The best part about a 12-hour, round-trip journey from Johannesburg to Durban in a brand new 7 Series is that it's equipped with all kinds of gadgets to make the drive a pleasurable experience.
The worst part is that one of those gadgets is an iPod input and, if your girlfriend's the only one in your family with such a device, you might just have to endure twelve solid hours of Alanis Morissette, Evanescence and lots of other angry girl music ...sigh.
Yes, the new 7 Series is a luxurious car. Motoring gluttony at its finest. So much so that we at motoring.co.za are feeling slightly guilty about acquiring a new 730d from BMW for a long-term test. I said slightly.
The newest member of the family arrived in our garage just days before a birthday weekend away at a five-star Durban destination, and my colleagues, who were all eyeing the new acquisition come Friday, were kind enough to hand the keys over for the special occasion.
It was the third ingredient in a perfect holiday hat-trick consisting of great company, great accommodation and great wheels.
We'd only be away for two nights, and there were only two of us so we didn't even make a dent in the big Seven's luggage swallowing abilities. There's a humungous boot at the back of this limo and our lone duffel bag looked like a small pig in a big barn back there. Not to mention the cabin where the business-class back seats went untouched other than for padkos storage.
In fact, it's this car's size that's proving a contentious issu and, where I say bigger's always better, other staffers are finding its bulk rather cumbersome. Truth is, narrow parking bays and Jozi CBD's tight angles are fairly tricky in the good ship Seven - even with its clever four-wheel steering system - but once out of dock it's plain sailing.
Sailing's an apt word too with an air suspension system that keeps the big car level no matter what's happening with terra firma below. It's also adjustable, along with gearbox and steering setting presets, but we've kept ours on the crushed-velvet mode since day one.
Why there's even a choice of Sport Plus, which is the sharpest setting after Comfort, Normal and Sport, we'll never know. It's like putting a jockey on a Clydesdale horse and asking it to giddyup.
We road tested the new Seven when it was launched in SA in 2009 but a week's duration at the time was hardly enough to get through all the big limo's intricacies. But, spend six hours at a time behind the wheel as I did just weeks ago and you learn a lot more about what BMW's flagship has to offer.
Such as a handy little range gauge underneath the speedometer that indicates how many kilometres are left on a tank at any given time. Not unusual you say... well, this one also indicates the destination set in the satnav (if one's set) so that you can easily see if there's enough fuel in the tank to get you where you're going.
This little feature alone kept me entertained whilst driving down the N3 for what seemed like endless hours under the trance of female artists unhappy about life.\
GOD'S GIFT TO LONG-DISTANCE MOTORING
So far, the three-litre turbodiesel in our 730d has been returning around 8.5 litres/100km, an impressive figure for such a big car and we're over the moon with its luxury/frugality ratio.
The new 7 Series also gets an item called Active Cruise Control that works like normal cruise control but will also keep a radar-based cushion between you and another car in front of you.
Following distance can also be adjusted along with max speed and the info, along with navigation details, is projected on to the windscreen via a neat head-up display.
Basically it allows you to drive with one hand on the wheel and one in your pocket (as one angry girl sang) if you so desire as steering becomes the driver's only real duty. Let's call it God's gift to long-distance motoring.
Just like you, we grow fond of our cars, even if we don't actually own them. Many tears have been shed upon dismissals from our long-term fleet and I can assure you that returning this 730d to BMW head office in coming months will be a jagged little pill to swallow. - INL Motoring