anyone here driven both cars? what are the biggest differences and what do you prefer

 

Had both S and 7 at same time. Great cars - Can't go wrong. The members of this board are very helpful. Lurked for quite some time, before I thought I should give something back.

For me, biggest difference was handling. I preferred the 7's handling. Here are a couple of helpful links, if you're interested:

Link to 7 info

Logic 7 Info

Info on test drive advice

Direct link to more 7 Info

I won't address matters of styling/aesthetics ... too subjective. Similarly, reliability is situationally dependent, as is perception of cost, value, and service.

Just thought I'd pass along some info that may help out. Enjoy!

 

I've driven both. I own 2001 S600. If you get S500 with ABC system it will outhandle 745 by a mile....BMW doesn't have this type of suspension technology. 745 is flat out ugly and they screwed up with iDrive.....buyers in this segment don't want to be a computer power user....so, residual on 745 is going to stink.....745 just came out and they are stacking up in dealers lots.

Biggest irk for me with 745 was that screen that covers iDrive info can't be seen when you are wearing poloarized sunglasses (all top quality suglasses are polarized)....what a product development flub.

 

i currently have an S class but i was thinking about getting a 745 too.. it is pretty damn ugly but if it rides real nice and has a comfortable interior thats what i care about more cause ill be driving this car to work and stuff

 

What are you talking about? BMW has Dynamic Drive, which reduces roll even more than ABC. And unlike ABC which hardens the shock absorbers, Dynamic Drive hardens the anti-roll bars, thus, no comfort loss will be noticed.

Plus, yes the iDrive screen can be seen, I've used Guess sunglasses for quite some time, and I can see the iDrive screen when I rode on a New-7. And no, the New-7 isn't stacking up in dealer lots.

 

I don't know about Brunei,but here in Illinois 745's are stacking up
and dealers are discounting them pretty heavily,especially considering the fact they are still so new.

 

Wow!
Calm down .. we are all here to learn about cars. Personal attacks to not accomplish anything.

 

wat the **** was that supposed to mean?

 

for real....what was all that about.....that stuff isnt needed...

 

just an answer to dnA3D earlier post in stream written to me....sorry...after 100+ posts....first ime I went off

 

whoa!
Dude... that was just as bad.. or even worse than what he said ..

 

This is where I take offense, dnA3D was acting like a jerk but he was absolutley right when he called you ignorant, first of all I bet youve never even met a muslim in person, second of all take the amount of muslim terrorists and subtract it from the 1.2 billion muslims on earth asswipe and then try to call muslims terrorists

 

Caliz_Finest, are you arabic?

im half arab as my father is from lebanon.

this guy pisses me off

 

Well, okay, I guess I was acting like a jerk. Sorry for that, but I do take passion in cars, especially Ferrari and BMW. So anyone that insults any of those two brands, I do take personally; don't know what's wrong with me. Mercedes, well, they're alright, I used to like them, until the build quality of their cars started flying down the hill. Looks like they're on a long road to comeback, so I'm starting to gain back my interest in MB cars. I love the new SL BTW.

And on a different note, I may live in Brunei, but do you know what Brunei Darussalam (the full name of the country) means? It means Abode of Peace. It may be a muslim dominated country, but I'm Catholic. Of my 15 years living in Brunei (my entire life) I've never known a single Muslim here that actually supports terrorism or the demise of the WTC. In fact, if you find out more information about Islam, it is actually very similar to Christianity, when viewed from a certain perspective.

Only a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny population of muslims are extremists, most of them in the Middle East, Indonesia, Malaysia and Southern Phillipines. Believe me, Brunei has no intention of supporting terrorism, and with the billions of dollars this tiny country has, it will do everything to combat terrorism, not support it.

Sorry I was acting like a Jerk. I do take my passion in Cars personally.

 

yeah im arabic fawwaz, dna3d no ones pissed at you after what that ******* said

 

im a muslim...and im no terrorist, neither are my parents, grandparents, or anyone i kno, or who has any remote connection to me


and dna3d is right in the fact that a tiny tiny tiny amount of muslims are extremists, and that is the same for any group, there are extremist Christians, Jews, etc.

 

Can't we all just get along.


I wanted to post about the actual topic for the thread (and I think that from here on out that's all that should be posted) to say that the July issue of Roundel which is the BMW enthusiast magazine had a compro between the S500 and 745i. Even this completely biased source seemed to prefer the S500...

 

Don't forget though, they're comparing a car that costs over $10K more than the 745i, not the Li. This are my opinions:

Mercedes: Luxurious, Smooth Ride, Cheap Materials (Gonna be fixed soon), Options that can make the car go over the $100K mark, easy.

BMW: Just as Luxurious, Sharp Handling, Ultra-Smooth Powerful Engine, Cheaper but Higher Build Quality, Smart, but complex iDrive. Complex, not difficult to use. I mean, what was once a One-Step pushbutton process, becomes a Four-Step task.

 

I think that, for the most part, both vehicles are indicative of their respective manufacturers' value sets. Mercedes has always built top quality luxury cars while BMW has made their name as a performance/driver oriented marque. In the end, it all boild down to personal preference. Personally, in this price range, I would take the Merc.

 

Oh really........





From Auospies........

BMW to offer aggressive lease rates on the new 7-series
Sales stall marks trouble in 7 heaven

If you’re buying the line that 7’s are hard to come by an orders are outstripping the supply, don’t believe it.

The spies went out on a mission with our handy “Auto Spies BS decoder” and uncovered the fact that not only are sales of the new seven slow, but massive inventories are building up at BMW dealers.



And the 2003 7’s are just around the corner…

So BMW just announced to their dealers, an aggressive lease program on 2002 7’s.

Here’s how the deal shakes out…

2002 740i (MSRP of around $70K)
$799 for 36 months with around $4K of drive offs…
This number is based on a selling price of the car at $2500 over invoice (trust us, you can get this car for between invoice and $500 over if you make some calls and do your homework). That would mean you could get the $799 car for even less…

Our advice is to find a dealer who has a lot of them in stock and grind them..(We found over 30 7’s on the ground at Irvine BMW)



To put this in perspective, we chatted with owners who leased the SAME car before this program started, who are paying $1250 per month for the same lease!

How do you think these owners are going to feel when they find out that if they had just listened to the Spies, they could have been saving over $450 per month!

That’s $16K over the full term of the lease!

OUCH!

Auto Spies perspective: By the way, with all the negative stuff we've been saying about the 7, we still think it is a great driving car (when it works) and at these lease prices, it's now a good value for the money. We can recommend the car and would not hesitate leasing a new 7, with the new low rates, as long as you do not want to terminate your lease early and can live with the looks of the car.

 

what was the name of the guy who designed the 7.....Bangle or Bungle! Bungle seems more appropriate!

 

I don't think the styling of the 745 is as bad as the BMW camp thinks but this picture in Sept. 16th Autoweek is pretty funny.

Norm

 

Eh, say what you will, I think the 7-series is really starting to grow on me, at least its styling. The i-Drive system, though, dunno if it'll ever grow on me!

 

the styling is pretty damn terrible, i guess i could get used to it except for the back of the car, thats just hideous

 

Worst thread ever