German Car Zone

Originally Posted by Merc1

The forward-thinking flagship is now less controversial and—surprise—more user-friendly.


While the new fifth-generation 7-series continues to be BMW’s technological pacesetter—it gets even more high-tech features such as variable suspension damping, rear-wheel steering, night vision with pedestrian detection, and side-view cameras—the real buzz at its introduction was BMW’s backpedaling away from some of the previous big car’s, uh, “breakthroughs.”

Last time around, for the 2002 model, BMW thoroughly shuffled the ergonomics of the 7-series, switching the shifter from the center console to a newfangled lever on the steering column, as well as moving the seat controls to the center console and programming them as some sort of demented test of logic. Both items have now been returned to their previous locations.

Furthermore, the most controversial piece of technology, iDrive, with its multifunction central control knob that has been copied to varying degrees by Mercedes, Audi, and Honda, has been completely overhauled. In fact, continuing to call it iDrive is almost an insult to its vastly improved control strategy. There’s no more convoluted nudging of the knob in one of eight directions to choose a submenu; now you scroll straightforwardly through a list and click to select. Shortcut buttons surrounding the knob ease the acclimation process, and the climate controls have been removed from iDrive altogether.


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