BMW 7-Series

Overview

    Descended from the 3.0S and Bavaria sedans, the 7-Series was BMW's flagship sedan, and its answer to the perennial luxury-car leader, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, as well as Jaguar's XJ, and to a lesser extent, the Maserati Quattroporte and DeTomaso Deauville. At introduction, it was powered solely by six-cylinder engines; a turbocharged 745i existed in the early 1980s, but was not imported. After a decade on the market, the second-generation 7-Series debuted with the first postwar V-12 from a German marque, igniting a new horsepower war among the German sports sedans. The 4th-generation 7er, which debuted in 2002, laid the foundation for BMW's bolder new styling theme. Although there have been discussions of wagon variants, thus far all 7-Series models have been sedans. No Motorsport model of the 7er has been produced either, but BMW compensated first with the sporty 760i, and then with the supercharged Alpina B7 version of 2007. It remains the BMW top-flight sedan, despite rumors of a 9-Series super-sedan.

2009-current [F01/F02 series]

2002-2008 [E65/E66 series]

1995-2001 [E38 series]

1988-1994 [E32 series]

1978-1987 [E23 series]