Like any BMW the ride, handling, luxury, engineering and just about everything is superior to many, many other brands. However, I must warn everyone thinking about buying one that some engines in these cars (4.0 L V8) had a bad cylinder lining and may have corroded with the sulfur-rich gasoline in areas of the United States. Some, but not all engines were affected. Also, if one were to get lucky one might find a 740i/740iL with an engine that has been replaced by BMW because they did do a recall on these engines.

The handling is nothing like what one should expect out of a full-size sedan. There is some roll but considerably less to any other full-size sedan I have ever driven. I have the L model for ‘long’ and so there are 5 more inches in length on my car than even the regular ‘i’ which may give a slightly sportier ride.

The braking is superb on this car, there is some fade in the brakes but not much. Sometimes the brakes are, perhaps, too readily available and sometimes hard to create a super smooth ride…maybe too sporty? Ah, never.

The power that this car has is amazing. The V8 puts out something like 282 HP and these horses make this car prance and scream very nicely. No one expects the big luxury sedan to be able to take on some of the sports cars out there but I can personally vouch that I have opened up some eyes around town. There is also a nice ‘kickdown’ feature…meaning there is a button that the accelerator will hit after you floor it and push a little more. Making the car go into sport mode, there is no holding the car back now…just make sure that your neck is nice and secure.

Gas mileage is not bad, at our average being 16.4 miles to the gallon is not unreasonable for how the car is usually driven…not too hard but not very soft either.

The exterior has a nice styling to it and the front wheel wells have a very nice flare to them. The interior is nice and comfy. The leather is sumptuous, yet it is very supportive. There is excellent lateral support and the seats keep your body right where it needs to be, no back strain. There are two stage heated front seats and there is adjustable lumbar for the driver. Dual climate control and a beautiful stereo make it easy to just want to be in the car. There is a lot of wood on the inside of the car. Everything is power…everything to the headrest height adjustment.

The steering communicates its feeling fairly well…seeing as the car is a seven series it disconnects the driver from the road a little more that say a 5 or 3 would. The headlight system is also something I like on the car…it is very sharp and puts light only where it needs to be.

To my knowledge all 7 series models here in America this chassis and newer all have automatic transmissions. The previous chassis could come in manuals. The auto tranny in my 7 is veyr manual-like. This car (whether it has a comuter for shifting or not I do not know) is very intuitive and seams to read the driver's thoughts a lot of the time. Going into corners and such the car does not always upshift when the throttle is let go, so there is no pause waiting for the tranny to downshift for power when accelerating out of the turn. The tranny can be very sporty, maybe too sporty for some tastes. The shifts are usullt very smooth, however, sometimes they are rough. When in sport mode the transmission handles the power very very well, the shifting is about as smooth as normal driving. It is a 5-speed automatic transmission.

The room in this car is incredible. From the outside one cannot imagine that there is this much room in the car. The front seats have plenty of room. I am 6'2" and fit comfortable, somtimes when i wake up and havent done my hair and its standing straight up it will touch the roof of the car, otherwise there is enough headroom. The back seats can fit three adults comfortably...no kidding...two fit back there with ease. There is a pop-out arm rest/storage compartment that can divide the two in the back and make for a very comfortable ride. There is a lot of legroom in the back even when the front seats are scooted all the way back. There is almost as much legroom in the back of the 740iL as in my Navigator's middle row seats. I do have the Long model 7 series, this gives 5 inches more in length to the car...and it is all in the back seats. I have never personlly sat in the back on a 740i (no L) but i imagine there is plenty of room but not nearly as much as in the 'L'. The trunk is large. I would not say it is very large, but it is large. I do not play golf but i would venture to say that three to four golf bags could fit in the trunk...so long as they are not the super huge golf bags i have seen before.

The features of the car are usually pretty easy to understand. Remember that i am younger and love gadgets and buttons. If the reader of this is anything like my parents (who hate buttons and memorizing how climate control works etc etc) then this car might be a little feature-rich for you. However, that is not to say you can't use the car, you just wouldnt be using all the car has to offer and there is nothing wrong with that. The owner's manual did a good job of explaining things. and it is easy to get by on just using the simpler faetures of the car. All the controls are easy to reach while driving and every button is placed in a logical place, i think that it was easy to memorize all the funtions and placements. My car has a sunshade package. the back window has an electrically powered sunshade, so at the touch of a button a shade comes rolling up and covers the rear window. there are also manual shades for all the other rear side wondows. (great for babies).

The instrument cluster is plain, yet attractive. It is extremely easy to see and read, day or night. it lights up red. there is a tachomoter, speedometer, gas gauge, temperature gague, intantaneous miles per gallon gague, and a head up display at the bottom of the dash. This HUD shows any warnings or stats...i.e. "Lights on?" "Check Coolant" "Disc 2 Track 3" if you press in on the turn signal arm the HUD will display stats from the trip computer which is rather far away on the driver's right i.e. "2:44 PM" "AVG 16.4 MPG".

And any BMW owner needs to know about www.BavAuto.com, www.bmwworld.com, and www.roadfly.org these are all very helpful places.

That’s all I have for now…let me know if there should be more to this…happy motoring to all the bimmer owners out there!


Amount Paid (US$): 12000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1994
Model and Options: iL (injection;Long) sunshade package;cd changer