BMW 750i M Sport

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Second milestone of the day, the BMW has just passed the 20,000 mile mark. I've had it for 2 days over 8 months and as it had 1,300 miles on when I bought it, I've averaged 2,340 a month and if that continues am on track to do 28,000 in its first year.

Some stats...£3,500 (spent on 2,684 litres of petrol and a (calculated) average of 31.5mpg. I'm more than happy with that, the man maths were based on 25mpg so I'm not spending as much as I expected but the biggest benefit is I can regularly get 500 miles from a tank, so less filling up.

It still looks and feels like new, apart from a couple of stone chips and I've not started closing the door before I start it up yet as it still puts a smile on my face every time. You can't use all the performance at this time of year, but it still surprises me just how quick it is when I get the opportunity to use more of the rev range/throttle. It's the perfect car for a 5am start with a long journey ahead of you, something that I do every week, mainly thanks to brilliant ride/refinement but some of the options really help too. I thought massage seats were a gimmick, but not in the 7 series and the stereo is amazing. I've been listening to Spotify a lot, going back through songs/albums I've liked over the years and they never sounded as good back in the day as they do now.

It's the perfect car for the type of driving I do. You could argue that a 740d with the right options would be even better as it would be as good on the motorway, help with the £600 monthly fuel bill and increase the range to 750+ miles, but I love the dual personality of the 750.

I've no idea what I would change it for, hopefully I won't have to make that decision for a couple of years.

Jesus - after two years you'll have done more miles than mine!

It does sound like it fits the bill very well - with the tiny caveat that unless you are prone to tail-outedness, 4wd would perhaps be a plus during these months.

Glad it's living up to, or exceeding, all of your expectations. Enjoy those miles rolling by.....

Thats a bit basic!

20.5 really does seem like the ideal comfortable temperature in my car, too.

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I have to admit i am a 21.5 degree man. I nearly always drive in just a shirt though. As for bluetooth speakers, we have a few, none of which have disco lights. My daughter has a JBL one it it is really pretty good although I have a round Sony one which cost about £25 and is perfectly adequate as long as you don't turn into an audiophile. 

We bought an ‘Ultimate Ears Wonderboom’ for when we need a portable speaker and it’s excellent.

It's clearly the week for fleet updates, the 750 is coming up to 12 months in my ownership and has just passed 28,000 miles.   It's taken some effort to keep the mileage down, I'm doing at least 500 miles a month in the Golf to help.   

It has more than lived up to expectations and is ideal for the type of driving I do, which is mainly motorways and decent distances, so I regularly spend 3-4 hours at a time behind the wheel.   The ride is excellent, as is general refinement and the seats are definately the comfiest I've ever sat in.  Apparently it's even more comfortable in the back, the kids used to argue about who sat in the front when I picked them up, but I have to force one of them to sit in the front now as they'd rather be reclined in the back, head resting on the pillow and getting a massage while watching something on the screen than talk to me....  

Some will think it has a lot of unnecessary FG, but the only thing that fits into that category (IMHO) is the gesture control.  I do use it because it's a quick/easy way of muting the radio, but changing tracks/answering or rejecting calls and adjusting the volume is all easier using the buttons on the steering wheel.   Soft close doors are something I never thought I would appreciate, but they add to the feeling of quality every time you close the door and the B&W speakers are phenomenal.  I've been working my way through all sorts of albums on Spotify that I've not listened to for years and every one sounds better than I remember.  A difficult option to choose if speccing from new as it's £5k or circa £100 a month on a 4 year PCP, but it's something I'd think long and hard about and probably go for.  It's that good.  The surround view is essential and makes parking so easy, as long as you can find a space it will safely fit into.

The performance / efficiency balance must be pretty hard to beat.  It's plenty quick enough to mean the times when you can use the full rev range in a couple of gears is unfortunately quite rare, which is compounded by how quickly you can go changing up at 4k revs thanks to the torque, but it does mean you get a surprise every time you do.  Overall (calculated) mpg is 31.7, which is 34.2 on the optimistic OBC.  That's saving me money every month, as I get 22p per business mile and even using the good stuff, the cost has averaged 18.5p mile plus my business/private mileage split has changed from 20/80 to 80/20.   

Apart from putting nearly £5k of petrol in over the last year, there haven't been any other running costs other than 4 litres of oil (it's used 2 litres).  It came with a 5yr / 50,000 mile service pack and having winter tyres means the summers still have 3.something mm left.

To celebrate the milestone, I treated it to a polish yesterday and as I've said before, pictures don't do the colour justice, it really is stunning.  I really like the styling anyway, particularly the SWB version and it looks ever better as BMW increase the grille size of the latest models.

While I could never justify over £7k for different paint, I genuinely would pay extra for it (couple of £k) as it's not just the colour, the finish/quality is way above the standard paint, as you'd expect from the process.

"Due to the unique application process, creating a special light dark effect, Pure Metal Silver is BMW Individuals most exclusive paint job available. It’s silk skin and high metal brillance reflect light more intesly than any other color. Responsible for this unique metal gleam is the combination of a special effect pigment with a water base paint system. Hundreds of thousands of ultra thin aluminum flakes guarantee a uniform and gleaming surface. Painting a vehicle in this color is extremly delicate and requires a lot of detailed hand work. The vehicle is completely removed from the regular production processes and the surface of the car is checked three times until the surface is 100 percent perfect. After the paint preparation the chassis is carefully examined where any uneven elements are smoothened by hand. To achieve the Pure Metal Silver look the chassis needs a glossy and smooth surface utilizing a Glacier Silver Metal base coat. One more surface check is completed prior to the application of the final coating. After cleaning the vehcile with compressed air, Pure Metal Silver is applied. The finishing specialist polishes and examines the vehicle one last time by hand before the chassis leaves the paint shop. The combination of perfect craftsmanship and computer controlled manufacturing guarantees the high quality and exclusive look of Pure Metal Silver"

[M&S advert voice] That's not Silver, that's BMW Pure Metal Silver"....

Sounds like it has worked out exactly as you hoped. Great comfort, great motorway car, yet also great power when you want it. And a real 31 mpg overall is darn good. 

I think overall the facelifted 7 looks a little better from the rear but a lot worse from the front so on balance Martin’s is still a better looking vehicle overall and whilst having the extra 79bhp would I’m sure be nice it doesn’t sound like the pre facelift model is struggling for performance.

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It was the big service today.  The first one was at 17k miles, its just about at 37k miles now, so needed the 4 year service.

That means in addition to an oil change, it also needed air filter, spark plugs and brake fluid.  It's all covered in the 5 years / 50k miles service plan that was complementary when mine was registered (it's now £1080 paid over 3 years), so no pain at all.

Just looked at the service pricing on line and it would have been £924.08.  But when the car is over 3 years old it moves onto value servicing, which takes it down to a much more reasonable £498.79 for the same work.

edit: it does need 2 new rear tyres, so that’s nearly £500 and while the fronts have just under 4mm left, the edges are wearing quite badly.  I thought that would stop when I moved out of MK!