Me, Myself, and I ..... and my i7 - Oh Boy I miss my 745e (G11)

[Spam Head]

It is now just over a year since I took delivery of my i7 after a long period of waiting for it to be built at the Dingolfing factory in Germany.

This is by far one of the worse built BMWs I have ever had.

As a BMW fan and love for its ultimate driving machine stand point, I was expecting the i7 to be yet another spot on choice so to transition from my 745e into an all electric luxury car.

Instead, what I have experienced over the last 12 months is the absolute opposite with poor build quality issues, excessive wind and road noise, embarrassing tech failures, and totally unreasonable running costs with the tyres needing to be replaced every 10k miles.

I am therefore not surprized that the car has not been a great seller in the UK and Europe; and that there are now so many discounted deals available for it. I guess not everyone is foolish like me to have fallen for the BMW marketing hype about the i7's status as an ultimate luxury vehicle.

All I would say to anyone considering the i7 is that, perhaps you should simply wait for the LCI model in 2025/2026 as no doubt, and with some hope, the BMW bosses are hard at work trying to persuade the company's engineers to improve and build a proper luxury car rather than some ill-thought through misadventure just to please the Chinese market.

[LVBMW]

Originally Posted by Spam Head

It is now just over a year since I took delivery of my i7 after a long period of waiting for it to be built at the Dingolfing factory in Germany.

This is by far one of the worse built BMWs I have ever had.

As a BMW fan and love for its ultimate driving machine stand point, I was expecting the i7 to be yet another spot on choice so to transition from my 745e into an all electric luxury car.

Instead, what I have experienced over the last 12 months is the absolute opposite with poor build quality issues, excessive wind and road noise, embarrassing tech failures, and totally unreasonable running costs with the tyres needing to be replaced every 10k miles.

I am therefore not surprized that the car has not been a great seller in the UK and Europe; and that there are now so many discounted deals available for it. I guess not everyone is foolish like me to have fallen for the BMW marketing hype about the i7's status as an ultimate luxury vehicle.

All I would say to anyone considering the i7 is that, perhaps you should simply wait for the LCI model in 2025/2026 as no doubt, and with some hope, the BMW bosses are hard at work trying to persuade the company's engineers to improve and build a proper luxury car rather than some ill-thought through misadventure just to please the Chinese market.

Sorry for the bad experience. I have only heard people rave about the i7 interior and build quality. Care to share any "deets" as the kids say about build quality, tech failures, etc.?

[deutsch100]

I am so sorry you have experienced this. After driving RR Ghost, Phantom, Bentley GT and Mulsanne for years, I can confidently say the i7 fit, finish and materials meet or exceed Rolls & Bentley.

The i7 is one of the quietest, smoothest and poshest rides I have ever experienced. My 2024 i7 marks my 5th 7 Series and I am beyond impressed and overjoyed to be honest.

[jettie1767]

Sorry to hear you have issues with your i7. I've had my 2023 i7 since August last year and it's been problem-free.

[Berliner]

Yes, sad to hear that, but I am very sure it's just "bad luck" with your car. Which doesn't make anything different or easier for you, personally - I know. But between my i7 and the previous G12 760Li and G11 750i LCI I had are literally worlds between regarding build quality, ride comfort and the general "feeling" of driving the car for me.
Maybe give the i7 another go after the facelift, I would be very surprised if you encounter any of those issues again.

[Laguna Beach]

Maybe you got a car built on a Friday the day after the workers got their paycheck and were at the pub all night. I only have great things to say about mine and am amazed every time I drive it. 7500 miles so far and everything is solid build and feel as new. Best car I’ve ever owned. LCI will definitely be better and items like a digital rear view mirror will be added. Impressed with the software and updates, ride is second to none and I drive is intuitive and quick. Fit and finish are on par with cars twice as expensive. I don’t doubt you’re not happy with yours but I think you’re definitely in the minority.

[Caveno]

OP is probably a troll.

[Spam Head]

Originally Posted by Caveno

OP is probably a troll.

If speaking my mind and being open and frank about what I think of the i7 makes me a "troll"; you must therefore be a toad!

[Spam Head]

Originally Posted by LVBMW

Sorry for the bad experience. I have only heard people rave about the i7 interior and build quality. Care to share any "deets" as the kids say about build quality, tech failures, etc.?

I would say that excessive cabin noise (including wind and tyre noise) are probably the biggest let down.

Also the software glitches particularly with the digital sim not working well with the theatre mode and that the over the air updates do not come through when they should and that the leather on the seats are already beginning to show sign of being close to death only after 13 months of ownership are just some of the other concerns.

Also the tyres are virtually worn out after just circa 10k miles.

All in all, given the joys of the G11, it is really difficult justifying it to myself that I have paid almost 40% more for the i7 and have got 40% less of a car for it.

[patchan8984]

I had a G11 740i (pre-LCI) and the G70 i7 blows it out of the water IMO. Just the seat comfort on this car makes it a win for me. I didn’t have IAS on my G11, but the rear wheel steering on the i7 makes it a much more nimble car to drive. No issues with road noise, though I also have the 8 vert (and 6 vert before that), and maybe I’m used to the noise.

No issues with the electronics at all (no rear screen) - and the Idrive is such a huge upgrade. I fully expect that the i cars will have pre-mature tire wear, but hopefully the leather does hold up.

Wouldn’t the acoustic glass (or was it climate comfort) deal with the noise?

[Berliner]

There are a number of issues regarding wind noise with some cars with the production date 2022 - 06/2023, the new cars have no issues, just some software glitches and I don't like the trunk rattle, but that's it

[seans]

I am in love with my i7; and you sincerely couldn’t pay me to set foot in a 745e with those hideous hockey sticks on the side and the disproportional rear doors that lend the vehicle’s design to appear like a time-dilated G30 5 series, approaching light speed.

That’s precisely why I drove a G30 5 series from 2018 to 2023.

All this said, yes, I’ve had to replace tires on my vehicle around 9,000km (5.5k miles) because I drive mine like I stole it. This is just a fact for all EVs, with their immense packs of magic, heavy rare earth metals.

If you’re unhappy with yours, someone will be very happy to gobble up if you, for example, trade it in to an MB dealership for an S class.

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by seans

I am in love with my i7; and you sincerely couldn’t pay me to set foot in a 745e with those hideous hockey sticks on the side and the disproportional rear doors that lend the vehicle’s design to appear like a time-dilated G30 5 series, approaching light speed.

The hockey sticks on the side....I could never understand how and why these ever came to be on a 7 Series. You nailed it...HIDEOUS.

I am in LOVE with my 2024 i7. It is my 4th 7 Series since 2007 and the absolute best!

[Caveno]

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I loved the hockey sticks on my 750.

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by Caveno

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I loved the hockey sticks on my 750.

Ewwwww!

[NewQ]

I liked the long rear doors, it made it obvious that this was a big serious car not to be trifled with.

[AventurinG26]

Originally Posted by deutsch100

I am so sorry you have experienced this. After driving RR Ghost, Phantom, Bentley GT and Mulsanne for years, I can confidently say the i7 fit, finish and materials meet or exceed Rolls & Bentley.

The i7 is one of the quietest, smoothest and poshest rides I have ever experienced. My 2024 i7 marks my 5th 7 Series and I am beyond impressed and overjoyed to be honest.

I absolutely do not agree with this that the interior is anywhere near on par with a Bentley or Rolls. The cheap plastic “diamond” trim on the dash is the tackiest and worst feeling material. The door mounted seat controls also feel super cheap. They’ve also cheaped out with the decision to remove curve following headlights and lasers, as well as the awful climate control and radio controls being buried all in the screen. My G26 M440i had a higher quality feeling interior than our i7 with far less plasticy bits everywhere. It also had laser high beams and they followed curves. They were much more powerful and evenly spread lights than the two tiered lights the 7 has which leave an obvious dark area in the light pattern. The car rides well, it gets good range at highway speed (I see 300-340 miles at 75-80mph) and it is generally pretty quiet, but the last gen S-Class (ICE) model felt much more premium and the current S-Class still feels like it’s better made in certain ways and it rides with more suppleness. The EQS rides terribly and is ugly as sin, but the i7 is honestly no thing of beauty from the front. We settled on our i7 largely for tax write off purposes. It fit the 6000lb GVWR limit we needed for 179 deduction and we also were able to get it for a very low price of $104K vs. an MSRP of almost $140K. Mercedes was offering us similar huge discounts on EQS and EQS SUVs but the sedan felt too cramped and the SUV was getting new more efficient motors for ‘24 and a heat pump which were two big things to miss out on that we didn’t want to settle for. So the i7 it was. We’ve had a ton of software problems and there’s still things I hate about the car. Why does each person need their own 5G SIM? I just want to pay for one subscription for the car like I’ve done on every other car. I don’t want it to be tied to EACH BMW profile. I also don’t understand why the software doesn’t have an option that works to prevent the car from automatically unlocking and locking every time I walk past the car at home. I have the option selected for it not to unlock automatically at home but it does it anyway. Why is there no option even at all for the car to not even lock when at home?

BMW also could learn a few things from Hyundai/Kia. They include a nice camera under the mirror that automatically pops up a video feed when the turn signal is activated in the driver display. BMW needs to add that. The cameras are also not the highest resolution on the BMW and I don’t understand why certain traffic sign recognition abilities are limited by region in the US when we generally have the same exact signage all over the country. You cross a state line and suddenly the car no longer warns of red lights or stop signs. It’s very annoying.

[AventurinG26]

Originally Posted by Spam Head

It is now just over a year since I took delivery of my i7 after a long period of waiting for it to be built at the Dingolfing factory in Germany.

This is by far one of the worse built BMWs I have ever had.

As a BMW fan and love for its ultimate driving machine stand point, I was expecting the i7 to be yet another spot on choice so to transition from my 745e into an all electric luxury car.

Instead, what I have experienced over the last 12 months is the absolute opposite with poor build quality issues, excessive wind and road noise, embarrassing tech failures, and totally unreasonable running costs with the tyres needing to be replaced every 10k miles.

I am therefore not surprized that the car has not been a great seller in the UK and Europe; and that there are now so many discounted deals available for it. I guess not everyone is foolish like me to have fallen for the BMW marketing hype about the i7's status as an ultimate luxury vehicle.

All I would say to anyone considering the i7 is that, perhaps you should simply wait for the LCI model in 2025/2026 as no doubt, and with some hope, the BMW bosses are hard at work trying to persuade the company's engineers to improve and build a proper luxury car rather than some ill-thought through misadventure just to please the Chinese market.

So I’m running into the tire issue with premature wear. We are at 17K miles. Two front tires are completely worn out on the outer edges. The rears are also nearly worn out. Due to staggered sizing they can’t be rotated front to back/diagonally and all tire companies cut your mileage warranty in half on staggered sizing. Do you have the 20” wheels on your car? What tire came on it? We have the Bridgestone Turanza LS100 which has always been a disappointing tire to me in that they make an annoying drone at 55-60mph.

I also wish bmw would fix the regen issue. You come to a stop using B-mode and the car will roll a second before it suddenly applies auto hold causing the whole car to jerk a bit every stop. This has been a problem with every i4, iX and i7 I’ve driven over the last 3 years.

[rollingtaser]

Originally Posted by AventurinG26

They’ve also cheaped out with the decision to remove curve following headlights and lasers

S-Class (ICE) model felt much more premium and the current S-Class still feels like it’s better made in certain ways and it rides with more suppleness.

The EQS rides terribly and is ugly as sin, but the i7 is honestly no thing of beauty from the front.

We’ve had a ton of software problems and there’s still things I hate about the car.

Why does each person need their own 5G SIM?

lasers:
repair costs where the issue according to my guy. i asked why they removed it.
also: the light here in switzlerand has a lumen Limit, LED light as the i7 has reaches that.

SClass:
BMW has always be more sporty - if i look at the cheaply placed screen in the new S and the cheap plastic touch/press buttons (especially the one on the main screen) - no thanks! the latest S feels like a C to sit in it. no space, cramped.

software problems? ahh, i see you didn't have the merc with it's MBUX to drive, did you? my neighbour got rid of his EQS because he had one surprise after the other - my friend that works at a dealership is sick of Hearing MBUX...

SIM: true, if you only use data, fine. i use telephony and love it that the eSIM is in the Account. yes, sim profile Export would also have been an alternative - why not both?

[ledphut]

Originally Posted by deutsch100

I am so sorry you have experienced this. After driving RR Ghost, Phantom, Bentley GT and Mulsanne for years, I can confidently say the i7 fit, finish and materials meet or exceed Rolls & Bentley.

C’mon man… there’s no way you’re serious about this statement. I had a completely loaded 760 for over a month so I am very familiar with the car. Although the fit and finish is nice, it’s ludicrous to compare it to the others you mentioned, especially Bentley.

My work buddy has a new Flying Spur and it’s in a totally different league than the BMW. Same can be said for RR.

[AventurinG26]

Originally Posted by rollingtaser

lasers:
repair costs where the issue according to my guy. i asked why they removed it.
also: the light here in switzlerand has a lumen Limit, LED light as the i7 has reaches that.

SClass:
BMW has always be more sporty - if i look at the cheaply placed screen in the new S and the cheap plastic touch/press buttons (especially the one on the main screen) - no thanks! the latest S feels like a C to sit in it. no space, cramped.

software problems? ahh, i see you didn't have the merc with it's MBUX to drive, did you? my neighbour got rid of his EQS because he had one surprise after the other - my friend that works at a dealership is sick of Hearing MBUX...

SIM: true, if you only use data, fine. i use telephony and love it that the eSIM is in the Account. yes, sim profile Export would also have been an alternative - why not both?

The G70 is far from sporty. Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s a 3 ton boat. It doesn’t have a sporting bone in its body. The EQS I already said is a poor thing, but the ICE/PHEV S-Class is more enjoyable to ride in and dare I say it is actually the better driver car now.

It’s funny you mention cost being a concern for the laser headlights, yet BMW now fits Swavroski crystals to the DRL which again does nothing. Our car has them and they are utterly pointless. We had someone hit the front of our car and one new upper and lower LED light cluster cost just as much as a laser unit. The US also has a light output limit and even so the beam was ten times better. It had no bright and dark spots and it shone much further down road. The curve following delete is utterly ridiculous and nothing but cost cutting on BMW’s part. Mercedes’ digital lighting is superior as it can display warning symbols and do other things the basic LED projector BMW uses cannot do. It also produces a much brighter beam than BMW’s new light systems. This is a huge downgrade, especially on a $140K car. My G26 M440i had lasers and it cost less than 50% as much as our i7 did. The one car that shouldn’t be penalized with cost cutting is the 7er.

The interior of the 7-series is not really any nicer than a 3-series now other than the more expensive seating materials. Same basic dash, center console, trim, etc. with a few extra bells and whistles. I’ve spent time in an MBUX car and I’ve also spent time with iDrive 7 and 8.5. iD7 and MBUX are better than iD8.5. 8.5 has less features and far more issues. It’s a huge step down honestly. All of these gimmicky features like rebranding drive modes as experiences. Give me an Eco, Comfort, Sport drive mode and easy access to change damping on the go via a hard button always on display.


Regarding eSIM:

If you are in the car, do you not also have your phone? Why do I need to have a phone number synced to the car which I find to have worse signal strength and reliability than my iPhone? If I’m in the car my phone is automatically paired via CarPlay and/or Bluetooth. I see absolutely no benefit to it whatsoever. I just want a data plan for the car so if I drive, my spouse drives, or a family member drives the car there’s a working data connection for other passengers. Tying it to the BMW profile and not being able to just sync the data plan across the vehicle is stupid. It means anyone with a dedicated plan gets a warning message that they haven’t completed the set up and their phone will pair to the car WiFi but have no data connection.

The way BMW does plug and charge is also stupid. It should not be on a BMW profile by profile basis. It should be based on whatever accounts I have synced with the car. If the car is on my profile plug and charge works. If the car is on my spouse’s profile and we go to a charging station the car doesn’t automatically begin charging because the account is not linked to that profile. These are boneheaded decisions BMW has made that other cars don’t have to deal with.

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by AventurinG26

I absolutely do not agree with this that the interior is anywhere near on par with a Bentley or Rolls.

After OWNING and driving 2 Phantoms, 2 Ghosts, a Mulsanne and GT Continental (spouse owned and drove a Phantom Coupe and 4 GT Continentals....the current 7 Series interior feels as good, and the seats are way more comfortable.

If you also owned as many RR and Bentley as we have, and this is still your opinion, I respect it. But, you were or are not a Rolls-Royce or Bentley owner, then I have to respectfully say you are totally wrong.

Also, as opulent as our Rolls and Bentleys were/seemed...EVERY one was plague with tons of quality issues (broken and $$$ mechanical clocks), door rattles, malfunctioning electric Spirit of Ecstasy goddesses, starlight sky burnout, endless error and warning messages, coolant leaks, slipping belts, presets and savings continually erased, dead batteries after just 2-3 days of non-driving...and I could go on and on!

2007 7 Series, 2010 7 Series, 2012 7 Series, 2017 7 Series and now my 2024 i7....and I never experienced one of the problems that affected EVERY Rolls or Bentley we owned (all purchased from Rusnak in Pasadena, CA).