BMW X7 review

If driving the X7 is plush, riding in it is more so. The seven-seat layout is standard, but for an extra £600 you can have a six-seat setup that replaces the middle bench with two captain’s chairs. Said layout gives the rear passengers as much comfort and pretty much the same space as the front two, although even the seven-seater layout is hardly a park bench.

Those seats look heavy.

All the adjusting, moving and folding of seats inside the X7 is electronically powered. It’s a nice way to show off, and the easiest way to avoid wrenching your back, but it’s painfully slow to get done. Which will presumably feel exponentially worse when you’re in a massive rush and trying to get extra kids in the back two seats. 

It looks very airy though.

It’s nice sitting in the X7: you’re very high up, looking out imperiously over surrounding traffic through large windows. You get a massive three-section panoramic sunroof as standard. Everyone gets vents and adjustable climate and reading lights and cupholders and power sockets.

No cheap seats here… unless you get the optional heated and cooled front cupholders while the rest are, what, thermally passive? Those cupholders are very useful if your phone is overheating from the wireless charging pad, incidentally.

Is the boot big?

If all three rows are up, the boot is a supermini-sized 326 litres. In the two-row setup, surely how most people will use this car, it's a mammoth 750 litres. Fold all but the front seats flat and you’ve got 2,120 litres of space. Practical. There’s also a carpeted split tailgate which makes for a great picnic bench, and the air suspension means you can drop the rear for easier loading.

And what about those screens? 

BMW’s most recent round of updates brought in the carmaker's new curved display which integrates a 12.3-inch instrument panel display and a massive 14.9-inch central infotainment touchscreen into one long unit.

It looks smart and it’s a reactive touchscreen, but messy fingerprints are a bit of a nightmare. Thankfully BMW has kept its old iDrive controller which you can use on the move. All fine there, but we weren’t so keen on the gear selector’s tacky looking nub of crystalised glass.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of materials: avoid the carbon fibre interior bits on the M60i. It’s not saving any weight and a light wood is far classier. BMW also says that the dash is now covered in something called ‘Sensafin’, which apparently is a high quality vegan leather.