It's more than a little obnoxious, that new grille on the BMW 7-series. The last car we can think of to have such a big grille that it couldn't fit on the front of the car and needed to cut back into the hood was the 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass—and everybody recognizes that '70s Oldsmobiles were paragons of taste.
Then again, a larger grille naturally can ingest more air—think of the difference between sipping a soft drink through a straw and pouring beer down your gullet from an Oktoberfest stein.
The official explanation for the updates to the V-8–powered 750i xDrive is a re-engineering from the crankcase up, but the grille at least hints at the increased power in the 2020 car. (With the exception of the base six-cylinder 740i version, all 7s are now all-wheel drive.)
It's not the 40 percent step up that the scale of that grille represents, but, at 523 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque, the new eight outpunches its predecessor by 80 horses and 74 lb-ft.
Not that the car needed it. With all four Pirelli P Zeros—245/45R-20s up front and 275/35R-20s in back—digging in at launch, our 750i xDrive test car hit 60 mph in 4.0 seconds flat and tripped the timing lights in the quarter-mile in 12.5 seconds at 113 mph.
In a BMW lineup that often seems at odds with the BMW we know and love (knew and loved?), the 7-series remains a polarizing car. On one hand, it does the best impression of a Rolls-Royce of any car outside of Rolls's own showroom.
On the other, though, in no suspension setting does it quite feel like that blue-and-white roundel belongs on the hood.
The big tech updates that accompany this facelift are voice controls for the infotainment system—by default it responds to "Hey BMW," but can be customized to whatever name the owner sees fit—and the industry's latest definitely-not-an-automated-driving-system.
The latter is called Extended Traffic Jam Assistant, and it will drive the car indefinitely on divided highways at speeds below 37 mph as long as the camera in the instrument panel can see that the driver's eyes are on the road.
There's massive room front and rear, and the Rear Executive Lounge Seating package is so first class that a tray table even folds out of the center console
The 750i xDrive starts at $103,645, while the hybrid starts at $96,545. The lowly 740i is $87,445, and the range-topping V-12–powered M760i costs $158,695.
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
2020 BMW 750i xDrive
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