The Continent Crusher - (BMW 740e content inside)
Discussion
After a delightful period of perusing the usual sites with second hand cars for sale (autoscout24 and mobile.de , we are on the continent), and getting valued input from the PH collective here, the decision was made to try a couple of examples of the BMW 740e (G11 for the BMW cognoscenti).
As mentioned in that thread, we needed a car to serve 2 rather different purposes:
- Be my wife's daily driver (7 mile trip one-way) so hopefully somewhat practical
- Be the 6x/y long distance cruiser for our family (incl 15yo) to the inlaws, 850 miles away
Firstly, because her ageing Skoda Octavia is getting a bit long in the tooth, secondly because the trip to the inlaws takes 17hrs in my EQE during the colder periods of the year, which is just too long to cover in 1 day (so we'd started splitting the trip over 2 days).
What started out as a quest for the most comfortable small car, rather quickly moved towards a search for well equiped BMW 3-series tourings, or Merc C-class estates, ideally with some form of adaptive/air suspension and driving assistant magic - we'd experienced the major affect those systems have on the fatigue during such trips when we'd driven back from Italy in an Audi A6 after my Jag F-pace had decided to lunch its engine.
The thing is, this combination isn't easily found and even when available, I was somewhat disappointed by the remaining level of noise (e.g. in a C300de I tested) or comfort.
As things go with man maths, I started 'going up in the car hierarchy', and noticed that prices for BMW 3, 5 and 7 series of similar ages were not really thát far apart... One can see where this is heading...
(important to add that for tax reasons, larger engines were not really in scope)
Test drives showed that (a) it is a lot more brisk than the 2 liter turbocharged engine in such a hefty car would suggest - of course helped by the electric motor and (b) the experience is wildly different between one that's been properly maintained and one that has been used as a lot of these barges tend to be after their first ownership: champagne car run on lemonade money.
So we ended up with a 1-owner BMW 740e, 45k miles, without the M-sport package and 21-sized rims. Instead, it might be the most sober spec on the outside, with 18inch wheels on 50 profile tyres (the comfort!) and in Sophisto Grau.
Inside, it has quite some creature comforts and frankly, it feels somewhat like a flying carpet.
Picking it up this week!
As mentioned in that thread, we needed a car to serve 2 rather different purposes:
- Be my wife's daily driver (7 mile trip one-way) so hopefully somewhat practical
- Be the 6x/y long distance cruiser for our family (incl 15yo) to the inlaws, 850 miles away
Firstly, because her ageing Skoda Octavia is getting a bit long in the tooth, secondly because the trip to the inlaws takes 17hrs in my EQE during the colder periods of the year, which is just too long to cover in 1 day (so we'd started splitting the trip over 2 days).
What started out as a quest for the most comfortable small car, rather quickly moved towards a search for well equiped BMW 3-series tourings, or Merc C-class estates, ideally with some form of adaptive/air suspension and driving assistant magic - we'd experienced the major affect those systems have on the fatigue during such trips when we'd driven back from Italy in an Audi A6 after my Jag F-pace had decided to lunch its engine.
The thing is, this combination isn't easily found and even when available, I was somewhat disappointed by the remaining level of noise (e.g. in a C300de I tested) or comfort.
As things go with man maths, I started 'going up in the car hierarchy', and noticed that prices for BMW 3, 5 and 7 series of similar ages were not really thát far apart... One can see where this is heading...
(important to add that for tax reasons, larger engines were not really in scope)
Test drives showed that (a) it is a lot more brisk than the 2 liter turbocharged engine in such a hefty car would suggest - of course helped by the electric motor and (b) the experience is wildly different between one that's been properly maintained and one that has been used as a lot of these barges tend to be after their first ownership: champagne car run on lemonade money.
So we ended up with a 1-owner BMW 740e, 45k miles, without the M-sport package and 21-sized rims. Instead, it might be the most sober spec on the outside, with 18inch wheels on 50 profile tyres (the comfort!) and in Sophisto Grau.
Inside, it has quite some creature comforts and frankly, it feels somewhat like a flying carpet.
Picking it up this week!
Edited by Church of Noise on Sunday 20th October 19:35
Lovely!
A 7 series on 18" wheels is superb; as you said, they simply float along...
I'm sure you'll be enjoying it in no time
My previous F01 on its winter 18s was a superb drive:
I moved to 19" 351Ms for summer tyres and they were excellent also; all non RFT tyres... I binned the 20s the car came on as soon as I could; even with new non RFT tyres it didn't drive well at all and tramlined, a lot!
A 7 series on 18" wheels is superb; as you said, they simply float along...
I'm sure you'll be enjoying it in no time
My previous F01 on its winter 18s was a superb drive:
I moved to 19" 351Ms for summer tyres and they were excellent also; all non RFT tyres... I binned the 20s the car came on as soon as I could; even with new non RFT tyres it didn't drive well at all and tramlined, a lot!
Edited by danb79 on Monday 21st October 11:52
Thanks for the kind words!
Picked it up on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed the 2hr drive back home with the new owner of the car (my wife) following me in the EQE.
Here it is in all its splendour
Absolutely love the way it floats across the distances thanks to the air suspension, how the Driving Assistant Plus tries to take a lot of the dreary, boring motorway work out of your hands and how relaxing the entire experience is. The Harman Kardon system isn't half bad either!
Sadly, the gods of bork have visited us already - when trying to charge the battery last night, the lighting surrounding the charging outlet on the car blinked red. The internet suggests it might be the charging system that has gone haywire - it's a thing apparently. In any case, it's going back to the selling car dealer tomorrow for a check. Let's wait and see...
Picked it up on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed the 2hr drive back home with the new owner of the car (my wife) following me in the EQE.
Here it is in all its splendour
Absolutely love the way it floats across the distances thanks to the air suspension, how the Driving Assistant Plus tries to take a lot of the dreary, boring motorway work out of your hands and how relaxing the entire experience is. The Harman Kardon system isn't half bad either!
Sadly, the gods of bork have visited us already - when trying to charge the battery last night, the lighting surrounding the charging outlet on the car blinked red. The internet suggests it might be the charging system that has gone haywire - it's a thing apparently. In any case, it's going back to the selling car dealer tomorrow for a check. Let's wait and see...
She's back (she as in, my wife decided to call the car Helga, for those familiar with Allo Allo).
Seems the charging issue was with the locking pin for the charging cable, and was sorted by the selling dealer.
That was 120 miles from home, and before hitting traffic jams around Brussels, it indicated 50mpg, with the end result being at 40mpg. Not too shabby for a luxury barge with the torque of a larger engine when required.
Trying to! For local things, it seems very feasible.
We live at 1 mile from the centre of our town, my wife works at 7 miles and I think I got about 10 miles out of the battery today.
Additionally, the combination of the electric and petrol motors seems to make for a torquey combination when needed and a rather frugal one when not.
Will report back further on this.
We live at 1 mile from the centre of our town, my wife works at 7 miles and I think I got about 10 miles out of the battery today.
Additionally, the combination of the electric and petrol motors seems to make for a torquey combination when needed and a rather frugal one when not.
Will report back further on this.
A small update after having lived with the car for a bit:
- I'm still in awe of the level of comfort of the car, and as a result try to snatch the keys from SWMBO whenever I can (but she's on to me). It's not only the air suspension, but also the Harman Kardon sound system and the general finish. Also, I really enjoy having physical buttons for A/C, music etc etc (my daily's a Mercedes EQE with pretty much everything on either touch screen or capacitive buttons. (in fact, on a whole, I've always found the EQE to be very comfy but the BMW trumps it on pretty much everything)
- It was (and currently is) on 18 inch wheels with 50 profile winter tyres - Michelin Alpins to be specific (that obviously contribute to the waftiness). This of course brought the opportunity to buy a second set of rims that will be used for the summer tyres.
Having had a look around, I settled on Style 620 wheels as (a) they are an original fit to the car, (b) I like the way they look and (c) at 19 inch they hopefully won't impact the waftiness - to be defined. Found a rather cheap set at 110 miles away, which came on practically new Goodyear *winter* RFT tyres.
So, we now have 2 sets of wheels with winter tyres. I'll have the sets swapped next week to see to which extent I like the RFT tyres on the 19 inch wheels. In any case, I'm thinking about keeping the both sets of winter tyres, deciding which tyres I like best and have the other set swapped to a new set of summer tyres.
- On longish runs (such as the one to collect the wheels) it easily does 45 MPG. On short runs, it very much doesn't. Overall, we're still on an average of 45 MPG as we try and run it as much as possible on electricity for short runs. Short distance runs on purely petrol are more in the region of 29 MPG.
- When picking up said set of wheels, I discovered the rear seats don't fold - DOH!
- I'm still in awe of the level of comfort of the car, and as a result try to snatch the keys from SWMBO whenever I can (but she's on to me). It's not only the air suspension, but also the Harman Kardon sound system and the general finish. Also, I really enjoy having physical buttons for A/C, music etc etc (my daily's a Mercedes EQE with pretty much everything on either touch screen or capacitive buttons. (in fact, on a whole, I've always found the EQE to be very comfy but the BMW trumps it on pretty much everything)
- It was (and currently is) on 18 inch wheels with 50 profile winter tyres - Michelin Alpins to be specific (that obviously contribute to the waftiness). This of course brought the opportunity to buy a second set of rims that will be used for the summer tyres.
Having had a look around, I settled on Style 620 wheels as (a) they are an original fit to the car, (b) I like the way they look and (c) at 19 inch they hopefully won't impact the waftiness - to be defined. Found a rather cheap set at 110 miles away, which came on practically new Goodyear *winter* RFT tyres.
So, we now have 2 sets of wheels with winter tyres. I'll have the sets swapped next week to see to which extent I like the RFT tyres on the 19 inch wheels. In any case, I'm thinking about keeping the both sets of winter tyres, deciding which tyres I like best and have the other set swapped to a new set of summer tyres.
- On longish runs (such as the one to collect the wheels) it easily does 45 MPG. On short runs, it very much doesn't. Overall, we're still on an average of 45 MPG as we try and run it as much as possible on electricity for short runs. Short distance runs on purely petrol are more in the region of 29 MPG.
- When picking up said set of wheels, I discovered the rear seats don't fold - DOH!
We've just completed the long distance in the car (850 miles in 13 hours including stops), and I'm happy to report that I've never felt less tired than this time!
We've been doing this trip for almost 5 years now and have used a few different cars (including a Jaguar F-Pace, Mercedes EQE) and the sheer comfort in terms of ride (air suspension + 18 inch wheels) and seat quality and noise insulation is just on a different level.
Given that a very large part of the trip was on the German autobahn, fuel economy suffered, with the overall trip ending up at 34 MPG, quite a bit worse than the 44 recorded during a somewhat calmer long distance trip, but still way better than the (diesel!) F-Pace's 25 on the same trip.
(evidently the impact of the battery on a long trip is as good as non-existent, as we'd left with 12+ miles of range but of course never recharged along the way)
Very impressed by the ease with which the car pushes on when asked to do so, reaching 110mph went effortlessly. It feels a lot nippier than a 2 liter 4 cylinder turbo has a right to in such a heavy car really!
Additionally, the car feels very solid at high speeds - although I must say that the EQE feels a tad more solid still then. I did keep the air suspension in 'comfort plus' setting which probably contributes to that.
Very very happy with the car and the choice we made!
We've been doing this trip for almost 5 years now and have used a few different cars (including a Jaguar F-Pace, Mercedes EQE) and the sheer comfort in terms of ride (air suspension + 18 inch wheels) and seat quality and noise insulation is just on a different level.
Given that a very large part of the trip was on the German autobahn, fuel economy suffered, with the overall trip ending up at 34 MPG, quite a bit worse than the 44 recorded during a somewhat calmer long distance trip, but still way better than the (diesel!) F-Pace's 25 on the same trip.
(evidently the impact of the battery on a long trip is as good as non-existent, as we'd left with 12+ miles of range but of course never recharged along the way)
Very impressed by the ease with which the car pushes on when asked to do so, reaching 110mph went effortlessly. It feels a lot nippier than a 2 liter 4 cylinder turbo has a right to in such a heavy car really!
Additionally, the car feels very solid at high speeds - although I must say that the EQE feels a tad more solid still then. I did keep the air suspension in 'comfort plus' setting which probably contributes to that.
Very very happy with the car and the choice we made!
Edited by Church of Noise on Monday 23 December 11:00
Thanks Wills2!
Completely agree on what you say: they really are totally different from a 5-series.
That was one of the main reasons of getting it: we wanted a car which was design from the get go to be a very comfortable cruiser, so the noise insulation and ride comfort were there from the start.
Completely agree on what you say: they really are totally different from a 5-series.
That was one of the main reasons of getting it: we wanted a car which was design from the get go to be a very comfortable cruiser, so the noise insulation and ride comfort were there from the start.
The 18″wheels make the car look very subtle, in fact for a modern BMW it looks very restrained.
850 miles in 13 hours, including stops, is going some by most peoples standards. 34 MPG, in what is a large car, very acceptable.
You should be happy with the car, it looks like an excellent choice.
850 miles in 13 hours, including stops, is going some by most peoples standards. 34 MPG, in what is a large car, very acceptable.
You should be happy with the car, it looks like an excellent choice.
Thanks Gregg!
And agreed on the looks, I specifically wanted a non-M model with smaller wheels for (a) looks and (b) comfort.
For reference, during Covid times and with a high level of motivation (my partner still lived there and I hadn't seen her in weeks) I once managed in 10 hours flat with the F-Pace, but that required empty Autobahns and a lot of flat out driving on the derestricted bits..
And agreed on the looks, I specifically wanted a non-M model with smaller wheels for (a) looks and (b) comfort.
For reference, during Covid times and with a high level of motivation (my partner still lived there and I hadn't seen her in weeks) I once managed in 10 hours flat with the F-Pace, but that required empty Autobahns and a lot of flat out driving on the derestricted bits..
On the return trip from the in-laws, we managed to get through the 850 miles in 11 hours (quite the average speed, come to think of it) with only a minor impact on consumption, ending up at 33mpg. And at the same time, it really picked up well when a derestricted zone occurred, moving very easily from 80 to 120mph. This car keeps amazing me, it is super comfortable, swift yet also efficient.
Germany was horrid as usual, but the gain in time was mainly due to somewhat lighter traffic (last week was the weekend before Christmas, might have had something with that).
Another update is that I ordered the factory bits needed to install the factory option ski hatch. Having discovered that the rear seats don't fold, this will come in handy when we head for the mountains next time.
Lately, I've been pondering about upgrading to a g11 745e. They have the larger and somewhat more ungainly grille, but also that turbocharged 3 liter 6 cylinder engine (with 389hp vs 322 and 600Nm vs 500). In terms of power and torque, and noise, this would definitely be a step up. However, with a battery that's only offering 2 miles extra (only relevant for the limited daily mileage) and an identical fuel tank of 46l, I am afraid it would impact our trip (we managed to get there and back with 2 stops along the way, starting with a full tank) and as such the car's main purpose in our family (75% of the yearly mileage will be taking this trip back and forth a couple of times). Additionally, my inner geek enjoys the efficiency of having the 2 liter engine in such a big barge, with the results above demonstrating how well it was executed by BMW.
Any insights?
Germany was horrid as usual, but the gain in time was mainly due to somewhat lighter traffic (last week was the weekend before Christmas, might have had something with that).
Another update is that I ordered the factory bits needed to install the factory option ski hatch. Having discovered that the rear seats don't fold, this will come in handy when we head for the mountains next time.
Lately, I've been pondering about upgrading to a g11 745e. They have the larger and somewhat more ungainly grille, but also that turbocharged 3 liter 6 cylinder engine (with 389hp vs 322 and 600Nm vs 500). In terms of power and torque, and noise, this would definitely be a step up. However, with a battery that's only offering 2 miles extra (only relevant for the limited daily mileage) and an identical fuel tank of 46l, I am afraid it would impact our trip (we managed to get there and back with 2 stops along the way, starting with a full tank) and as such the car's main purpose in our family (75% of the yearly mileage will be taking this trip back and forth a couple of times). Additionally, my inner geek enjoys the efficiency of having the 2 liter engine in such a big barge, with the results above demonstrating how well it was executed by BMW.
Any insights?
I would imagine the 45e would offer more zip I have driven a 45e and 50e X5 when my G11 with the big grilles was in for work and that is a really good combo but it's a thirsty engine in a big car once the battery is no longer available, so I'd say range would be reduced compared to the 40e.
The rangemeisters are the diesel MHT engines, you'd get an easy 900 miles on a run from the 40d or 30d.
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