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2003 BMW 7 Series Luxury Sport Sedan
…Continued
BMW moves decisively into the luxury market with a car of the future
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Their standard navigation system is not only easy to use with the iDRIVE, but is perhaps as good to use as any in my experience and the screen layout is excellent. Even better, the major directions also appear in the center of the tachometer, keeping the driver's eyes from having to wander. And those gauges have been redesigned with soft red/orange illumination highlights rather than the long-established but garish red-only display.
The iDRIVE is just the start of BMW's different way of looking at traditional controls. You're confronted with novel methods of starting the engine and selecting gears. First, there is no key that must be twisted in an ignition. Rather, the fob is inserted in a slot on the dash, then with your foot on the brake, the 'Start/Stop' button is depressed to start the engine. The gearshift lever, (one of four levers on the steering column) is moved back and up to engage reverse - drive is forward and down. Park is engaged by pushing inward on the end of the shift lever. To select the parking brake, just push a button on the dash to engage, and push again to release it. You get the feel that BMW challenged all systems engineers to take a fresh look a how their controls should be operated, not just how they had been done in the past, then gave them the freedom to execute their ideas. The 7 cockpit may take a little getting used to, but they are all logical and easy to operate.
The 7 series has a very useful voice command. A button on the steering hub is pressed to engage Voice Activation. It will dial your phone, tune your radio or skip that particularly bad track on a CD. The voice recognition was put to the test with two people speaking in unison (almost). Quite impressively, it picked out the radio frequency requested without hesitation. In the future a satellite radio and internet connection will be natural evolutions.
The entire interior is clean and uncluttered; not only stylish but comfortable. The seats have up to 20 way adjustable controls, once again in an uncommon place on the side of the console, and they operate a bit differently, but are easy to get used to. A welcome option is the adjustable rear seat, and even in the present short wheel base version, there is plenty of leg room for tall folks. A curious thing that defeated BMW tech was an automated headrest height system that kept trying to match the groceries that were not well secured in the back seat.
Electronics play an important part. BMW promises headlights that follow the road - ALC (adaptive light control); will keep the car in its lane with HC (heading control); and keep its distance from the vehicle ahead with ACC (active cruise control). Also new is the integrated chassis management (ICM) that contains a further refined stability program, active roll compensation and a force control system that enhances the comfort as well as the driving security. The electro-hydraulic brake system operates through a computer (brake by wire). This will enable constant pedal forces, shorter stopping distances as well as an automatic parking brake with rollback prevention on hills and at traffic lights.
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