Most of what's offered on the 760i and 760Li is available on the 750i and 750Li through individual options or packages. The six option packages for the 750i and 750Li include: the Sport Package ($3,200) with 19-inch wheels and tires, sport-tuned suspension, 20-way Comfort front seats (more aggressively bolstered sport seating is a no-cost option) and specific exterior and interior trim; the Adaptive Ride Package ($1,900) with a self-leveling rear suspension and Electronic Damping Control that automatically adjusts shock damping according to conditions; the Cold Weather Package ($1,100) with a heated steering wheel, heated front and rear seats, and a ski bag; the Convenience Package ($1,000) with the soft-touch, door-closing doors and power trunk-lid operation; the Luxury Seating Package that adds 20-way adjustment, front and rear seat heating, fans to blow air through the seating surfaces and an automatic massager; and the Premium Sound Package ($1,800) with increased audio power, two subwoofers, Digital Sound Processing and six-CD changer.

Other options offered across the line include Comfort Access ($1000), which provides keyless entry and engine start; radar-managed Active Cruise Control ($2200); Sirius Satellite Radio, with a one-year subscription ($595); high-definition radio ($500); and a Rear Entertainment Package ($2200) with rear-seat monitor and iDrive control, dual earphone jacks and trunk-mounted, six-DVD changer.

Safety features include dual frontal airbags, driver and front-passenger side-impact airbags, and BMW's Head Protection System, which amounts to a full-length, tube-shaped curtain on both sides of the cabin for front and rear head protection in a side impact. Also standard is BMW's Active Knee Protection, unique inflatable airbags that protect front passengers' knees. BMW claims these offer several advantages over conventional foam knee padding: they are more effective than foam padding; they reduce the amount of space occupied by the knee protection, leaving more room for in-dash features, not to mention occupants' knees; they keep passengers better positioned for front airbag deployment, allowing finer tuning of the safety belts and front airbags for maximum protection depending on the circumstances of an impact. Rear-seat side-impact airbags are optional ($385). The available 20-way Comfort Seats include active head restraints, which move closer to the occupant's head in an impact. All 7 Series models come with electronic stability control, anti-lock brakes, and traction control.

Walkaround

The BMW 7 Series cars come in two lengths. The 750i and 760i ride on a 117.7-inch wheelbase, while the 750Li and 760Li stretch that to 123.2 inches. The long-wheelbase Li models are 5.5 inches longer bumper to bumper, and nearly all of that is directed into more rear-seat legroom.

BMW stepped out of the box when it launched the current 7 Series as a 2002 model. The objective was to boost its luxury sedan's presence and curb appeal. Indeed, the 7 Series looked more agile and muscular than the previous-generation models, which had aged, and to some, not so gracefully. Though the trademark twin-kidney grille and long hood remained, making it clear that this was still a BMW, the design was a dramatic departure from past BMWs.

That the styling has not pleased everyone is evident by the fact it's still a widely discussed topic. The overall design, and particularly the rear half, have generated continued controversy among design critics and automotive media. BMW claims its buyers love it, and sales tend to support this. And other manufacturers, including Acura and Lexus, are beginning to use similar design solutions on the rears of their cars to manage airflow.

In the past few years, BMW has tweaked the styling here and there, softening some of the more dramatic cues and returning toward more traditional BMW styling cues. For 2006, there are some welcome refinements.

The grille on the 2006 models is now slightly larger and consistent on both models; it was slightly wider at the top on the 2005 760s. The hood has been re-contoured, losing some height, with a less prominent power bulge, and sloping more quickly to the new grille and headlight housings, themselves re-shaped to parallel the grille's outline and wrap farther around the fender, ending in a sharper point.

Set relatively low, the headlamps are trimmed by turn signals above them, looking like the eyebrows of a hawk. An extractor vent straddling the hood just forward of the cowl looks out of place on a car in this class. The lower air intake is reshaped and partitioned, looking more like a smile than a frown, with fog lamps housed in separate indents. A sliver of chrome adorns the bumper.

The side view shows the faster hood flowing into the nicely proportioned glasshouse. BMW's trademark dogleg in the rear side window continues as the longest-running, brand-specific styling cue in the industry. Door sills and rocker panels are fuller, more pronounced, breaking up a stretch of sheetmetal otherwise featureless except for an understated character line creasing the doors beneath flush-mounted door handles. The exterior mirrors can be retracted inward with the touch of a button, reducing the parking width by more than a foot. It's a great convenience for drivers with narrow garage entrances or when parking in a crowded city garage. Tires fill circular wheel wells placed where they should be to balance and support the body's visual mass. The contentious trunk has been softened, rounded off a bit and in general, just stylistically relaxed with a slicker transition between the backlight and trunk lid.