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I've had my 750li for about 5 years now. When I first got it I believed it was the biggest lemon I've ever owned. It was in and out of the shop for the first year and a half all the time and at when they finally got it fixed in the first 16 months of ownership it had spent 11 full months in the shop (305 days!). However, after they fixed the gremlins with the machine it has been fairly good ever since. The biggest problem with it since then is the battery. I live in Saskatchewan where rather than driving the car like they do in Germany with lots of speed and elevation changes where the car is actually driven, we actually do a lot more cruising. I tend to drive my car 200-800 km in a drive and I'll hit the brakes maybe one or two times during that. This makes the battery never really recharge itself because it draws its power from regenerative braking or whatever else magic goes on behind the scenes, but the alternator is just not able to up the charge on the battery with normal driving.
The battery being low on charge causes other gremlins to creep in. Sometimes my check engine light will come on when its particularly cold out. I believe its because the engine doesn't have enough charge to fully complete the diagnosis that it does when it gets turned on. Other times the radio will reset itself because of lack of charge or the clock will reset, or the fans won't spin in the interior, or the interior lights won't turn on, etc. But as long as you keep the machine fully charged by using a battery charger its usually pretty good.
A few days ago I drove 2000 km in one days. I couldn't imagine a better car for doing it. When I got out of the machine at my destination I was relaxed, alert and most importantly able to spend some time with the people I was in the rush to go meet.
That's the trick with these cars! They will let you go out and make stories! I had a 1999 540i that I put on 440,000km from new and the trips with my family, the trips without my family, the friends that I love, the friends that I hate; those are the reasons to buy a car like this. If you just want to get transportation don't get the 7, get a normal car that isn't as expensive and doesn't have the quirks. If you want to have a machine that becomes part of your soul get the BMW and accept that it will have problems but the memories they make will make the problems acceptable to have.
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