[GTO]

I love this car so much, its getting to unreal levels now. The more I see of her, the more I am infatuated. BMW disappointed with the weird look of the previous gen 7, but boy have they made up with the clean '09 look! If only I was in my late-forties and had 1 cr to spend on a car (either of which are far far away ).....but hey, look at the bright side. I see "worshipped" 7 series hitting the used market for 30 - 40 lakhs sooner rather than later.

Does anyone else also think that the rear door looks unproportionately long in the Li variant? Pretty evident in the last pic of the opening post.

[d3mon]

Well from the front it still looks like it's a little surprised, open mouthed. It doesn't have the stately looks that are expected from a car of this class IMO. Nor is it sporty.

But the profile and the rear end are very well done though ! Me likes !!

[accord masters]

@ d3mon - "nor is it sporty " i think reconsidering this line would be better because as far as i know and hav experienced it it is sportier than the a4 and the s500 ....the handling and the acceleration totaly blow you of.

[V-16]

Sporty to some, not so to the others, its a personal choice really and one's personal opinion cannot be thrust on another's.

As for me i love the car, much more than the S class. For me the car would be a 730LD

[hanmust]

One of the most liked feature in the new 7, the L-shape LED tail lights.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by GTO

IIf only I was in my late-forties and had 1 cr to spend on a car (either of which are far far away ).....but hey, look at the bright side.

Hey, you can always get one for your dad and then have a ball with it. That's what I planned to do with the C..that never happened.

[f450]

Originally Posted by hanmust

One of the most liked feature in the new 7, the L-shape LED tail lights.

I love these pictures!!!!

And the tail-lights...

[Maverick5490]

Amazing pics hani! the lights look great with the surroundings blacked out!

[Dippy]

Lovely night shots. Hani. I visited the Infinity showroom at Worli the other day. Loved the new 7. It does have some presence. And yes the new showroom has been very well made. Lots of stuff on dsiplay including the M V8 engine, BMW F1 merchandise, all of the art cars in 1:18 and the regular 1:18 road cars.

On display they had the X6, 6 coupe, 520i, 320d and the new 750li.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by Dippy

On display they had the X6, 6 coupe, 520i, 320d and the new 750li.

You mean 520d, right?

Where exactly is the showroom? On the main road that leads to haji ali or behind near jewel of india/maruti showroom?

Did they have an accessories on sale or a small workshop for such fitments?

[Dippy]

Originally Posted by Sahil

You mean 520d, right?

Where exactly is the showroom? On the main road that leads to haji ali or behind near jewel of india/maruti showroom?

Did they have an accessories on sale or a small workshop for such fitments?

Sahil.,

It is next to the Maruti Vitesse showroom, opposite the Jewel of India, not on the main road. Take a left after Atria to Planetarium and then the right.

It was a white 520i as far as I remember.

[d3mon]

Originally Posted by accord masters

@ d3mon - "nor is it sporty " i think reconsidering this line would be better because as far as i know and hav experienced it it is sportier than the a4 and the s500 ....the handling and the acceleration totaly blow you of.

Hey hey I meant the looks aren't sporty.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by Dippy

Sahil.,

It is next to the Maruti Vitesse showroom, opposite the Jewel of India, not on the main road. Take a left after Atria to Planetarium and then the right.

It was a white 520i as far as I remember.

There is no 520i as far as I know,in India atleast. Even the website doesn't list it BMW India : 5 Series Sedan : All the facts : Technical data
If BMW has indeed launched a 520i, it's rather shameful as it defeats the claim of the ultimate driving machine. The 523i was just about acceptable, but i'm glad it's gone too.

[kbk_75]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Did they have an accessories on sale or a small workshop for such fitments?

They have the ultimate accessory on display there...an E92 M3 V8 engine!

[BMvW.Rajat]

It had been 2 years since I bought my*VW Jetta I loved everything about the car, it was fun to drive, packed with features, very safe on the highways and practical. But, there was one thing missing and that was the DSG autobox. You see, when it bought this car I thought that the manual was perfect and I would never need the automatic but the traffic situation in Bangalore kept getting worse and I started using my dad's car more than the Jetta, obviously because it had an autobox.*

This is when I decided to sell my Jetta and buy something by adding as little money as possible*(I was upset because I knew I would lose a lot on this sale). So I put up ads on most portals and to my surprise, there were so many people who were interested (I was surprised because I knew that Jetta wasn't doing that well in terms of sales and I would get a lot of people asking really low prices for the car, plus the Octavia was a newer offer in the market and Jetta wouldn't be the first choice). Anyway, I was getting offers at my expected price and before I knew it, the car was sold. I had it for 2 years and had driven just 19000 kms.

At this time Skoda had the facelift for the Superb which was launched a year ago and they were giving good discounts. So that is what I was really looking at. I wasn't looking*at the Hyundai Elantra even though my wife really liked the way it looked*(I personally dislike everything about Hyundai cars, except the amount of tech they give you) but I did take a TD and I wasn't impressed. After the Jetta, it seemed like it was a downgrade and from a segment below.

At this time, my brother had just bought himself a 3 series and when I drove that car, everything changed and I decided that I wanted to own one of the Germans.*

I looked at the A4, I loved the way it looked but too many things about it reminded me of my Jetta and I couldn't get myself to pay so much of a premium to buy something so similar and the A6 had just got a facelift (Matrix), they weren't offering much discounts which left it out of my budget.

The C class had just gotten a make over, but after driving the 320d, the C220d just didn't feel that good. There was too much clatter from that engine, it didn't feel as refined as the A4 and wasn't as fun to drive as the 3. So I just left it, honestly I*don't like any Mercedes that sits below the E. The sales rep forced me to test drive the CLA which both my wife and I loved the looks of but when you drive the car, it doesn't feel special at all, even my Jetta was a better car to drive and what was really grinding my gears was that you don't even get a proper climate control even after spending so much. I have so much against the CLA, i guess I'll save that for a different thread.*

I just stopped looking for a couple of weeks as I got busy with work and was driving my wife's car (VW Polo) which we had just got before I sold the Jetta.
This is when my uncle calls me and says that one of our very close family friend is looking to sell his car and I would be really interested (by now everyone knew I was looking to buy a car). I was surprised because a used car was not something I had in mind, but I decided to check it out anyway.*

The*following*day,*I landed up at my dad's friend's place (he was a friend of my uncle and dad) and I saw a 7 series parked in his driveway. I didn't expect him to be selling that as it looked brand new. So I went in and met him and he said that he is moving to Australia and he wants to sell his car and that he hasn't approached anyone yet as my uncle told him that I would be interested in buying his car. Before I could even understand or ask him the price he was expecting, he gave me the keys and asked me to check it out. When I first got in, I looked at the odometer which read 9000 kms and before I looked at anything else, I decided that I want it. He then assured me that the car has never met with any accident and the are no issues with the car. Then I asked him the all important question, THE PRICE. To which he in a classic uncle (who is my Dad's friend) fashion responded "Take the car beta, price is not an important factor", I then asked him for the RC so I could figure out a fair price. It was a 2011 manufactured but registered in 2012. So, I was looking at a 4.5 year old car (From the manufacturing date) with 9000 kms on the odo. I asked him for a days time before I could make the decision so that I could study what the right price would be. I contacted many used car dealers and got a tentative price. I offered my Dad's friend 5 lakhs lesser than the lowest quote i got from the dealers. Surprisingly, he accepted. I say surprisingly because the price i quoted was a little higher than what a 530 was selling at the time. I went to a stationery store and picked up a form set copy and went straight to his place. He had everything ready, right from the 2nd key to the manual book pouch and even the invoices of the services done. There was no loan on the car, so the whole cancellation of hypothecation circus was not required.

When I took the delivery of the 730Ld, It was practically brand new as he had barely used the car. His office was less than 100 meters from his house and he lived bang in the center of town (he didn't have to drive much to get somewhere). The car even had the new car smell and it cost me less than a new 3 series.*When i took the car, it was showing a message of service due but that was as per time and not kms. Even still, the first thing I did was send it to Navnit for an oil change and brake fluid top up. They also changed the windshield wiper blades and the rear fog light as a failure message was being displayed in the instrument cluster and the iDrive.


Things I like about the car:
1. The seats are the most comfortable ones you'll sit on. You can adjust them in almost every way possible, even after a 7-8 hour drive you still feel good.*
2. The space. You feel like you're sitting in a first class seat on an Emirates aircraft.
3. The drive. Even though it's really huge, it doesn't feel that way while driving, it wraps itself really well around you and is a total beast on the highway.
4. Black interiors. I'm not a big fan of beige.
5. iDrive. It is miles ahead of it's competition.
6. The sound system.*
7. Soft close doors.
8. The keyless entry and exit doesn't have that ugly black button.
9. Drive modes. You can actually feel the difference in different modes because of the adaptive dampers.
10. Every seat (including the rear seats) have memory function.
11. In-built hard disk for music.
12. Insulation. You are masked from most sounds of the outside world.

Things I don't like about the car:
1. The size. Parking is really a pain as this car takes up more space than even a Q7.
2. Corona Rings. I prefer the Angel Eyes (White LED)
3. It is strictly a 4 seater.
4. The Steering wheel. I prefer smaller steering wheels, this one is very big.
5. RFTs.
6. No HUD. It came in the 2012 model onwards.

Coming to the ownership, I have driven the car for around 21000 kms in 4 years and have had no major expenses till date and it has been cheaper to run than my dad's E Class (although that has done about 30000 kms more than my car). Insurance is expensive as the IDV is really high and i recently replaced the tires which was the highest I have spent on the car barring the insurance. It had the BSI package so I didn't have to spend anything for the first two years and thank god for that because the rear steering ECU failed for some reason and it was changed without me having to spend on anything except for a wheel balancing (which cost me 10k plus taxes). The part and labour bill had come upto 4,67,000. Now that the BSI package has ended and with 33000 kms on the odo, I am contemplating changing my car (note that I did not say upgrade as there is no real "Upgrade" from this), but there is still some time for that, maybe a couple of months.