Anyone else try out the i7?

Tesla has a lot of positives, but I don’t think they aimed to compete with the opulent S-Class, it reminds me of a Panamera or A7 in certain respects.

i7 is a legitimate luxury contender. G90 EV is another to watch.

Not ready to go electric—don’t know if I’ll ever be ready—but to me, the ONLY possibility is the I7. MB should have electrified the W223, not gone the EQS way. The EQS, to me, is a complete compromise, in most every way.

Yes, the i7 is incredible. Perhaps the most incredible riding car I have ever driven.

Maybe this is where we can find some common ground. I suspect like some of you MB owners there is a love for ICE. When I bought my 2019 Audi A8L I had no idea that it would be the last A8 but now that I know, I'm keeping it until I'm dead. About a year or so ago I bought a RR Ghost and I'm also (probably) keeping that until I'm dead.

The W223 is probably the last ICE MB flagship hurrah. I invite others to do the same. Let's hold onto these beautiful cars for as long as we can.

PS the new 7 series is a nice car, but the exterior, well, erm....I'm going to quit while I'm ahead.

Personally after having driven that i7, I am no longer concerned about not having an ICE at all. If I could find reliable charging on my trips I take myself a few times a year in my sedan, I would put an i7 in my garage immediately. Its just...better.

BUT, I drive my sedan on 3-4 trips to southern WV a year, and I enjoy driving it on those trips...don't want to drive the family car alone, don't want to rent a car...and there just aren't very good charging options along that route (I have done research), there are 4 chargers (meaning 4 stalls at one location) in Staunton in a Walmart Parking lot, and thats it. If I rolled in there and they were broken or if there was a line, that would be a nightmare. So...until thats more of an option its ICE for me again this time,,,but I'm looking forward to that EV.

Like I said it is a "CLS" EV, not a S-class. However, have driven the 2019 CLS450 back in the day.. EQS is more comfortable in every way and better equipped too.

CA is the only state that owing an EQS or other EV's make total sense. Especially with gas price being upwards of $5.

Never drove the S580 but have driven the 23 S500 also my previous car was a 19 S450.
I don't know if I got lucky but I have a lot of issues with my current 23 EQS but never had any issue regarding rattles or squeaks German build helps?. The EQS is very quiet more than the W222 and about the same as 223 or even quieter.
Tire noise can't be heard at all. I turned the artificial noise off too and the car is just driving in silence unless I put the car in reverse which makes "beep beep" noise.

I test drove a Tesla Model S today and yeah, bring on the EVs lol. The Model S is a very fun car but wouldn’t work for me, it just doesn’t go down the road like an S Class, but it is a rocket.

I'd expect majority of S-class owners (or those who have been riding S-class for years) to say the same. Will like the car a lot, but the comfort (boat driving style) is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. I had to leave the boss-ride style aside when I switched from S-class to Model S. They are very different vehicles. Glad you test drove the car and had a feeling of it. I agree, too, bring the EVs, lol. Can't wait for a fully electrified W223 (EQS is not for me). I don't think I'll switch to ICE, but u never know. Note: riding the Model S on 19' with 36-37 tire pressure would A LOT... but still won't be even close to an S-class, probably closer to E-class suspension-comfort with 19" and lower tire pressure, but a bit sportier. It certainly rides better on the track, but in town-comfort or rough highway isn't even close to W222 ride quality.

I am not calling you a liar but you are probably not telling the truth.
I am late to the discussion and I didnt read the entire thread so someone may have already addressed this...

From what I Googled, energy cost in LA is 28 ¢/kilowatt-hour (kWh). Lets round that up to 30 ¢/kWh
The EQS averages 3.3 Miles/kWh or more depending on an individuals driving style
Let assume that you drive like a demon and round that down to 3 Miles/kWh
So in order for your electric bill to go up $300 you would have to be driving over 3,000 a month. ($300 / $0.30 x 3Miles/kWh = 3000)

If you actually do drive 3,000 miles a month... the equivalent Gas cost would be way over $300 my friend.

Agreed.
Here is a real-life example from someone who owned a W222 V8 engine as well as Tesla Model S (2 weeks each for the past 30 days).
** Tesla Model S real-life driving efficiency: 215 Wh/mile in-town--> that converts to 215 kWh needed for a 1000 mile. Cost of electricity where I live is 0.1 $/kWh (0.15 during the day and 0.05 at night, and hence I will assume half my charge occurs during high prices and half of it at night although 95% of it occurs at night). --> cost to drive 1000 miles = 0.1 x 215 = 21.5 USD for 1000 miles. --> if I charge at night most of the time instead of day hours, that would become 10.25 USD / 1000 mile.
** W222 real-life MPG = 17.5 mpg in-town, that converts to 1000 miles / 17.5 = 57 gallons of gas needed for a 1000 miles. --> assuming 4 USD/gallon, that equals 228 USD for 1000 miles (>10 times more).
However I do it, driving my EV (based on my own boundary conditions), would always cost me only ~9% of what my W222 or average V8 500 hp engine would need.

After-all, before I made the decision, I have never ever factored in gas savings or cost/mile in my decision. I don't think anyone buying 100K car should even calculate that (but that's just me). Maybe I'd factor that in the math if I decide to trade our BMW X5 for a Model Y, or 5-series for a Model 3 or so... but not for something close to S-class to Model S or EQS comparison.

I mean, money is money. I may drive six figure cars but that doesn’t mean that value has no meaning to me. I pay $400 a month to fuel my S Class, just that car.

OMG... CA rates are crazy. My rate from 10PM to 6AM is $0.05 per kWh, yet there isn't that many renewable or even a nuclear reactor supporting my grid. I had the chance to move to CA a few times in the past; there is a reason I didn't and would not. Taxes and rates are one of those; I don't care much about any of the other benefits.

And whether you believe it or not that reduction in energy usage is better for the climate over the vehicle's life cycle. And yes the Lithium and metals extraction is harmful to the local environment and we need to find materials and methods to eliminate that. I view it like chemotherapy.

Honestly I never factored in the environmental aspect for any car I ever bought, not even when I got an EV. Same way I wouldn't care about getting a car A vs B because I'll save a few dollars on gas. I drive the car for the spirit of driving a toy, nothing else. I might give a value for some of the other factors, but not much. Being a toy is the number 1 factor. This is not a recommendation nor a claim that this is the right way to look at things, but that's just me.

Has nothing to do with the environment or global warming for me. I'd just rather give the money to St Jude dot org than the war mongering oil and gas "industry"/racket. It's kind of funny really that the National Socialist Democrats are undermining their own war machine and they don't even know it. LOL... sometimes people accidentally do the right thing for the wrong reason.

Give the political BS a rest please.

For me it’s just about the drive of the vehicle. The EVs are just awesome, so much better. There’s nothing not to like in how they drive in a big luxury sedan like this. If I can stop spending empty money on gas that’s an added bonus to me.

Agreed. Gas vs kWh cost is an added bonus, no more no less. If I can save 200-300 bucks per month, and add that to my monthly payment to get a better car (or even the same car but an EV variant) I would do that all day long. In fact, after going through the experience of wondering an EV, even if kWh vs gas comparison was in the negative, I'd still prefer the EV variant. In other words, If there was an EV W223 vs ICE W223, same car but different drivetrain, I would get the EV W223 even if the energy cost different ($/mile) is zero. Environmental benefits? I'd prefer to not comment on that; I just never done an accurate assessment whether that's even a benefit or not, not I think it would change my preferences from one car to another. If it matters or if that's true, most of you here should have considered the PHEV variants of the S-class years ago.

Absolutely. For instance I am considering a new 7 series, after driving the i7 I have zero interest in a 760. If there were an EV W223 I would not even consider an S580.

If any of you have never driven a high end EV, you have to.

If you want the 7-series, I'd 100% go for with the i7. The new V8 drivetrains of BMW are all having issues. Seems like software related than anything else. I don't know for sure, but I believe the i7 or the EV variant of most vehicles would have less chance to see some of these issues that BMW is dealing with. We've considered trading in our X5 for the newer PHEV X5 by end of this year, but we decided to wait at least another year. I am very active on the BMW forums, and majority of X7 and X5 new owners are having all kind of drivetrain errors with the new vehicles. Not many i7 owners yet to get to a solid conclusion, though there might be some issues there, but certainly less risky than the V8 approach. I loved every V8 BMW I ever owned, even more than my W222......They drive and shift really nice and the cars have a real soul in them. V8 BMW vehicle is probably the only ICE vehicle I'd ever own going forward if a given car is only available as an ICE variant (i.e.: X7). For all other models/brands, I think I'd only consider the EV options going forward. Still mad that I wasn't able to find a dream M760 V12 (2020-2022) when I was shopping a month ago.

Yeah I have been following the BMW forums as well and have seen the same thing.

One thing that really bugs me is you can’t deactivate engine stop start on BMWs…

Yeah, it’s started with ID8. I have disabled it on every BMW I owned to date through ID7. ID8 have some limitations as far as coding but am sure people will figure it out. I lost interest recently and don’t have the time, but I posted a number of threads with spreadsheets for exterior and interior lights coding and few other features on BMWs, good days and it was fun. The BMW community is way more collaborative on those ends. They just found a way (forum users) to unlock the adaptive headlights on ID8 cars, so am sure it won’t take long to find a solution for ***. I haven’t been keeping up with these stuff as much as I used to. Anyway, *** coding won’t even matter for EVs, lol. Can’t wait for a full EV X7, that’s be my ultimate car now, but may not see it until 2026 unfortunately.

It was nice when the dealer would call you up to tell you your car was in, you'd go down to get it, and they'd turn it off while you did the paperwork.