The BMW E65 7 Series was one of the most controversial models ever launched by the German car maker. Most of the controversy came from its exterior design, of course, but other things also contribute to the chipped image the car has even today. It certainly wasn’t easy for BMW to do such drastic changes on their flagship, and that was painfully obvious one you realized that the E65 had to fill in the shoes left open by the E38 7 Series.
That was one of the most beautiful luxury sedans ever made, not just by BMW, but by all the car makers. And YouTuber Doug DeMuro seems to agree. According to him, the final design of the car looked like it was penned by two different designers. And that’s because it actually was. When the initial sketches of the E65 were done, it featured a fastback look at the rear but that initial take was rejected for being too much of a departure from the traditional lines of a 7 Series.
With this generation of the 7 Series being introduced at the beginning of the 21st century, the BMW executives wanted it to have a special design though, one that would tell the world that it brought along a lot of new tech. Therefore, a mix between the fastback proposed at first and the traditional lines of a sedan was conceived and that’s how we got this peculiar-looking 7 Series. It did have a lot of new tech though.
That became obvious once you stepped inside. Over there, a number of buttons had been taken away and all the functions they served got rearranged into what we know today as ‘iDrive’. That’s right, the E65 7 Series was the first car to feature iDrive and it was awful at first. You can see exactly why, courtesy of Doug and his masterful presentations, in the video below. [YouTube]
