I really, really like it, but then again I've hated the current 7 series from day one and the havoc that Bangle and company have caused for most BMW models ever since. The e92 was the first BMW in a long, long time that I've really like the looks of, and it gave me hope for the future of the marque. Some points:
- The awful "Bangle Butt/Hoodyonk-a-donk-donk" has been a huge sore point for me. It's not so much that the trunk lid was "floating", in fact this has been done well by some copycats, but the gaps on the sides of the car were too much too take. It always looked low quality, as it was a mistake and wasn't shut properly. The only 5-6-7s that I could stand were in very dark colors where this shut line was mostly hidden.
- The car definitely comes from the e92 design theme, if not quite as sleek overall. The profile, including the trunk, is proper BMW and not so weird like the current design.
- The upright front of the car is, as others have noted, no doubt due to the European safety laws. There are certainly worse examples of this type of bloating, and the size of the grill tends to make it work better. The tiny grills on the current 7 and 5 gave those cars a somewhat wimpy look, and made the bumper seem abnormally chunky as a result. The front flows a lot more now, although I am still not crazy about the "hooded" look on the headlights.
- The interior is clean, and what some might say is bland. I like that they are moving away from the awful "double hump" for the iDrive screen, and hope that this carries through to the rest of the line. Now if they can just fix the awful way that iDrive works...
- The lower trim "beard" on the steering wheel looks silly. I'm guessing that this is the same material as on the dash, but the shape doesn't work very well.
I'm not in the market for a 7 series, but might be in a few years when I'm old.
My bet is that in 10 years we'll look back on the current 7 and laugh, but the new 7 will be viewed positively, and at the worst the new design won't be considered offensive to anyone.