BMW 750iL E38 1995-2001 $9,000 - $20,900 Rating: 3.00 / 5

I brought an immaculate BMW 750iL V12 in 2009 (Oxford Green Metallic with ferrari tan leather) which I stored and really looked after. When I took delivery of the car I was shocked. It was literally immaculate, like new. The interior is one of the most sumptuous I have ever seen and the quality of the seats is just beautiful. The back seat is just incredible in its beauty, quality and attention to detail and I guess it should be as royalty and heads of state occupy them (you didnt get much change out of $300,000 for the 750iL V12 the upper luxury flagship). You smell of leather for half a day after having occupied the seats! The car has traction and stability control with override. With it off it is capable of burning rubber up to 60-100 feet in automatic! Yet the way it does it is amazing there is no fishtail like take off the diff must be remarkable. The car has extreme power yet due to its massive weight 2200kgs it simply cant overcome its inertia, even with massive low profile 18" tyres. The car has great acceleration once moving and will bullet to 180km/h in seconds growling up to a frenzied demonic like roar leaving most everything trying to get moving on the motorway in its wake. XR6 Turbos and most V8's simply arent in the race against a 750iL midrange. 0-100km/h takes 6.6 seconds and the car has 240kW, but given its weight it feels more like 270kW. Probably due to BMW's supreme gearbox units. Put your footdown even at low speeds and you feel your kidneys compress- it has massive torque in certain ranges. But this does not satisfy me in the car. Get the car sideways and while it drifts fairly gently you get a sense of the weight and it almost feel a little like its scating on water in a decent drift. That says it requires more concentration and input, which is another thing I dislike about the car. At speed it is a very controlled car on most relatively smooth highway/ road surfaces. Get undulating or rough and it feels dangerous, unlike a 300E or 300D Mercedes Benz sedan. The suspension is hard and jittery and you get the sense driving it that whoever brought these cars new were extremely rich people, as rich people you would think dont want to go fast. So you get the sense that a really cool person buys a BMW 750iL, no really. The car turns heads, especially with the low profile tyres and M Sport alloys the previous owner had fitted over the standards. Though while looking great, these tyres have made it loose what nimbleness and directional ability in the steering it mat have had. The car goes through roundabouts at great speed. But the traction and stability systems seems to intervene to early spoiling the fun, unlike R32 / R33 GTR. However being a petrol head I thought I needed to drive with traction and stability off. You dont! The tyres still chip through the sesess transmitting the intended story to both outside world and driver, yet in a more responsible, civilised and legal manner. Its great! Braking is tremendous and this is not realised until it is REALLY needed. The sound. Seen James Bond Tomorrow Never Dies? The car park seen - thats the sound forget Michael Douglas in the Game - thats a 540i with an Einsonmann muffler. The 750iL has a lower more level yet increasingly frenzied sound. I would describe it as sounding evil. After all this honest reviewed information I dont like the car. It is too big to park and too long. While fuel consumption was alot better tahn my VZ SS V8 6 speed manual Commodore it is still up there. The steering is vague to the point of being worrying in tight city traffic. I would describe the BMW 750iL as a quality Commodore or Chevrolette sedan. The car feels and is like a waste resources. Its immense weight feels and like and does put extra stresses on componentry like wheel bearings, steering and suspension and to drive it at speeds feels like your accelerating wear and you probably are, the steels in many parts are the same as used in other BMW's and they are not titanium these days like the alloys of an E34 M5! As a big powerful ro staus symbol cruiser the car is elite, but its not a practical, fun or performance orientated car and economy is not its middle name. Horse for courses, but its not my kind of car.