Bavarian behemoth joins big boys
A brief drive shows BMW’s largest vehicle has the road manners of a smaller sedan, rather than SUV
Despite having three rows of seats, despite being wider and longer than a BMW X5, and despite a cargo area big enough to swallow a La-Z-Boy recliner, BMW’s 2019 X7 drives small.
Yes, that sounds strange. It feels even more strange behind the wheel. But it also feels so sumptuously good.
Well ahead of its official start of production in the first quarter of 2019, the coming BMW X7 full-sized SUV will go head to head with the Mercedes GLS, Audi Q7 and Land Rover’s Range Rover. But that boxing match is for another day. Today, on a glorious sunny spring morning in South Carolina’s Greenville area, the fulsome SUV is carving up twisty roads like a sharp knife through tender brisket. BMW’s biggest vehicle yet, the seven-passenger X7, is cruising over rough roads as though it is floating on air.
Mostly because it is. An air suspension system like that used in the 7 Series sedan is cushioning 22-inch wheels at all four corners. Paired with levels of silence that would seem remarkable in a fully finished vehicle, let alone these heavily taped and camouflaged pre-production X7s, noise is quantifiably eradicated.
Of course, there is a good snarl from the V-8 gasoline engine, as well as the straight six; these are BMWs, after all. But the comfort, glide and effortlessness that comes from sliding the X7 down the road could very well be a high-water mark for the entire segment.
Such gentleness does not come at the expense of handling, even with the weight of a standard panoramic glass roof raising the centre of gravity. Lean is entirely modest. Roll is managed electromechanically by the air suspension, cancelling out sway and eliminating vibrations. Pitch and dive are totally controlled. Something this big should not feel so composed in the bends at high speed.
Total range of travel for the air suspension is 80 millimetres, or 40 down for loading and 40 up for off-roading. In Sport mode, the SUV hunkers down 20 mm as though equipped with a sport suspension. An Off Road package will be available as an option that brings skid plates, a terrain-management system and a slightly different look. An integrated trailer hitch is optional, as are laser headlights.
Steering in Sport mode is very good, with a high degree of accuracy. In Comfort mode, tracking is less precise, needing corrections to the trajectory, although BMW engineers say final optimization is still in play. Feedback varies between the modes, the best found in Sport.
Definitely noticeable is the optional rear-wheel steering. The “Integral Active Steering” taken from the 7 Series turns the rear wheels about three degrees in the opposite direction to the front wheels at low speeds, and in the same direction as the fronts at higher speeds. The result is levels of steering accuracy on par with a Porsche Cayenne. It would seem silly to option an X7 without it. In Canada, all X7s are expected to come with xDrive that can vary power from 100 per cent to the rear to 100 per cent to the front.
Similar to the engines used in the 5 and 7 Series, options in the X7 will be either a V-8, straight six or diesel next year. The V-8, a twin turbo 4.4-litre, produces about 450 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque. The 3.0-L straight six will produce about 320 hp and 330 lb-ft. The diesel, arriving sometime in 2019, after regulatory and market issues are ironed out, will be the much loved 3.0-L turbocharged six used in the X5 35d, producing 255 hp and 413 lb-ft of torque.
Inside, the X7 takes cues from the 7 Series sedan, looking and feeling very much like a luxury benchmark. An optional crystal shift knob might be a bit blingy, but it is gorgeous next to an attractive cut-glass iDrive controller. A 12.3-inch infotainment system powered by iDrive 7.0 displays some of the best and clearest graphics ever seen in a car. A new 12-inch gauge cluster is now totally digital, and the colours, clarity and size are so good and so attractive there will be no nostalgic pining for old analog gauges. Cup holders are heated and cooled. Soft ambient lighting gives the impression of riding along in the USS Enterprise. Rich leather seats and trim, along with an alcantara headliner, heighten the feeling of opulence.
All X7s come with three rows of seats, but the middle row can be optioned with buckets, reducing seating to six. Middle-row seat room is plentiful, and rear seat room is almost as good as a Chevrolet Tahoe. Pricing has not been set but it would not be a surprise to see MSRPs close to the 7 Series sedan.
More details on engines, features and interiors will come later in the year.