mass - and even a very good result equipped with a machine gun.
 
But this is a theory, but what about practice? Under the wide wheels, let it be wet, but the asphalt without ice and snow is excellent. Gas on the floor and nothing happened. There is no dispute, the seven went very briskly and, of course, noticeably faster than the rest of the participants in the movement. But when under the hood you have no less than 272 horsepower, you expect a spectacle to be abruptly. Do not be surprised at some inhibited dynamics of the largest BMW. Just at that moment, all possible electronic watchmen watched the movement of the car on a slippery road. It is as if this is not an ordinary trip even, but a docking of spaceships.
 
 
The rear headrest provides a wonderful sliding pad for those who want to relax
 
Four lower buttons are an electric drive, but not glasses, but two side and one rear curtains
 

Autopilot is turned on!
The system of dynamics of stabilization control, already familiar in the previous seven, through targeted braking of individual wheels increases stability on slippery roads. DSC, in turn, commands the ASC subsystem, forcibly limiting the supply of fuel and brakes the sliding wheel. But that's not all. With the help of an ay-drive, you can throw another electronic fighter hiding behind the abbreviation DTS and allowing a limited slip of the drive wheels in the fight against bad weather.
 
In fact, everything looks incomprehensible and wonderful. So, it would seem, in a slippery turn, the backbone began to take aside and suddenly once - barely audible crackling from somewhere out of the outside, and the car returns to the previous trajectory. Just wonderful behavior, which, of course, is some loss of dynamic qualities.
 
Seven BMW -Luda!
The E65 body is already the fourth generation of the Bavarian flagship. The first seven saw the light in 1977. The second debuted in 1986, the third in the 94th. Moreover, in the last one and a half decades, each of them could boast of unprecedented devices. So, in 1986, the seven hundred BMW surprised the world with wipers with alternating, depending on the speed of movement by the operating mode, a year later - an anti -circus system, and two more with an automatic darkening mirror.
In the 93rd, xenon headlights appeared, in the 95th the adaptive system for controlling the gearbox, and finally, four years ago, the generator with liquid cooling debuted. And the five-liter 300-horsepower engine of the second-generation seven (in the picture), in 1987 it became the first post-war V12 engine produced in Germany.
 
Firestarter?
The list of new products that first appeared on the new seven occupies four pages in a BMW press release - these are about 80 items. It is impossible to talk about everyone purely physically. And you don’t know what to choose: a qualitatively new approach to sound insulation or glass with polycarbonate, withstanding a hammer with a hammer, not to mention the cobblestone that has flown out from under the wheels of the truck, the smoothness of the move, which improved compared to the predecessor, or a programmable cruise control, instrumental The panel on the LEDs, when heating the car shows above what mark the motor should not be twisted, or the subwoofer using the internal cavities of the thresholds as resonators? And much more, much more, which was not not only in Bavarian cars, but also on cars in general.
 
Yes, the seven is really unique and sometimes it seems - I personally cannot get rid of this feeling - not from this world. But is her success awaiting? There is no doubt, a large tribe, known around the world as Erley Adopters, that is, a progressively thinking layer of buyers, who takes all the fruits of scientific and technological progress, will become customers of this machine. But will BMW be able to recapture for the most part a conservative client of a Mercedes Benz? But the Bavarians risk precisely for this purpose, for less, I think they do not agree.
 
BMV 735i
common data
 
 
Body
5-seater sedan
 
Equipped mass, kg
1935
 
Complete mass, kg
2440
 
Length x width x height, mm
5029 x 1902 x 1492
 
Base, mm
2990
 
Front/back, mm track
1586/1590
 
Maximum speed, km/h
250*
 
Acceleration 0-100 km/h, with
7.5
 
Fuel consumption, l/100 km
8.2/15.0
 
Fuel supply, l
88 (AI-91-98)
 
 
Engine
 
 
Location
The front is longing
 
Design
 

8-cylinder, V-shaped,
with two camshafts in each cylinder head,
with distributed fuel injection
 
The number of valves per cylinder
four
 
Cylinder diameter X piston stroke, mm
84.0 x 81.2
 
Working volume, SMZ
3600
 
Compression ratio
10.5: 1
 
Power, L.S. (kW) at rpm
272 (200)/6200
 
Torque, kgsm (nm) at rpm
36.7 (360)/3700
 
 
Chassis
 
 
Transmission
rear -wheel drive
 
Transmission
Automatic, 6-speed
 
Transporting numbers
 
I - 4,17; II - 2.34; III - 1.52;
IV - 1.14; V - 0.87; VI - 0.69;
z.Kh. - 3.40.
 
main gear
3.64
 
Suspension:
Independent, reptile stabilizers
 
front
At the racks of McExeson,
 
behind
spring, multi -link
 
Steering
REMENCH with an amplifier
 
Brakes
  
 
front
Disk ventilated
 
behind
discs, abs
 
The size of the tires
245/50 R18
 
 
* Limited.
 
 
Mikhail Medvedev, photo Maxim Goncharov
 
 

Source: Magazine "Limousine" [01-02/02]